Marta Alcala Williams interprets more than just words.

by Janet Hurley . photo by Matt Rose

“Puedes ayudarnos?” Translation: “Can you help us?” The man who hailed Marta Alcala Williams in the corridors of Mission Hospital in 1993 must have recognized her Latin heritage. Then 26, Williams was in the hospital’s delivery ward as her sister’s birthing coach.

A first-generation American who grew up in Miami’s Columbian community, Williams is bilingual. She’d delivered her daughter, Isabel, at Mission and knew that the hospital didn’t have interpreters for patients, so she agreed to translate for the couple in the next room where the man’s wife was in terrible pain. The next day, she found the Latino couple distraught. Apparently, according to Williams, they hadn’t understood when the doctor asked if they wanted their boy circumcised, and the procedure had happened by mistake. “I realized then that I had such huge responsibility,” she says. “I was bilingual, but not trained in medical terms.” Williams says it was that incident that set her on the path to her work today, as a freelance interpreter and founding board member of NCIPIA (North Carolina Professional Interpreting Association), a volunteer-run nonprofit. The group helps interpreters meet high professional standards through mentoring and training, and it advocates for the use of credentialed interpreters in heath settings, something Mission Hospital does today.

With family in Columbia, Mexico and Puerto Rico, two children who are bi-cultural (their dad is white and an Asheville native), and jobs that range from fitness instructor to community organizer, Williams has her hands full. She spent years pursuing and completing her undergraduate degree in psychology at AB-Tech and UNCA, and she has been leaping language and cultural divides at every turn. Williams received her medical translation training through MAHEC (Mountain Area Health Education Center) and translates in the Asheville City and Buncombe County School systems, for the Department of Social Services, and in the courts. Now, as an interpreter, her goal is to clarify what is always, a murky process, particularly given regional dialects, phrases and even religious beliefs. “People don’t realize how nuanced translation is—you have to match words and tone and facilitate a true dialogue between people,” she says. “I’m not just a messenger.”