The Spanish/Spanglish Debate

This morning I got up at 5a.m. ready to tackle my writing.  Today, it was more about tinkering with the manuscript and finally ending one of the novellas, which was satisfying work.  But, in the early morning, I had to make a hard decision:  Should I translate the Spanish, within the text, of a story with important Spanish narration?  Should I put a dictionary in the end?  Should I leave it as is?

Many writers choose to italicize the Spanish.  I say, -¡A la madre con eso!-  I spoke Spanish first, and there is nothing out of the norm for me, when I encounter Spanish.  However, I wrote the story for a bilingual reader, or as if a bilingual reader could read it fluently.  Well, in the end, I decided it was too important for the reader to miss the language of this piece, which I really like. 

The story is about an immigrant grandmother who speaks very limited English and is dealing with her three-year-old grand son who is bordering on the psychotic.  He is so bad, the grandmother wishes that the devil takes him away (yes, folks, there’s magical realism in this).  The story narrates his return to the family. The beauty of the language just can't be fully translated, and in some parts, my own translation wasn't a true translation, just a shadow of the original.

I believe Latino and U.S. Latino writers should not Other their Spanish or Spanglish.  So, I kept the Spanish font flat and italicized the English translation.  I think it works.  In any case, the choice was a happy medium.