Life as archive: The written traces of Margaret Randall’s path as translator, writer, and activist
María Constanza Guzmán
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HTML version of the abstract and keywords [English]:
Title
Life as archive: The written traces of Margaret Randall’s path as translator, writer, and activist
Abstract
This article traces the trajectory of life-long translator, writer, and activist Margaret Randall as a key figure of the Latin American cultural archive. Centering on a contemporary definition of the archive as it relates to translation, the article introduces Randall as a transnational figure tracing her life and writings, with an emphasis of her work as a translator and cultural mediator between Spanish and English and between North and Latin America. It then centres on Randall’s variegated role as a translator, editor, and contributor, most notably of the Mexico-based magazine El corno emplumado/The Plumed Horn. The last section discusses Randall’s archive, her recently published memoir, and other sites of her writing, as traces of her key role as a cultural agent whose mediation practice was marked by politics, affect, and solidarity. The ways in which Randall herself has rendered her archive visible in her artistic and editorial work are underscored. The article ends with a reflection of what we can learn from Randall’s case for conceptualizing the translator’s archive, foregrounding the interplay between translation and activism in print culture, and configuring the figure of the translator at large.
Keywords
Translation and activism; Margaret Randall; Latin America; translator’s archive, El corno emplumado/The Plumed Horn
23 Mar 2026