Countywide : Translator Finds Her Job Is Filled With Surprises

When Lourdes Gonzalez de Campbell started her own translation firm in Ventura, her first job was to interpret court proceedings for a South American defendant accused of rape.

“The man was very aggressive, and he was convinced that the jury had already been bribed to find him guilty,” Campbell said. “So every now and then he would stand up and insult the jury or the judge. And, of course, I had to stand up and translate what he was saying. After a while, I found out that people were talking about me. They said I seemed like a nice lady, but I have a foul mouth.”

It’s been four years since Campbell, one of only a few local interpreters certified for government work, was called upon to swear at a judge and jury. But her profession has been far from monotonous.

Living in a county with a large Spanish-speaking population has meant everything from translating medical documents to interpreting court cases. Last month, the city of Santa Paula hired Campbell to translate during two public workshops.

And in recent days she has been translating a tape-recording of a cocaine sale and arrest made during an undercover police operation.

But her work involves more than crime.

Campbell served as an interpreter at the Miss All Nations beauty pageant in Malaysia earlier this year.

A native of Mexico City, Campbell has been translating for 13 years, a job that has taken her to countries such as Italy, Ecuador and Iran.

She settled in Ventura about five years ago and started her company, which has interpreters available for languages other than Spanish, she said.

“I love my job. I never know what I’ll be doing next,” said Campbell, 35. Her children, Mark, 12, and Maureen, 5, are fluent in Spanish. And her husband, Lee Campbell, can speak and understand it, she said. “He has to. That’s all we speak at home.”