APUNTES TALKS TO...
Raymond Miranda, Senior Court Interpreter,
Supreme Court Kings County (New York State)

Mr. Miranda assumed his current supervisory position in September 2000. In this interview, Mr. Miranda talks about an innovative project he implemented six months ago, the new technology being introduced in the Courtroom for interpretation and many different aspects of this key profession within the Judicial System.

Q. Mr. Miranda, how did you decide to become an interpreter?

A. I think that subconsciously, growing up… like many of my colleagues… we… inadvertently did some pro bono interpreting, without being aware of it, for our non-English speaking family and neighbors, also for various City agencies that they had to deal with and weren’t able to. And, later, after going through many other jobs, I took a civil service test in 1990 for a State level interpreting, and I passed it. It took a little while before they called me, but they did, and they hired me in 1992 as a Court Interpreter, assigned to the Kings County Supreme Court.

Q. What are the main functions of a court interpreter?

1. We work on every phase of Court procedures, starting with simple arraignments to full blown trials, forensic interviews to determine the mental capacity of the defendant, if he or she was able to understand the proceedings and the charges against them. We also do a lot of sight translation, in which you are handed a written document, there you just translate it on the spot for a defendant or for any interested party who may be there.

Q. How many interpreters do you supervise?

A. I’ve been supervising twelve Spanish interpreters, one Russian interpreter and we also use interpreters on any language that is necessary on a Per Diem or contracted basis, which can be anything from Sign language to Urdu, Asian languages like Cantonese, Mandarin…

Q. Is it a requirement that all interpreters be certified?

A. The New York State Unified Court System certifies certain languages, Russian being one of them and French Creole - and there are a few others, maybe six more. What they do in all the other languages is to qualify the interpreter through a screening test. So, it’s not really a certification like that, for those languages. We’re working on it to see if we can get more certifications for more languages.

Q. Is there an on-going training program for NYS Interpreters?

A. Not an official one. On our own, we have been organizing workshops and trying to get study groups together and encouraging attendance to seminars. Lately we have been able to obtain computers with Internet access and during our downtime, between assignments, we’re able to compile some glossaries or update whatever glossaries we have.

Q. Can you describe the project you implemented six months ago and is becoming very popular among the interpreters?

A. Yes, team interpreting, something that just is not done on a State Courts. However, it’s always been done in conference interpreting. The interpreters are in the Court the whole day, whether his/her services are being used for a half an hour or four or five hours. But there are times when you go to an assignment, and it may only take ten or fifteen minutes of your time, but then there are other times when you may be having to interpret for a witness at a trial or a witness at a Civil hearing which make take a very prolonged period of time. And there is not a mechanism in place to relieve that interpreter, but lately I’ve been assigning several interpreters to the same case and have them relieve each other every half hour, forty-five minutes. There are published studies showing how fatigue plays a major role in interpreting and all the cognitive processes that have to take place in order to interpret. So, now I am trying to get team interpreting to take hold on the State level. There are hearings and witness testimony or trials where the interpreter has to sit by the defendant and just interpret everything that is being spoken in the courtroom whether it comes from his own lawyer, whether it comes from the judge, from the District Attorney or the prosecutor, whatever is uttered in a courtroom, the interpreter must repeat it to the defendant and that is very, very taxing and causes tremendous fatigue.

Q. I understand that new technologies have been implemented in the Courts?

A. Well, it seems that we’re coming out of the Dark Ages. Two years ago, we started using electronic equipment finally: a wireless headsets and microphones. Before, the interpreter was physically whispering in the ear of the defendant in that close proximity, which was not the best, the ideal thing to do. Sometimes, defendants can be unpredictable, depending on their demeanor. They could be sick, anything could happen! So now, with the electronic equipment, the defendant wears a headset and the interpreter has a wireless mike and a transmitter and he/she can be sitting in the back. With the electronic equipment and the team interpreting, I think we’re finally moving into the 21st Century.

Q. And, when do you interpret for the jury, the judge...

1. Then, that is different. That is another mode of interpreting. When we are interpreting for the defendant, what we do is simultaneous interpretation. When we do it for a jury or for a judge, we don’t use the electronic equipment. Let’s say the witness is at the stand and the interpreter is the next to him/her. The prosecutor will ask a question and the interpreter will relay that question to the witness in Spanish and the answer in English to the jury and the judge. This is the consecutive mode of interpreting.

Q. Now that you mention the two different modes of interpretation, sometimes I asked myself why simultaneous interpreters get more respect and best pay than consecutive interpreters. Simultaneous interpretation requires more speed, retention and mental alertness but it is one-way communication, so the interpreter has to understand both languages but only speak one with native proficiency. On the consecutive mode, the interpreter has to be able to understand and speak both languages with native proficiency and speed and retention are still important... what do you think?

A. I agree a hundred percent. I think the simultaneous interpreter, once he or she gets into a momentum, the speed is really the only issue, you can almost put him/her on automatic, and just as soon as it is spoken, the interpreter is speaking, and so he or she really does not have to relegate much to memory. When we are doing consecutive, we have to pause, so we have to store what has been said and bring it out which is much more difficult. And then, of course, to deal with the two languages.

Q. Maybe professionals like you and your colleagues can educate the users of interpretation services, because at, the present time, all the glory of the profession is on the simultaneous interpretation.

When we are doing consecutive, we have to pause, so we have to store what has been said and bring it out which is much more difficult. And then, of course, to deal with the two languages.

Q. Maybe professionals like you and your colleagues can educate the users of interpretation services, because, at the present time, all the glory of the profession is on the simultaneous interpretation.

A. It is a myth really, I guess a misunderstanding or the lack of knowledge about it.

It is something that I would definitely take into account, to see if I can bring that out…

Q. In general, are you happy with your work?

A. I am very happy. I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done like the point that you mentioned. To clarify things like that and to bring more professionalism to our profession, because it a profession, an art, that we practice and hopefully that will be recognize. I think that the other players in the courtroom, including the people that run the courts, such as the Court Clerk and the judge himself, others, like the Court Reporters, they do not have a very good idea of the role of the interpreter in the courtroom.

17. How do they consider the interpreter?

A. The Invisible person! For example, the Court Reporter is an integral part, a very important part of the proceedings, without the Court Reporter there is no transcript, there is no record, but without the interpreter, when interpreter is needed, there can be no record either. And, we perform a similar function, because we are producing a record and we are keeping a record of it. However, between a Court Reporter and a Court Interpreter the pay level disparity is tremendous! And, I think a lot has to do with not really understanding what the real role of the interpreter is in the courtroom, so it’s another thing that I think that should be brought to the forefront.

Q. With what group you have more difficulty? With the juries, the judges, the lawyers, or the defendants?

A. That is a good question. I think the most difficult time we have is with the judges. The judges are very temperamental. They are the lords, the kings of the castle. So, when the judge says you have to jump, you do it. I’ll give you an example. They call for an interpreter, for a case, and they just have the interpreter sit in there for a long period of time not doing anything. Well, our Office is pretty busy, and we can not have an interpreter just sitting there at the whim of the judge, but that happens very often. We made them aware, through the Chief Clerks and the Administrative Judge we were able to tell these judges, "Please, when you call an interpreter, make sure you’re ready for the interpreter, utilize the interpreter and then, let him or her go." They were just holding them there, it seem to be like, like in a power trip, like if they think "I called an interpreter now, I’m not going to let the interpreter go even though I’m not ready to use the interpreter. Whenever I’m ready, then I’ll use the interpreter." So, sometimes, they’ll keep them there all day for something that just would take ten minutes. That was one of the things. Mostly with attorneys, or with defendants we have no problems. The defendants need us, they feel that we are their allies…

Q. This can cause some problems...

A. ... of course, we maintain our neutrality but the defendants lean on us. Sometimes, we have a little difficulty with the Prosecutors because they think that the interpreter is on the defense side because we speak the same language. But we are trying to make them understand that we can work with the Prosecutor and the defense because we are Court Interpreters and we are neutral.

Q. What about the jury? Sometime ago there was a debate about accepting jurors who do not speak English. Have you interpreted for a juror?

A. No, I have not. But I saw it done, for a Sign language. A juror who was deaf. They picked her and then they hired or contracted a Sign language interpreter. I can see it happening with languages too, so far they are still excusing jurors who have difficulty with the language, but maybe that’ll change. I think in the future if both sides, prosecution and defense agree that this particular juror is good for them, and he or she happen to have a language barrier, I think that they would accept to have an interpreter stand by.

Q. Do you recall any special situation during your career at the Court?

A. I remember the very first case that I did as an interpreter, I was there maybe six weeks, and at that time the training for an interpreter consisted of throwing you into the water and "sink or swim". So, it happened to be a murder case… and the defendant was a boxer price fighter and I remember watching him fight on TV. His alibi had been that he was out of the country when the crime happened, and they brought Customs agents from the Dominican Republic, the country where he was from. And it turned out that his passport was forged, in other words, the stamps that he had in his passport were forged and these Customs Agents were able to demonstrate that the stamps on his passport were faked and they were not legitimate and the boxer was convicted. I think he still has to serve a remaining sentence of twenty more years.

Q. So, for that case, you interpreted for the Customs Agents from the Dominican Republic...

A. Yes, for the Customs Agents and for the defendant. The defendant needed an interpreter, several interpreters were used in the case.

Q. What are the most difficult subjects to interpret in Court?

A. The forensic evidence, sometimes we have some experts that come to testify and they use very technical terminology, and unfortunately, another thing that I didn’t mention before, is that as interpreters we don’t get a chance to prepare. When they need an interpreter they just call us down to the Court. We don’t have any idea what is going to be about, and it could be the testimony of a ballistics expert, or a medical examiner, or a chemist if it is a drug case.

Q. And you have to interpret right on the spot...

A. Right. Since the clerks and the judges know what is coming ahead of time, I would like to propose some sort of system where they would notify us as soon as they know they are going to need an interpreter so that we could prepare ahead of time depending on what kind of testimony is going to be presented.

Q. What do you do if the terminology is so difficult that you cannot continue interpreting efficiently?

A. I think the interpreter has the responsibility to admit that the assignment is too difficult to handle or to excuse himself from it. A lot of civil cases, I mean, now that we do civil cases involving a lot of medical malpractice cases, slip and fall cases and automobile accident cases, all require a lot of technical terminology. And also in criminal cases when it has to do with drugs, they bring in a chemist who does all these crystalline tests and they mix all these chemicals. Now we have a script, we know because we have done it so many times. But the first few times, we didn’t know where to go. We had to stop the proceedings, get a dictionary, consult colleagues…

Q. Can you do that?

A. Yes. Oh, absolutely! There is a protocol. We approach the bench and we go into the third person and say something like that "Your Honor, the witness has used a term that the interpreter is not familiar with, may I have a moment to inquire, or may I have a moment to consult a colleague," and the judge will stop a part of the proceedings.

Q. Have you worked in cases that had an emotional impact on you and how you deal with it?

A. Yes, it is very difficult, because as I mentioned before that in the courtroom the interpreter is almost invisible, but actually that is a desirable aspect of being in the courtroom. You are supposed to be in the background anyway, you don’t want to call attention to yourself as an interpreter, but when it comes to an emotional part of it, and I’ll give you an example: when there is a crime where life has been lost, murder or somebody was killed, the victim’s family has a right to make what they call "a victim impact statement." And, usually they’ll get up before the Judge, before the sentencing and try to influence the judge into giving a maximum sentence by saying: "you took my only son and I never would be able to see him grow up..." And the person is crying and we have to interpret her… So those kind of things, break your heart. I have several of those, and I have to admit that a tear has escaped my eye, and I try to hold it back. It is very difficult to hold back your emotions on situations like that.

Q. Do you have an advance copy of the "victim impact statement" or any material about the case?

A. No material. Very rarely do we have a material, on rare occasions, and never in a criminal case, but on a rare occasion in a civil case, they’ll call us down, when opening statements are about to begin…

They don’t need the interpreter yet, but, they’ll call us down when opening starts, at least, this way we have an idea of what is developing but in criminal cases, never!

Q. In closing, how do you think about the future of court interpreters?

A. I think Court Interpreters are here to stay. If anything there, the Court players and the judges and all the people that are on top of this are becoming more aware. I think about the importance of the interpreter, and that his/her functions are becoming more widely used, more widely recognized within the Court System.

REQUIREMENTS TO BECOME AN INTERPRETER OF THE NEW YORK STATE UNIFIED COURT SYSTEM

RAYMOND MIRANDA

Mr. Miranda was born in El Barrio (Spanish Harlem) of Puerto Rican parents. He was raised in Brooklyn and now he lives in Staten Island with his wife and two children. He has been interpreting professionally since 1989 and has been the Senior Court Interpreter at Supreme Court Kings County since the year 2000.