In January, the Asociación Panameña de Traductores e Intérpretes (APTI) elected a new board of directors for the 2024–2025 term, with Reina de Bettendorf elected as president. She is a professional translator with more than 30 years of experience, a past APTI treasurer and vice president, and an honorary advisor to FIT. APTI currently has 200 members and is the only professional association of translators and interpreters in Panama.
Founded by a small group of professionals in 1984, APTI will celebrate its 40th anniversary later this year. The new board of directors will commemorate this significant milestone and the association’s growth over the decades by planning numerous activities in the coming months that highlight APTI’s contributions to the profession over the past 40 years.
At its first in-person meeting of the year, the new board hosted a talk by one of its most distinguished members, Edilberto González T., titled Every Translation is a Rewriting: The Case of Literature. He emphasised the importance of faithfully conveying not only the meaning of a text in a translation, but also its essence.
The new board also pledged to follow up on the draft of a new bill affecting translators, a key initiative to recognise and strengthen the translation and interpreting profession in Panama.
Lilia Orcasita, Vice President, APTI