Our business is collectively owned and run by qualified interpreters and translators with decades of experience in our field. We are dedicated to ensuring that speakers of all languages can participate fully in public life, undeterred by language barriers. We advocate for the interpreter profession in order to create fair working conditions and to build greater language justice in our communities.
We formed the Minnesota Translator and Interpreter Cooperative because a democratic workplace results in the highest quality language services that our clients and community deserve.
Our interpreters and translators have the highest level credentials available in their language pair, including certification from entities such as the National Center for State Courts, Federal Court Interpreter Certification, and the American Translators Association. All MNTIC interpreters are also background checked.
MNTIC is proudly worker-owned and unionized with the MN Newspaper & Communications Guild, TNG-CWA Local 37002.
Whether we were born in Minnesota or made it our home, our membership came together with a common goal to serve our state’s diverse cultural and linguistic communities.
When you hire MNTIC, you’re receiving more than language services. You’re investing in our co-op’s efforts to build broader language justice in our community––educating and advocating to legislators and other public forums about the role and importance of professional interpreters to increasing equity in public life.
Our inaugural steering committee serves our clients, community, and members for a term of three years. After collaborating for years on advocacy efforts for the court interpreter profession in the Minnesota state legislature, we came together to create our own democratic workplace
Andrés Díaz, originally from Veracruz, Mexico, has decades of experience and expertise in his field of Spanish interpretation and translation. He graduated from Universidad Autónoma Chapingo in Mexico as an agro-industrial engineer and later went on to get his master’s degree in Food Science from the University of Minnesota. Over the years his knowledge in food science and agriculture has allowed him to pursue what he especially enjoys: traveling and working with topics related to food and agriculture. From traveling to Chiapas, Mexico, and Huehuetenango, Guatemala, to interpret for workshops for an agriculture diversification program coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and the Chiapas Institute of Tropical Agriculture, to traveling several times with foreign delegations in Minnesota and interpreting for trainers from different companies and institutions, Andrés’s passion has taken him to many different countries. More recently Andrés has worked in many settings such as being a lab instructor for translation courses, and as a teaching specialist for course Interpreting in Legal Settings at the U of M, to interpreting for the USDA/Foreign Agricultural Service Cochran Fellows Program involving Guatemalan Schools. With all of this experience, he can now say he is an experienced translator in technical materials related to agriculture, food technology, power generation, heavy machinery, and medical technology.
A developing passion of his is narration. He has narrated numerous corporate videos and educational materials in Spanish, working with video editing software. A large project he worked on was narrating, translating, and editing the Spanish version of K-12 standardized tests used in several states. Currently, Andrés works primarily as a conference and court interpreter. He is a certified court interpreter on a federal and state level, and is also certified by the American Translators Association. Not only is Andrés a highly qualified interpreter and translator, but he finds time to bring his sense of humor to the job, always ready with a joke to make everyone laugh.
Marcela Estibill has been interpreting since 1995 and is a certified CCHI Medical Interpreter, Certified ATA Spanish Translator, and a Certified MN Court Interpreter. She got her Degree in TEFL(Teaching of English as a Foreign Language) in 1987, and started her small translation business in Santiago, Chile in 1988, later working as an English and Spanish Teacher, translator and proofreader. In the United States, she has studied Interpreting, Translation, Linguistics, Literature and Creative Writing at the University of St. Thomas, University of Minnesota, NYU, and Hamline University. She is happy to be part of a cooperative of language professionals because she believes in growing the profession of interpreters and translators in an environment of social equity, equality and fair access to jobs; and that translates into better serving our clients in our communities.
Jenny has worked as a professional translator and interpreter for over 20 years. She is certified by the MN State Courts, and Immigration Courts and has completed the Southern California School of Interpreting Court Interpretation Program. Jenny discovered her passion for interpreting upon returning to the States after time in Spain. She began as a staff interpreter for the Connecticut Judicial Branch and rounded out her time in CT as the full-time interpreter for the Hartford Community Court, the second Community Court in the country. Since then, Jenny has lived in Minnesota, California and Massachusetts, working as a freelance interpreter and translator, and running a small Community Court program in Northern CA. Jenny is proud to be an active part of interpreter advocacy efforts at the state level, which drew her to the cooperative model. She is thrilled to be a part of the MNTIC team as a vehicle to build community, advocate for the profession, and create more language justice across Minnesota.
Sally Nichols has worked as a Spanish language interpreter and translator since 1990, and is certified by the US District Court and the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. After growing up in Puerto Rico, she moved to the Chicago area for college, where she obtained a BA in both Spanish Literature and English Literature, and has lived and worked in the Twin Cities since 2001. From 2001 to 2008 she was the staff Spanish interpreter for the federal immigration court in Bloomington, which serves Minnesota and North and South Dakota. Since 2008, she has been a freelance court and conference interpreter. Sally’s involvement with MNTIC came about because of her desire to work in a more collaborative environment, and to create greater awareness in the public in general about the contributions of highly skilled language professionals.
MNTIC’s formation has been made possible through the support of our community partners.
Minneapolis Co-operative Technical Assistance Program (C-TAP)
