I was born into a multicultural family in which various languages were spoken. My father, who was born in Hungary to Polish / Russian parents, spoke eight languages fluently. My mother, who was also born in Hungary to Austrian / Hungarian parents, speaks five. 

As a child, my parents communicated with me in French, my nanny talked to me in Spanish and my teachers in English, at the Escuela Americana I attended for eight years in San Salvador, El Salvador, my birth country. 

Thus, both English and Spanish became a natural part of my environment and upbringing. When the civil war broke out in El Salvador, we moved to Panama. There, I graduated from a high school where Spanish, English and Hebrew were taught.

I have always excelled in languages (especially in grammar), and am passionate about literature and writing. I am an inborn communicator and could not imagine life without the gift of expression. Upon graduating, I moved to France and shortly afterwards to Israel. In Israel, I met students from all over Latin America who exposed me to a wide range of idioms. 

It was in Israel where I first discovered, through someone else's eyes, that perhaps I did have a talent for translation and interpretation. I was sharing a poem that I had written in Spanish but reading it in English to a professor. He thought I was reading it in English, but I was actually interpreting it simultaneously. He later hired me in 1992 and 1994 to work for him as a simultaneous interpreter at a two-week conference in Israel on educational psychology. 

The desire to further my studies took me to the United States, where I attended the University of Texas at Austin and specialized in Journalism with a minor in writing, another one of my passions.

My professional career as a translator officially began in Austin, Texas, when I was hired full time by the Texas Education Agency as a project assistant. I accumulated the most diverse experience in the fields of publishing and translation, and I approached all tasks with equal commitment: reviewing translations, translating multiple documents, editing, proofreading, copywriting, and discovering the most extensive array of grammar books and dictionaries. One usage dictionary in particular became my favorite consulting tool so much so that I was teasingly nicknamed "doctora" Moliner by my coworkers (María Moliner is the author of Diccionario de uso del español). As part of my ongoing education, I studied under a renowned Argentinian translator, Leandro Wolfson. The intensive workshop by correspondence emphasized Spanish translation and revision. 

The world of translation and its related fields encompasses everything I love doing. While translating, I study language and the written word, I research both grammar and content when needed, I envision the writer's voice and I ensure there are no biases in the final product. 

Thus, during twenty years of increasingly responsible and rich experience as an English>Spanish translator, translation reviewer, Spanish editor, proofreader, and journalist, I have successfully fused my talent for languages with a passion for writing and research. I believe my unique contribution to undertaken projects is based on the following:

A combination of relevant abilities and attributes

• Highly skilled at capturing and analyzing complex concepts and nuances for distinct audiences, while elegantly respecting the writer´s voice
• Culturally sensitive due to my own multicultural upbringing, and an early and ongoing exposure to diverse cultures and countries
• Extremely systematic and conscientious

A nearly native command of the English language

• Received a well-rounded education in English from an early age and eventually minored in English literature
• Lived in Canada for eight years and in the United States for ten years, where I studied translation, obtained an MA in Journalism, and worked as a translator, editor, and writer

Native expertise in Spanish and Latin American culture 

• Born in El Salvador and raised in Panama
• Experienced as a Spanish grammar consultant
• Familiar with Latin American and Peninsular colloquialisms acquired through travel and living abroad

I share Goodman´s philosophy regarding translation:

"To translate, one must have a style of his own, for otherwise the translation will have no rhythm or nuance, which comes from the process of artistically thinking through and molding the sentences; they cannot be reconstituted by piecemeal imitation. The problem of translation is to retreat to a simpler tenor of one's own style and creatively adjust this to one´s author."

—Paul Goodman