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Originally Posted by IUS
I Hi Feranando, in my opinion you are right and wrong. 
You are right if we are speaking about literature (art).
If we are speaking about movies, it is a situation in the middle, for example I like the Mexican flavor of the Simpsons, but when ... the Mexican flavor of the Simpsons, but when I went to see Shreck 3, and I have the bad luck that it was in Spanish, I do not understand parts that I could understand in English or in a more neutral or Latin American Spanish.
But, when we are speaking about a manual for a complex video component... Well, there, I prefer the neutral Spanish, some expressions that are local and not understandable for everybody.
In other thread, Julio Jaubert gave a definition of Neutral Spanish that was excellent: Español Neutro
Also here you could see, a practical and non-academic point of view: Neutral Spanish in Professional Translations |
Good point, IUS:
From the reader (or viewer) point of view, sometimes it is disappointing having to read an author with a voice or flavour that you cannot feel natural, a voice that always sounds strange. I've always remember Henry Chinaski, Charles Bukowski's alter ego, calling "gilipollas" all the guys he disliked, and how far-fetched the insult sounded to me in such a character, just because the only translations I could get my hands on were made in Spain. In those days I would have thanked a "neutral spanish" translation, I'm sure I would have enjoyed those books a lot more, and I've enjoyed them enormously.
But I also agree with the other participants in this forum: trying to bind all the different categories of Spanish into just one, harmless corpus, is as fruitless as the task undertaken by the constructors of the Babel Tower.
Nevertheless, from the translator point of view, you can't help thinking who is going to read your translations. As Mexican, I call "banqueta" to what most of Spanish speakers label as "acera", and I call "popote" to what other Spanish speakers call "pajilla" or "pajita". That's the way I
talk in everyday language, but I can't
write that way, because the people who are going to read my work are not only mexican. I think the way someone translates depends on the place his or her translation is going to be read. And this problem has increased after globalization.
Anyway, I think we, translators form English to Spanish, have a lesser problem than those who have to translate the other way round. If not, how can someone transmit all the subtleties Mexican Spanish speakers find in this jewell by Juan Rulfo?:
"Y estaba re flaco, como trasijado. Todavía ayer se comió un pedazo de animal que se había muerto del relámpago. Parte amaneció comida por las hormigas arrieras y la parte que quedó él la tatemó en las brasas que yo prendía para calentarme las tortillas y le dio fin. Ruñó los güesos hasta dejarlos pelones."