If you read my columns with some regularity, you know that I often split them into two, three, even four parts. Some are "off the headlines," addressing events as they unfold, like my three-part series on the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol assault. Yet others, this one for instance, address cultural and historical topics unrelated to specific current events.

This is the continuation of a column I published back in December 2020 ("Ask Them to Spell Their Names") on the subject of failed transcultural communications and their adverse consequences in business and other human interactions.

On that occasion, I presented two real cases. Case No. 1 was a U.S. sales executive, Mr. Yemerson, who in a training session for a Puerto Rico-based salesforce told his audience that they should demonstrate personal interest in their customers by asking them to spell out their names. In Case No. 2, Charles, the new pastor of a Texas church, reached out to the Latino/Hispanic community by inviting them to a church picnic.

Mr. Yemerson was unaware, and worse yet, unwilling to learn that Spanish is a phonetic language in which words and names like Maria Rivera are spelled just like they sound. His advice made him look foolish. When very few people showed up to the picnic, Pastor Charles became frustrated with what he interpreted to be his invitees' failure to keep their word. He did not understand that saying "no" in Latino culture may come across as disrespectful, particularly when addressing an authority figure or someone of higher social status.

These are examples of failed cultural translation. I define cultural translation as: having knowledge of a culture other than one's own with enough fluency to understand actions, values, beliefs, symbols and meanings, and having the ability to translate them between cultures.

THREE OTHER CASES

Case No. 3. Researchers at a large Midwestern university conduct a study about honesty and dishonesty among university students. They employ a survey with sociodemographic questions such as race and ethnicity and questions designed to gauge the students' level of honesty. Included in the survey was the question — I am paraphrasing — "If you were to see another student cheating on a test, would you notify the professor?"

The research team concludes that Latino students are not as honest as white students. As it turns out...

Case No. 4. A large U.S. chain store opens new branches in a Spanish-speaking country. Local managers are instructed to follow the company's U.S. practice of checking purchased items against receipts at the exit.

Many customers are offended by such scrutiny, which they perceive as an affront on their trust and sense of honor. The ensuing outcry creates a public-relations crisis for the store chain.

Case No. 5. A group of scholars edit an encyclopedia of Cuba. They make a concerted effort to include entries on a wide range of topics (biotechnology, philharmonic orchestra, Chinese contract laborers, etc.) and a diverse list of notable individuals of different races (painter Wifredo Lam, track-and-field star Ana Fidelia Quirot, 19th-century patriot Ignacio Agramonte, etc.). The publishers design covers for each volume of the encyclopedia. One cover includes a picture of four black rumba dancers making child-like grimaces. The other has a picture of a mulatto Cuban baseball pitcher.

The encyclopedia sells poorly among its natural demographic, South Florida Cubans.

EFFECTIVE CULTURAL TRANSLATING

Diversity and inclusivity experts, programs and trainings have proliferated in the past two years, largely as a result of widespread reckoning about race after the killing of George Floyd and the massive protests that followed. Well-intentioned as they may be, I get the sense that some of these lack the knowledge base, depth, and even seriousness necessary for effective cultural translation across ethnic and racial groups.

In Case No. 3, effective cultural translating would have allowed the research team to understand and take into consideration that different cultures — and social classes, for that matter — define honesty in different ways; and that "snitching" on fellow classmates short of a sign of honesty can be a deplorable action.

Likewise in Case No. 4, where store policy makers and managers would have avoided much controversy had they understood their customer's Iberian-derived sense of honor.

And in Case No. 5, the publishers would have sold far more encyclopedias had they designed more diverse covers without stereotypical images.

Luis Martinez-Fernandez is a Fellow of the Heterodox Academy's Writing Group. He is the author of "Revolutionary Cuba: A History" and "Key to the New World: A History of Early Colonial Cuba." Readers can reach him at LMF_Column@yahoo.com. To find out more about Luis Martinez-Fernandez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www. creators.com.

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