SPORTS/NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • B3
Courts face growing need for interpreters
state courts system.
According to Kelly
Mills, the program man-
ager for Court Language
In the Umatilla County Access Services, the num-
courthouse, the question, ber of requests for several
“Do you swear to tell the indigenous languages state-
truth, the whole truth, and wide has spiked in the last
nothing but the truth?” may few years. From 2015 to
be answered in a number of 2016, requests for indige-
nous languages increased
different languages.
Across Oregon, requests by 42 percent.
In 2017, there
for
indigenous
were 133 requests
languages
have
for a Mam inter-
spiked in the last
preter across the
year. As languages
state. Requests are
like Mam, Q’an-
job’al and K’iche’
likely to be nearly
become more com-
double that in 2018,
mon, so do requests
with 97 requested in
for courtroom inter- Bertilda
the first six months
preters that speak Martin-
of the year.
Mendoza
them.
Mills said there
Spoken by peo-
have already been
ple in Guatemala and parts 33 requests for Q’anjob’al
of Mexico, Belize and Hon- interpreters in the first half
duras, these languages are of 2018, and there were 33
native to the regions from all year in 2017. Requests
which their speakers come, for K’iche’ interpreters
and are all distinct from have surpassed last year’s
Spanish, and from each numbers, with 25 in the first
other.
half of this year, and 24 in
Roy Blaine, the trial all of 2017.
court administrator for
In Umatilla and Mor-
Umatilla and Morrow row counties, there have
County Circuit Courts, said been 15 requests for Mam
the need for court inter- language interpreters in
preters far outweighs their the first half of 2018, and
availability.
19 requests for Q’anjob’al.
He said while there There have been 11 requests
may be more people who for K’iche’.
can translate from Mam
There are several indig-
to Spanish or to English, enous languages that aren’t
that doesn’t automatically requested as often, and
qualify them to be a court some requested this year
that the courts had not seen
interpreter.
“I don’t say to anybody before. Two of the most
in the community, ‘Oh, you recently requested lan-
speak K’iche’ or Mam, we guages are Ixil and Achi.
But while the courts are
need you to come to court,’”
he said. “You have to com- trying to meet language
municate in the specific dia- needs, Mills said they often
lect, but also not be related have to rely on people from
to them, or have no personal out-of-state, such as inter-
preters over the phone for
investment in the case.”
Local
courts
work shorter court proceedings
closely with the Oregon like arraignments. Blaine
Judicial Department’s Court said there is one interpreter
Language Access Services, who speaks K’iche’ that
which provides transla- lives in Oregon, but many
tion and interpretation ser- of the cases that require
vices for many languages interpreters are handled
— including Spanish, Rus- over the phone — even for
sian, Korean and Vietnam- Spanish speakers.
ese. Interpreter requests
“We have Spanish inter-
are coordinated through the preters living in the area,
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
STAFF PHOTO BY ANNIE FOWLER
Kennison Field press box hostess Thelma Mendiola prepares street tacos for coaches, media
and workers during the Sept. 14 game against Kennewick. The school has fed workers and
visitors for five years.
FEAST WITH FOES
Hermiston boosters
feed their opponents
after home games
By ANNIE FOWLER
STAFF WRITER
The one thing Oregon
teams might miss about
playing a football game at
Hermiston High School is
the post-game meal served
by the Linebacker Club.
One man’s loss is anoth-
er’s gain, as the Mid-Co-
lumbia Conference football
teams have gladly bellied up
to the table and devoured the
meal offered.
“It’s awesome,” Kenne-
wick coach Bill Templeton
said. “It is a real blessing.
It’s really just a great ges-
ture. It’s very gracious of
them.”
Pasco, Kennewick and
Southridge have partaken in
the post-game meal.
“We feed the whole vis-
iting football team after the
game,” Linebacker Club
member Dennis Barnett
said. “Everyone is surprised
we do this. In the old IMC,
the teams were three or four
hours away from home. We
have been doing this for five
or seven years.”
And just because Herm-
iston moved to a different
league, doesn’t mean things
will change.
“We weren’t sure the Tri-
City teams would like it,”
Barnett said of the meal.
“But after Pasco, they all
are wanting it. The kids are
thankful. When Pasco was
here, we had about half the
kids come up and thank us
and shake our hands.”
Pasco and Kennewick
were served tri-tip, baked
potatoes, salad and dessert.
“Originally, we were sup-
posed to have street tacos,
which we would have been
most thankful for,” Temple-
ton said.
Barnett said there is
more to the program than
just feeding hungry football
players.
“We are helping the kids
wind down after a game,” he
said. “It’s a great thing for
the kids and a positive thing
about our school.”
The players aren’t the
only ones who get fed on
game night.
Media, visiting coaches,
radio personnel, and the
people who run the clock
and music also are treated
to a meal served by host-
ess Thelma Mendiola, who
is in her second year in the
position.
Mendiola, who has
worked for the Hermis-
ton school district for 15
years — the past three as
the attendance secretary —
said she fell into the job
when athletic director Larry
Usher asked if she would be
interested.
“I love doing it,” she said.
“We feed about 30-35 peo-
ple. Week One, the Pasco
coaches came to me at half-
time wondering if they could
have more. And, I make sure
the ladies working the ticket
booth and the gate are taken
care of.”
This is the fifth year the
Hermiston Sports Boosters
have taken care of the peo-
ple in the press box, with
the help of the Hermiston
High Family/Consumer Sci-
ence program, which helps
prepare the side dishes.
They also offer a variety of
beverages.
“It’s pretty darn impres-
sive,” said Craig West, who
was part of the SWX broad-
cast team two weeks ago.
“They should be proud of
what they do. What they are
doing is first class. It’s the
only place I have been to
that offers that, and it was
really good.”
but only a couple. It’s not
sufficient,” Blaine said.
There is one interpreter
in Oregon for Mam, the
most frequently requested
indigenous language in the
state. Bertilda Martin-Men-
doza is a native of Guate-
mala, and Mam is her first
language. She moved to
the United States as a child,
where she learned Span-
ish, and then English. She
started working as a vol-
unteer interpreter in 1998
in Washington, at hospitals
and community events.
In 2000, someone asked
her to help translate for a
court case where some-
one spoke Mam. After-
ward, the judge asked to
meet with her, and asked if
she wanted to start working
there, which led to a career
as a courtroom interpreter.
Based in Portland, she trav-
els within Oregon, and
around the United States
for her work. Last year,
she helped train three Mam
interpreters in Washington.
Martin-Mendoza said
she’s seen a growing num-
ber of native Mam speakers
who know some Spanish.
But it usually doesn’t work
the other way.
“There’s no way a Span-
ish speaker would speak
Mam,” she said. “Native
languages are not easy to
learn. I’ve never met some-
one that has said they speak
Mam as a second language,
though there are probably
some out there.”
Martin-Mendoza said
she had to educate herself
for many aspects of the job.
“A lot of the things
we see here don’t exist in
native culture,” she said.
“You have to educate your-
self on how you are going to
interpret.”
Another challenge is
translating specific legal
terms — for which she said
courts often rely on “relay
interpreting.”
“I would translate from
Mam to Spanish, and
another Spanish interpreter
would translate from Span-
ish to English,” she said.
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104 Special Notices
184 Personals
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301 RVs & Travel
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2003 Nu-wa Hitchhiker
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