Anarcha-feminist Translation as Activism: Rote Zora in Spanish

Rote Zora (1977-95) was a group of German feminist activists formed by women. They released a large number of press statements, some of which were translated into Spanish as Rote Zora (2012).The short Prologue, Introduction and Translators’ Note frame the target text in a contemporary anarcha-feminist locus of significance for the reception audience.

This paper explores the way in which the convergence of feminist and anarchist ideologies conditions the outcome of the target text. The influence of anarcha-feminism is at the axis of the paratexts, the translators’ self-representation and strategies, which subvert their own authority and that of source texts. This produces a conception of translation as a cooperative project amongst equals, in which the translators’ dialogue with the text is as important as the target readers’ engagement with it. The boundaries between source text/author, target text/translator and the audience disappear. Moreover, the internationalist focus of feminist translation in Rote Zora concurs with grassroots feminist discourses worldwide, advocating transversal and diagonal interchanges to create common fronts of resistance and engagement. Rote Zora operates as an instrument of debate, activism, resistance and contestation, questioning not only power relations between men and women but also between oppressive capitalist structures and the disempowered.