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Salvadore Ross writes...

Hello Greg,

This is more a comment and not a question. I wanted to let you know I have really enjoyed Young Justice so far, but I have a slight complaint, I am from Mexico and english is my second language, so whenever I see characters that speak spanish on the show they seem to speak english like stereotypes, and it is somewhat offensive.

Usually Bane will speak mostly perfect sentences in english with complex words in them but then call people "amigo" or "niño", a real person wouldn't do that, as those are some of the first words one learns when learning english. His dialogue with the Kobra guy seems like it was translated literally word by word, like when he says "mi mejor" meaning "my best", although it is a correct literall translation of those two words, that and most of the conversation makes little to no sense in spanish.

A similar case happens with Blue Beetle calling people "hermano" and things of the sort. I understand that you are trying to make it clear that these characters know spanish, or have a latin american background, but I really wish you tried a different approach like the accent Bane spoke in Batman: TAS rather than reinforce a negative stereotype. To give you an idea, it's like if every african-american character on the show spoke in ebonics.

Sorry if I seem to be nitpicking but it really is the only thing that bothers me in the show, other than that. it's very awesome. Thanks for all the hard work and effort you put into it as well as the time you spend answering fans.

Greg responds...

I've dealt with this exact thing before here.

As for the translations, all I can say is we did the best we could. We consulted people fluent in Spanish and had Spanish speakers in the cast. If we got it wrong, I'm truly sorry, but it's not like we didn't try very, very hard to get it right.

As for the occasional "hermano", etc. that we slip in, you say NO ONE would do that. Except that I personally know people who do. PERSONALLY KNOW PEOPLE WHO DO.

Now, perhaps one difference, vis-a-vis, Jaime - as opposed to Bane - is that he was brought up bilingual. English isn't his second language. Both English and Spanish were spoken in his home - and often, as with some friends of mine, they were mixed and mingled into what I've heard termed Spanglish.

This explanation may not satisfy you, but that's the best I've got. And in any case, it's too late now for us to change even if we wanted to. It was all recorded long ago.

Response recorded on September 20, 2012