\"ayuntamientos del cambio\"

09:38 Dec 7, 2018 

The main problem with political slogans is that they have to be short, sharp and to the point. So long as they are catchy, grammatical correctness seems to be considered somewhat secondary. This might work for the original expression, but obviously poses a problem for translators when trying to convey its meaning accurately (there is a very clear example of this in the now famous “Make America Great Again”). In any case, I think “councils of change” is appropriate in that it implies not just that the councils (and in this case I would shy away from the word ‘authority’) support/back/advocate for change, which of course they do, but also that they are change themselves (for a start, none of the elected mayors is a traditional politician). But of course, an alternative could be to leave the expression in Spanish as philgoddard suggested, with a better/longer explanation included in brackets.

02:20 Dec 7, 2018 

Whichever version is finally used, I'd go with Charles' suggestion of "for" rather than "of".

They stand "for" change.

23:29 Dec 6, 2018 

I fully understand your point and I basically agree with you. In fact, as said, I'd also go with something along the line of neilmac's answer; city councils backing change. I hope I did not suggest that the translation should be a literal one! And yet game-changers would be a fine description of what is going on in this cities but not something that Podemos would use in this particular context, where the stress lies on cities backing up change / cities that are doing something to promote political change; city councils "for change". You'd surely be able to find the most appropiate English expression. And again, the original Spanish expression is only fully understandable within the very particular political context; even if you are a Spanish speaking reader, were you not aware of the political situation in Spain you would also scratch your head in wonder!

23:08 Dec 6, 2018 

I’ve lived in Spain for a long time and follow politics closely here, so am well aware of the background to this expression. However, I don’t agree that you have to translate it literally in order to adhere to the narrative of Podemos.

In my opinion, the main purpose of a translation should be to render a message in such a way that the target readers (in this case English speakers) understand that message immediately — without having to wonder what it means.

So if I was an English person and read “city councils of change” in an article, I would scratch my head and wonder “what does that actually mean?” It just sounds like a literal translation that I don’t really understand.

That’s why I took the adjectival approach here: I felt that spelling out the innovative actions of these ayuntamientos might make it easier for your average English speaker to understand. Because, at the end of the day, they really have been game changers (Ada, Carmena, etc.)

21:04 Dec 6, 2018 

Or local authorities: the usual UK term nowadays.

21:03 Dec 6, 2018 

"Councils for Change" sounds much better to me than "Councils of Change".

19:58 Dec 6, 2018 

Absolutely, "ayuntamientos del cambio" is a political slogan, coined by the Podemos party. Sorry I did not elaborate this morning, you read about it so much in the Spanish press that I didn't think it needed any further explanation. That is why in the links I posted this morning the expression is always used with quotation marks, and sometimes it is also preceded by 'so-called', as in "the so-called 'councils of change'...".

19:00 Dec 6, 2018 

It must be noted that the original is a partisan expression coined and exclusively used by the new political party Podemos to refer to those cities where this political party has managed to win local elections (as Madrid or Barcelona among others). As such, to translate it literally would mean to adhere to the narrative of Podemos. And yet, I suspect the original is (almost surely) written by Podemos. As such, the original expression should be translated in English without further explanation, allowing the original message to get through. I would keep the reference to cities/towns as the original does not reference so much the victory of a particular political party but subtly refers to the people of certain cities showing their support for "change" equating thus voting for Podemos and backing up political change.
As such I would use Sara's "city councils of change" -or neilmac's "city councils backing change".

13:42 Dec 6, 2018 

I would leave it in Spanish with an explanation. Is this the first time the phrase appears in the article?