SEA, the new Spanish Editors Association in the US
The Spanish Editors Association is the brainchild of the determination and daydreaming of a group of professionals who love writing, reading, and learning, and who value communication as a powerful and delicate tool.
SEA came together with the common goal of promoting high standards of practice and networking for support and education in a field that is rapidly growing yet new to the public eye. SEA is the voice of professional editors of Spanish texts for the United States, whether they work and reside in the US or abroad.
On Editing US Spanish
Editing—as the process of preparing written (and other) materials for publication—is perhaps as old as writing itself. But the professionalization of this process is much newer. And even more so for US Spanish.
Editing involves the careful and methodical assessment of text to verify its form and content, and to make corrections, adaptations, and other changes aimed at producing a correct, consistent, and complete piece of work.
Editing professionals work backstage, behind the scenes that the public sees and enjoys, with a common goal: improving the text. Editors and proofreaders work tirelessly to ensure the quality and the effectiveness of written communication.
For decades, editors have worked for publishing houses and media outlets. Perhaps the most recognized editing position is that of newspaper and magazine editors. Slowly but surely, editing jobs have sprouted well beyond the publishing world—after all, words are the currency of the Internet.
In the US, the creation of writers and editors associations has reflected this path with organization such as the American Society of News Editors (founded in 1922), the American Medical Writers Association (founded in 1940), the American Society of Business Press Editors (founded in 1964), the Editorial Freelancers Association (started in the 70s), and the American Copy Editors Society (established in 1997).
For a long time, Spanish was an ancillary language, although it has been spoken in US territories long before the birth of the country—since 1565 to be exact. Spanish writers and editors were an invisible breed. But in the past 20 years, the growing purchasing power of now nearly 50 million Spanish-speakers has spurred interest, involvement, and investment in a Spanish-driven market.
Already dozens of jobs are posted every day seeking Spanish editors. Positions span the range from editing for publishing houses, localization providers, and knowledge process outsourcing to education and in-house content development in every industry.
In this landscape, our diverse group of translators and editors—brought together through work and professional development events—felt compelled to take on the challenge to represent the writing professionals who work behind the scenes in Spanish for the US market.
SEA was created to:
- Promote the recognition and advancement of the profession of Spanish language editing;
- Encourage high standards of quality, ethics, and business practices for editors of Spanish text for the United States;
- Support the training, continuing education, and networking of Spanish editors in the United States.
How It Happened
We started dreaming after a translation conference in Miami one late November morning of 2015. We sat down to start our planning during a conference in Buenos Aires in April 2016. Some of us, María Brau, Helen Eby
Daniela Guanipa, Lilia O’Hara, and Gabriela Penrod, and myself, Romina Marazzato Sparano, live in the US. But seasoned professionals from around the Spanish-speaking world joined our project: Ramiro Arango, from Colombia; Antonio Martín, from Spain; Consuelo Miguel, from Perú; and Yilda Ruiz-Monroy, who splits her time between Colombia and the US.
We visited the idea of becoming a chapter or branch of an editors’ association already established for English. But it quickly became clear that we needed our group to be independent to be able to represent the unique interests and needs of Spanish-speaking professionals.
This said, we are happy to report that we have received the support and encouragement of fellow organizations with whom we plan to collaborate closely, including, ACES: The Editing Society, The Editorial Freelancers Association, and Editors Canada.
Editors Canada has also provided us with a template for our own Editorial Principles. As a bilingual organization, they understand the challenges of developing standards in two languages with different origins but with a common goal. Their experience and generosity have been instrumental in our process.
We are also joining the family of Spanish editors associations around the world, including PEAC from Mexico (Asociación Mexicana de Profesionales de la Edición AC, founded in 1993) UniCO from Spain (Unión de Correctores, founded in 2005), ASCOT from Perú (Asociación de Correctores de Textos del Perú, founded in 2010), AUCE from Uruguay (Asociación Uruguaya de Correctores de Estilo, founded in 2012), and PLECA from Argentina (Profesionales de la Lengua Española Correcta de la Argentina, founded in 2012).
In terms of logistics, as SEA founding members, we met monthly for these past two years to share our interests and expectations and define our goals and priorities. We used an online training platform for our meetings, as we are spread across globe!
Early on, we decided on a non-profit framework, and we got to work on developing by-laws, professional principles, and a code of ethics. We formed committees for each task, and produced documents later approved by the entire group. To finalize our by-laws, we hired a lawyer to make sure we were on the right track.
Once some of our ideas started to take shape in writing, we formed a website committee and we are happy to announce our website is now live thanks to the dedication of our Web Master, Daniela Guanipa.
Our Board of Directors includes Helen Eby, Daniela Guanipa, Romina Marazzato Sparano, Gabriel Penrod, and Lilia O’Hara.
Our Guidelines
We developed our professional guidelines with the goal of including the work of editors across the professions.
We see editing as a process with different levels of intervention and sequencing of tasks. Of course, in practice, the various types of editing tasks will overlap, and their scope will vary between documents and projects. But, overall, we have divided the types of editing and proofreading services into: substantive editing, copy‑editing, proofreading, and comparative editing or the of checking translated text against the original in a different language.
We include comparative editing in a separate section given that, in the United States, Spanish texts are frequently associated with the translation of texts originally in English.
Our Acronym
SEA chose its acronym in the hopes that the subjunctive it alludes to—the verb mood of desire and possibility—will invite its members to think, to dream, to embark on a new adventure with their language. “Sea” translates to the subjunctive “be” in sentence like: We recommended that texts be edited by professionals” or in more formulaic phrases like in “be that as it may.”
We have also embraced the tidal notes of its English meaning. The back and forth of collaboration between authors, editors, and proofreaders makes a better text possible.
Plans in Action
Since our formal launch in October 2018, we have been actively engaging with the community. We have presented the association at professional conferences, where we received a very warm and encouraging welcome. SEA President met with representatives of the Federal Government, who also gave a positive reception to the association and its goals. In addition, we are accepting new members through a peer review process and our website is an active conduit for professionals to network with peers and potential clients.
In these past four months, we have attended the American Medical Writers Association conference in Washington, D.C., the Organización Mexicana de Traductores (Mexican Translators Organization) conference—within the framework of the International Book Fair—in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the Fifth International Conference of Editors of Spanish Text (5CICTE, from its acronym in Spanish) in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay.
During the conference in Uruguay, the group of associations launched an International Alliance Initiative that will bring the association together between conferences to collaborate in a variety of projects, including continuing education. Also at CICTE, SEA Education Chair presented a session on editing translations with plain language in mind, a timely topic for our association.
We have started our blog series, with our first blogs covering definitions for our clients and a review of machine translation options (and their uses and limitations). We are developing our very own style guide, to use within the association and to serve as a guide for professionals working on Spanish texts for the US.
And last, but not least, we will be attending and presenting at the upcoming ACES Conference in Providence! We will share more about Spanish editing and SEA, plain language, and whole text editing. In addition, we are beginning the planning of our very own events. Wish us luck!
Join Us
In today’s world, more and more documents of all kinds are written every day. It is, therefore, essential to engage the help of editing and proofreading professionals to ensure the quality and effectiveness of communication and truly make your text stand out.
We invite you to consider SEA professionals for your Spanish editing needs!
