Abstract
The USA is the richest country in the world. California, for instance, was in 2014 the seventh largest economy on the planet. Sadly, it boasts also the highest income inequality of any highly industrialized country on the planet, with the highest Gini Index (.42), and growing. It also has the worse social safety net and medical coverage system of all the industrialized nations. The new administration proposals portend further disparities. Those who do not speak English, are sick, or have sick loved ones, are the most affected by this situation. Of those, as amply reported in the socio-medical literature, are women and children. The law mandates that they be provided with competent language mediation (Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VI, Executive Order 13166), mediation all too often unavailable. This paper discusses some of the most distressing sociolinguistic aspects of this state of affairs and their ramifications as illustrated in the medical and legal literature, such as lack of compliance, the cost of errors in communication, the ethics of medical interpretation, cultural issues, advocacy, consent, and children used as interpreters. Possible solutions shall be discussed. Many of the examples given shall illustrate situations involving monolingual speakers of Spanish.
Presenters
Alexander RainofEmeritus Associate Professor, Romance, German and Russian Languages and Literatures Department, California State University, Long Beach, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
"Interpretation", " Medical", " Women"
Digital Media
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