Read YES! in Spanish

You may have noticed -- you can now read YES! in Spanish. Beginning with the Winter 2006 issue, Spiritual Uprising (Rebelion Espiritual) each issue of YES! is being translated and posted on line in Spanish. Las 10 Tendencias mas Prometedoras (The Ten Most Hopeful Trends) is also available, and we are working on our more recent issues.

Please tell your bilingual and Spanish-speaking friends and colleagues.

Why have YES! in Spanish? As the recent immigrant uprisings show, there is growing activism in the Latino community. That's the good news. But there are some deep disconnects between efforts led by Latinos, by African Americans, by European Americans, and by others. Van Jones' posting on this highlight some of the struggles, and, as I report in the current issue of YES!, black-brown dialogue was a central theme of the Southeast Social Forum.

There is progress on many fronts, but we will need to understand each other's work and hear each other's voices if we are to move forward together. We thought we could make a contribution to this understanding by publishing YES! (or should we call it Si!) in both English and Spanish.

The other reason we are excited about publishing YES! in Spanish is that we believe it will help us better link up with the major changes happening in Latin America. There may be a renewed openness to the ideas and stories found in YES!, and we would like to tap into the stories and innovations emerging from the South.

Finally, there's a very practical reason we're doing YES! in Spanish now. It is that Guillermo Wendorff has been urging us to do so and offering his help with translation. The more we thought about it, the more it seemed to us he was right. I asked Guillermo to say a few words about who he is and how he came to be the YES! translator. Here's his response:

"The idea of creating a translation project for the YES! website came to me while I was reading the magazine through the Internet. Every time I read one article I felt that this kind of valued meaning information should be accessible to Spanish speaking communities. I knew that "Latinos" was already a major minority of U.S. population, and that their political power was increasing over the years. I believed it was very important to make alternative media (like YES! Magazine) easily obtainable for them, and of course the rest of Latin America community, and I wanted to help, if possible, in that effort.

"I had read a couple of David Korten's book so I was sensible about the crucial importance of North and South collaborating to change our common destiny, so this idea fit naturally into Korten's wider vision.

"At that time I was living en Mexico, and I started a long conversation with you via e-mail (remember?), talking about a lot of things; but specially, you helped me to explore within myself what I wanted to do with my life (thank you a lot for that!). So, after a time my family and I decided to return to our country [Argentina], where we have been living for three years, searching for our place in the world. Well, nowadays I think we found it? after ages! A balanced mixture of nature, work, family, friends, learning, peace, service, art and inner search.

"Working with YES! has been a fascinating experience so far. I feel myself more connected with the web of people who are helping to give birth to our Great Turning. And certainly, it helps me to pay the bills, too (not a negligible task these days uh?).

"I'd also like to state that Audrey and Lilja have been very effective and supportive with me. It's been a pleasure to collaborate with them."

Enjoy reading Si!

Sarah

P.S. If you find them useful, please tell us how you are using these articles in Spanish.