Acknowledgments  xi

Introduction. The Aporia of Translation  1

Part I. Vernacularizing the Political

1. Welcoming What Comes: Translating Sovereignty in the Revolutionary Philippines  21

2. Wars of Translation: American English, Colonial Schooling,and Tagalog Slang  43

3. The Cell Phone and the Crowd: Messianic Politics in the EDSA II Uprising  70

Part II. Weaponizing Babel

4. Translation, American English, and the National Insecurities of Empire  99

5. Targeting Translation: Counterinsurgency and the Weaponization of Language  120

Part III. Translating Lives

6. The Accidents of Area Studies: Benedict Anderson and Arjun Appadurai  149

7. Contracting Nostalgia: On Renato Rosaldo  162

8. Language, History, and Autobiograhy: Becoming Reynaldo Ileto  173

9. Interview: Translation Speaks with Vicente Rafael  189

Notes  203

Bibliography  233

Index  247

"Vincente Rafael's latest work, Motherless Tongues, brings an innovative perspective to the field of translation studies." — Marianna Deganutti, Target

"Motherless Tongues is a revelatory and lucid rejection of the delusions of control of language flows implicit in the work of many a translation studies scholar. Amidst the continued hegemony of research moulded by the reassuring stability of different types of social and ideological structures, Rafael’s superbly written book illuminates the counterpoint: translation as site for the everyday expression of dissent, subversion and insurgency." — Luis Pérez-González, The Translator

“We might take this volume as the author’s masterpiece in the understanding of translation as the 'relations of power' of the plurality of languages – vernacular, Spanish and English – by traversing two cultural milieus between the Philippines and the United States.”

“Motherless Tongues not only demonstrates what a rich ecosystem the Philippines is for thinking through translation, but also offers a new and productive way to think about the relationship between translation and language.”

"Vincente Rafael's latest work, Motherless Tongues, brings an innovative perspective to the field of translation studies." —Marianna Deganutti, Target

"Motherless Tongues is a revelatory and lucid rejection of the delusions of control of language flows implicit in the work of many a translation studies scholar. Amidst the continued hegemony of research moulded by the reassuring stability of different types of social and ideological structures, Rafael’s superbly written book illuminates the counterpoint: translation as site for the everyday expression of dissent, subversion and insurgency." —Luis Pérez-González, The Translator

“We might take this volume as the author’s masterpiece in the understanding of translation as the 'relations of power' of the plurality of languages – vernacular, Spanish and English – by traversing two cultural milieus between the Philippines and the United States.”

“Motherless Tongues not only demonstrates what a rich ecosystem the Philippines is for thinking through translation, but also offers a new and productive way to think about the relationship between translation and language.”

"In this rich compendium, Vicente L. Rafael continues to teach us how to think about the long, unpredictable afterlives of empire—their entangled, translingual socioscapes, their webs of attraction, their insurgent, untameable energies. His pages are populated by intellects of remarkable imagination and insight, including, above all, his own."  — Mary Louise Pratt, author of, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation

"Motherless Tongues presents the most compelling and deft analyses of the role of translation in the contexts of revolution, revolt, war, and empire in the Philippines and the United States. No work of this kind brings the Philippines and the United States together with its singular attention to the politics of translation, or with the kind of deep linguistic and cultural fluency that Vicente L. Rafael possesses. A significant figure in translation studies, Rafael is positioned to open new pathways to thinking about what translation brings to light in the contemporary moment."  — Neferti X. M. Tadiar, author of, Things Fall Away: Philippine Historical Experience and the Makings of Globalization

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