Of Course, the Logo

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So the first reactions to the website which went live Wednesday evening was to the logo.  Some readers got the idea immediately: A series of opaque, still-forming rings come in from the left into view with another series of undefined rings looming in the shadows at the far right – larger still and expanding – both representing a population coming together in a colorful ring to embody a people still in the making within one experience that is both Hispanic and Latino.

The design is the product of the kind of creative HispanicLatino on whom the future depends, Marcos Dominguez, whom I have yet to meet but who over the phone in Indianapolis, Indiana, understood at once what I was trying to convey: The potential of the HispanicLatino population and its still-emerging sense of self.

Ultimately, the colorful HispanicLatino ring-logo is about a point in time, a moment in history.  The blank space in the backdrop between each set of rings constitutes the country in a geographic sense but, more so, the slate upon which HispanicLatinos will write their story.

Marco’s design wonderfully includes everyone and excludes no one.  Its dynamic feel resonates with the possibilities of the future, both the good and the bad, for our time on earth is one of many lifelines of individuals in pursuit of their complete being, seeking to close the circle within themselves and within their personal, sometimes chaotic lifetimes.

The colors are intentionally optimistic.  The HispanicLatino population – however it decides to proceed into the future – possesses the resources, creativity and faith to succeed and to help the country survive in a more globalized world that itself emanates from the logo.

The Language of Us

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I was asked if the website and its content would be in Spanish as well as English.  Of course.  I cannot imagine anyone writing about HispanicLatinos in English not having their websites in passable-enough Spanish.  The times call for making sure that anything written about the more-than-50-million-member HispanicLatino community is translated well.  Falling short of that falls short of history.

But about translating English into Spanish and Spanish into English: Is there anything more difficult?  Words that mean one thing in one household can signify something else next door.  The nuances in verb tenses are critical yet imperfect – pun very much intended.

So, what to do?  Computerized translations while instantaneous take you so far, thus every line must make the best use of dictionaries and thesauruses – including the bank of words that memory has stored in vaults long not opened, of words not long heard.

The process at first can be daunting but soon enough both languages reveal their artful beauty.  A quiet thrill that I cannot put into words in either idiom ripples through me upon encountering a word my parents used that has meandered in meaning.  ¿Y este laberinto? my mother would ask upon arriving at home to find not a place of intricate passageways and blind alleys but a chaos of rowdy kids.

In the end, there will be errors and typos but the exercise is more than about affixing meaning to language.

It is about affixing meaning to one’s life.

 

Next: Tilting at Immigration

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