A spontaneous campaign started on Twitter last Tuesday 4th of June with the hashtag #MalpasoPagaYa (https://twitter NULL.com/search?q=%23malpasopagaya&src=typd) (Malpaso, pay now) in support of translators affected by the non-payment of the Spanish publishing house Malpaso Ediciones. The spark was a series of messages tweeted by the president of Malpaso in which he insulted and discredited one of those translators – who had turned to social media in order to raise awareness of her situation. An unprecedented avalanche of support followed, both from other translators and a number of publishers, urging Malpaso to apologise and pay up. The case was picked up by several major media outlets.

It all started around three years ago when Malpaso Ediciones decided not to pay many of their translators and simply ignore their claims. Quite a number of those translators decided to take legal action against the publishing house in order to get paid, but with no success yet. The Spanish literary translators’  association ACE Traductores issued a public statement in December 2016 condemning their bad practices and warning other translators. Malpaso was also expelled from their list of “good” publishers (those using the model contract). Unfortunately, the situation didn’t improve.

After the events described above, ACE Traductores published a new public statement (https://ace-traductores NULL.org/2019/06/05/comunicado-de-ace-traductores-05-06-2019/) condemning Malpaso’s position and its president’s insults, as well as urging them to pay all the affected translators what they are owed. ACE Traductores also exhorts all other players  in the publishing sector to condemn the existence of such practices in order to avoid similar situations in the future.

ACE Traductores is extremely pleased with the many declarations of solidarity from within the translation sector in particular and the book sector in general, as well as from the other Spanish translators’ associations and CEATL. It shows how, by working together, little by little we can achieve some very necessary improvements in our profession.

Here you can read some related news (in Spanish): [1] (https://www NULL.infolibre NULL.es/noticias/cultura/2019/06/06/grupo_malpaso_dedudas_colaboradores_95703_1026 NULL.html), [2] (https://www NULL.eldiario NULL.es/cultura/libros/Radiografia-editorial-ridicula-campana-MalpasoPagaYa_0_906759601 NULL.html) and [3] (https://www NULL.elmundo NULL.es/cultura/literatura/2019/06/05/5cf7de8efc6c83b8128b4637 NULL.html).