About the group

Pueblo Unido PDX is a non-profit organization based in Portland, Oregon. It provides legal services and financial assistance to support immigrants in the region in the fight against detention and deportation. After founding the organization in 2017, the organization realized that the immigrants they intended to help also spoke indigenous languages of Guatemala and Mexico and that there was a need for more interpreters of those languages. Thus, the initiative to create an indigenous interpreters' collective was born. During the pandemic, the organization hired Puma Tzoc, a Maya K'iche interpreter (who is also a dancer, artist, and ceremonial man) to create and coordinate the Collective of Indigenous Interpreters of Oregon. The group now has around 30 active interpreters and works in Spanish, K'iche', Q'anjob'al, Akateco, Chuj, Lower Mixtec, Purépecha, Yucatec Maya, Zapotec, Q'eqchi, and Mam. 

The shortage of indigenous language interpreters is a growing need throughout the United States. For example, Puma began interpreting in the courts of New York for the first time with the recommendation and support of a colleague from Caracol Interpreters Cooperative and, to this day, continues to support these same courts remotely with their linguistic needs. Much of the collective's work focuses on providing interpretation for people seeking asylum and/or at risk of deportation in Oregon, but they also have clients throughout the United States. In addition to working with Pueblo Unido’s clients, the collective has an important partnership with Equity Corps, another local legal clinic where they do this type of interpretation. 

Members of the collective, like Amelia Pacheco, who is a Purépecha interpreter, have been volunteer interpreters and translators for their families their entire lives due to the widespread lack of language access in the United States. While in school, Amelia met a person who recommended she look for an interpreting job with the district and thus discovered her passion for interpreting. Now, through the collective, Amelia and other members organize to receive decent wages for their work, training, and professional recognition.

The collective's work responds to the specific need for interpretation in the native languages of the region's residents. However, beyond that, the collective has served as a vehicle to advocate for the rights of indigenous interpreters, including the right to fair wages and the rights of Oregon's indigenous migrant communities, two things that are necessarily linked. For example, the collective is currently fighting for changes to a state law stipulating that Oregon health and human services agencies can only hire state-registered interpreters. However, the interpreter registry does not validate any of the available training for indigenous interpreters, which makes it apparent that those agencies cannot provide adequate services for native language speakers. 

In addition to the support that the collective receives from Pueblo Unido, during these early years, its relationships with other indigenous groups have been critical in sustaining the group and helping them face challenges. As Puma observes, "That's the beauty of the collective and the beauty of our community of indigenous peoples: that we always honor and respect that beyond ourselves, there are other people out there from whom we can continue learning." MICOP and CIELO in California, the Transnational Villages Network in New York, and the International Mayan League of the United States in Washington, DC, among others, are some of the organizations with which they have established links and reciprocal exchanges.   

Relationship with Pueblo Unido PDX

It can be said that Pueblo Unido is "incubating" CIIO and hiring Puma, who handles the administration and communication aspects of the collective. Some of the key roles that the organization fulfills are: helping to negotiate rates and prepare contracts, generating invoices and collecting payment from clients, supporting the professional development of the interpreters of the group through financial support for training, and attending conferences. Even more vital is that PDX uses its funds to ensure that interpreters don't have to wait for clients to pay the organization to receive compensation for work performed. This last point is crucial since the economic instability and unpredictability of being an interpreter is a barrier for many people, and even today, many of the collective's members have to balance their work with the collective with other jobs they cannot leave out of economic necessity. 

Although Puma is the coordinator of CIIO, Amelia says that what he principally does is "guide" the collective. Neither Pueblo Unido nor Puma make decisions for the group. Decision-making is always collective. There is no formal voting process. Instead, each decision is discussed as a group, and opportunities are created to hear everyone's views, either by electronic response or verbally in virtual meetings. Pueblo Unido sometimes suggests issues for them to consider, and Puma organizes the logistics and communication to ensure that the members of the collective can assume leadership to the extent that is possible for them. In the future, the collective can imagine the possibility of operating as an independent cooperative. But for now, the support that Pueblo Unido provides them is essential.