1. www.calinterpreters.org
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Fanny Suárez
Sunday, August 3rd, 2014 An Open Letter to Interpreters and the Courts
By Fanny Suárez
I’m addressing you as someone who’s leaving a profession which I love and to which I’ve
dedicated myself fully for 16 years. I’d like to share with you several lessons I learned.
We went through a protracted struggle to elevate court interpreting to the professional level
required to guarantee equal access to justice for limited English speakers in our legal system.
It’s been a drawn-out struggle to which many of us lent our hearts and souls during all these
years. I’m proud of our many achievements, but I’m also afraid that court interpreters and the
communities we serve face a hard road ahead that threatens to undermine these important
gains. It will be up to the colleagues I’m leaving behind and the new ones entering the ranks
to continue this critical struggle; it will be up to the courts to take heed and grant language
access issues the attention they merit.
I began interpreting in the California courts in 1998 after graduating from San Francisco State University’s Legal
Interpreting Program and becoming court certified. Excited to begin my new career, I reported to work at the San
Francisco Superior Court to find my new colleagues mobilizing and demonstrating to gain recognition as court
employees. As many of us recall, interpreters had been working in California courts consistently with no benefits _ no
health insurance, no pension, no paid time off, no collective bargaining rights and no protections. It was my first day
on the job and I was fighting for the rights interpreters fully deserved but had been denied: those of other workers in
the courts.
Still, my love of interpreting grew and I continued building on my skills. I pursued a second certificate program at the
Agnese Haury Institutes for Interpretation, joined the faculty at San Francisco State’s Legal Interpreting Program and
obtained a master’s degree in bilingual legal interpreting at the College of Charleston by completing coursework over
three summers. When I returned to work at the San Francisco courts after my last summer away, I happily celebrated
the implementation of the courts’ first interpreter employment system, governed by a solid collective bargaining
agreement.
Despite this pivotal victory, the courts denied that I had been a regular contractor and offered me only an as-needed
job. From Day One as a bona fide employee, I had to fight for a fixed schedule and benefits all over again at the court
where I had worked consistently for years.
That’s when the fledgling California Federation of Interpreters stepped in: It was only as a result of the union’s strident
intervention and the cooperation of my colleagues that I was finally granted a part-time assignment with benefits.
CFI’s achievements inspired me to take a leave of absence and work as a staff representative, and I have worked on
behalf of our union _ either as a staffer or volunteer _ ever since. I can tell you that it’s never stopped being an uphill
battle: Court interpreters have had to fight for every measly gain in wages and working conditions.
CFI proposed that courts adopt strong provisions for team interpreting as early as 2007, during negotiations for our
first collectively bargained contract. Although compromises had to be made, today even counties that hadn’t provided
team interpreting in the past have recognized its importance as an industry standard and are finally beginning to
institute it — due almost exclusively to CFI’s perseverance. And just last year, thanks to widespread mobilizing by our
members and the determination of our bargaining committee, we obtained a wage increase in the coastal Northern
California region after 7 years without so much as a cost of living adjustment — something our then-local told us was
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2. (http://www.calinterpreters.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/SFPicket2.jpg
San Francisco Interpreters Avelina Pritchard,
Fanny Suarez and others picket outside the Hall
of Justice.
(http://www.calinterpreters.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Comm.jpg)
Bargaining Committee members Katy Van Sant,
Fanny Suarez, Mary Lou Aranguren, Kate
Bancroft and Andy Ta.
impossible.
It’s been incredibly rewarding to see CFI members develop into a
strong, engaged community that’s played such a critical role in
elevating court interpreting into a serious profession and a gainful
career.
Nonetheless, I’m deeply disconcerted by several developments
indicating the courts are now turning back the clock on the significant
improvements to language access. California courts continue
withholding interpretation services for parties in civil matters, even
though we could have been covering many of these cases using the
interpreters already on staff with some better coordination.
Additionally, the California legislature has consistently provided
sufficient funding to expand interpreter services only to have it
redirected elsewhere _ contrary to their intent _ or to sit there unused.
It’s taken an investigation by the Department of Justice and the threat
of losing federal funding to finally convince California courts to
comply with federal mandates to provide interpreters for Limited English Proficient (LEP) parties in all types of court
cases — something that California court administrators are only now preparing to do and have yet to implement.
Meanwhile, California courts are taking an aggressive and foolhardy
stance in their promotion of Video Remote Interpreting (VRI), in
which interpreters work remotely. Courts in parts of the state are
readying to launch VRI without adequate limits on the types of
situations in which it is used, and without the required technological
standards or consideration of its impacts on due process. This
deteriorates the quality of language access in our courts, effectively
creating a two-tiered system of justice that threatens the life and
liberty of LEP communities.
These developments bring up a number of questions: Why do
California courts deem it necessary to turn back the clock on 30 years
of hard-fought improvements in language access— improvements
that had established California an example for the rest of the nation
— and deteriorate the quality of interpreting at a time when more
young professionals are entering the field? Why are the courts
pushing for VRI at a time when the interpreter employment system’s
innovative cross-assignment provisions provide a reliable pool of
competent interpreters capable of covering assignments in different parts of the state? With so many language access
experts available to the courts, why is there no plan to collaboratively create desperately needed training opportunities
to fulfill ongoing needs for interpreters in languages of lesser diffusion?
Given the imminent expansion of language access services to civil courtrooms, why are there no projects to train
judges, attorneys and other court personnel and address impediments as simple as the lack of adequate scheduling and
coordination of staff interpreters and as complex as how to eliminate the inherent obstacles to equal justice for persons
with limited English skills?
Personally, the courts’ utter disregard of interpreters’ essential role in the administration of justice and their stubborn
resistance to providing the basic conditions needed to guarantee the viability of court interpreting as a career robbed
me of the motivation to continue working within its family. I’m afraid of how many other highly skilled interpreters
may follow me out the door in the coming years.
This is a critical time for California courts, during which they should be taking measures to attract and retain more
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3. (http://www.calinterpreters.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/photofanny.jp
Fanny Suárez presents a seminar to the San
Francisco Public Defender’s Office.
professional interpreters, not alienate them. Today, many interpreters are older, have worked for the courts for decades
and will soon retire, with only a fraction of the service credit they deserve. While more academic programs capable of
preparing new interpreters exist today, the courts themselves aren’t doing what they need to attract and retain these
new workers. Salaries for court interpreters are not on a par with those of other court professionals whose vocations
demand similar or even less preparation. Court interpreters are the only court workers who do not receive salary steps
that reward employees for professional development and years on the job. Without competitive salaries and wage
steps, the courts will not be able to retain new hires for more than two to four years. Lack of a career path will drive
out talent, it’s as simple as that.
Courts can and need to institute measures to bring about greater improvements in the quality of the language access
services they provide. California courts should offer opportunities for interpreters to work on different types of cases
on a regular basis, and develop strategies for seasoned court interpreters on the verge of retirement to pass on their
expertise to the next generation of interpreters. They should institute standard operating procedures such as
maintaining the same interpreter team throughout trials as much as possible and making available case documents to
interpreters ahead of time so that they can better prepare for assignments. They should do a better job of maintaining
strong professional and ethical standards for court interpreting as well as for the translation of documents and
recordings to be brought as evidence in legal proceedings and train judges and other judicial officers on these matters
in particular. Finally, they should afford interpreters opportunities to advance into management positions and to
collaborate on the ground level in the development, expansion and improvement of our justice system’s language
access policies.
I encourage the California courts to grant the court interpreting
profession the distinction it merits and work collaboratively with
these highly skilled language access professionals in the interest of
ensuring meaningful access to justice for all.
My experience as interpreter will most certainly impact my continued
professional development. I am very thankful to all the colleagues
who came before me and gave me the opportunity to grow as the
profession developed. Thank you for your vision, your guidance and
most of all, your tenacity.
I encourage those who have recently entered the ranks to take on
leadership roles and continue to grow the profession. Know that
without your efforts the profession and the communities you serve
will likely not be able to overcome today’s challenges.
__
Fanny Suárez is an interpreter, educator and union activist who has left her job at the San Francisco court to start a
career as an bilingual investigator with the Contra Costa Public Defender.
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