Pilar Ramírez Tello facts for kids

Pilar Ramírez Tello (born in 1976 in Granada, Spain) is a talented translator. She translates texts from English into Spanish. She is well-known for translating popular books like The Hunger Games and the Divergent series into Spanish.

Early Life and Education

Pilar Ramírez Tello started her journey in 1994. She went to the University of Granada in Spain. There, she studied Translation and Interpreting. This means she learned how to change words from one language to another.

After graduating in 1999, she continued her studies. She earned a Master's degree in Comparative Literature and Translation. She got this degree from Binghamton University in New York, USA. A few years later, she decided to focus fully on translating books.

Her Career as a Translator

Pilar has translated more than fifty books. She has worked for big publishers like RBA, Salamandra, and Penguin Random House. Besides translating books, she also works as a freelance translator. This means she works for herself and takes on different projects.

She also taught Spanish for a year and a half. She was an adjunct professor at Binghamton University.

Creating "Sinsajo"

One of Pilar Ramírez Tello's most famous creations is the word "sinsajo." This word is the Spanish name for the iconic bird in The Hunger Games series. The English name for this bird is "Mockingjay." The word "sinsajo" later became the title for the last two Hunger Games movies in Spanish.

Pilar has explained how she came up with this unique word. In the Hunger Games story, Mockingjays were created by accident. First, there were "jabberjays." These were male birds made by the Capitol. They could remember and repeat whole conversations. The Capitol used them to spy on rebels.

But the rebels found out and fed the birds false information. So, the Capitol released the jabberjays into the wild. They hoped the birds would die out. However, the jabberjays mated with female mockingbirds. No one expected them to be able to reproduce with other birds. Their offspring were called mockingjays.

In Spanish, "jabberjay" could be translated as "charlajo." This means "a bird that can talk." The Spanish word for "mockingjay" is "sinsonte." Pilar cleverly combined parts of these two Spanish words. She took "sin" from "sinsonte" and "sajo" from "charlajo" (or a similar sound from "jabberjay"). This created the new word "sinsajo" for the new bird species.

Books She Has Translated

See also

In Spanish: Pilar Ramírez Tello para niños