Translation, space, and power in Martín Luis Guzmán’s Memorias de Pancho Villa

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines the role that the author Martín Luis Guzmán (1887–1976) and his Memorias de Pancho Villa ([1951] 2010) played in the vindication of General Francisco ‘Pancho’ Villa (1878–1923). It demonstrates how the work functions as both a domesticating intralingual translation and as a physical monument to the general. It then examines the relationship between the Memorias, Guzmán in his role as Villa’s translator, and the construction of monuments in Mexico City following the Mexican Revolution – specifically a statue of Villa erected the capital in 1969. It concludes by making the case for the study of translation as it relates to physical space and political power within the evolving landscape of the city.