by Margot Lee Shetterly / Photo by Luz Montero
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“The best literary translators are poets.” C.M. Mayo
leans forward, her passion for her craft evident in her
voice, her gestures. “Writing poetry forces you to
focus on the details and the sounds of the words, the
rhythm and meaning. It forces you to take out your
microscope and look at your prose.”
The author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand
Miles Through Baja California, the Other Mexico and editor
of Mexico: A Literary Companion, Mayo, a 20-year Mexico
City resident, realized that there was a wealth of excellent
but untranslated Mexican poetry, and began to do
the translations herself. Her pursuit took on a life of its
own as Tameme, a literary press devoted to publishing
and promoting English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-
English literary translation of North American writers,
particularly those whose work has not been previously
translated.
Literary translation is an art, she says, a different animal
from the rapid-fire interpreting that oils the gears of organizations
like the United Nations.
“Some of the best literary translators don’t even
speak the language that well. What you need is a good
dictionary, access to a native speaker, and lots of
patience.”
Mayo scoured the United States, Canada, the UK
and Australia for the broadest possible pool of English
translations of short fiction about Mexico, which she
then pared down to the 24 pieces that appear in the
literary companion.
“This book is about all of Mexico. It’s a portrait of
Mexico seen through the eyes of its top literary writers.
Not ‘These are the best writers in Mexico.’ It’s a different
sociology.”
Catherine Mansell Mayo is the economist and
former ITAM (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de
México) professor who penned a bestselling book on
Mexico’s financial markets. As an investment banker
at Banamex during the early 90s, Mayo was on the
frontlines of Mexico’s move toward a more open
economy.
Does she see a conflict between her career in economics,
that most rational of sciences, and her current
role in the world of literature?
“Economics is more literary than most people
recognize, it involves a lot of storytelling. Economics is
about people’s incentives, understanding why they do
things, and that informs my writing.”
C.M. Mayo is in the process of completing a work of
historical fiction (“Gone with the Wind, a la mexicana,
she says”), set during the 1860s, when Austrian archduke
Maximilian ruled Mexico. The book, an elaborate
work of research which involved poring over stacks of
historical documents in four languages (English, Spanish,
French and German) is seven years in the making.
“What I do as an artist, I hope it makes money, but
I don’t do it for the money. I believe there is something
beyond the rational that tells you what to do and when
to do it. What I do is a labor of love.”
