HOLYOKE — For someone sitting in the Holyoke City Council chambers on Tuesday evening, the meeting would have seemed quotidian, at least by pandemic standards. Councilors sat at their desks — separated by plastic barriers — and began discussing items including handicap spaces and special permits.
In a small TV control room down the hall, however, a historic moment was taking place. Holyoke Media’s executive director, Scott MacPherson, was buzzing around making sure the station was ready to broadcast, while Director of Media Engagement Iohann Vega livestreamed the news on Facebook.
“We are going to have for the first time the inclusion of live interpretation services into the Spanish language,” Vega said in Spanish to his viewers.
In an adjacent room, usually used for the city’s registrar of voters, Catherine Bermudez and Les Sepulveda sat calmly, preparing for their roles as interpreters for the night. A screen showing the meeting sat to Bermudez’s left, a microphone in front of her and headphones on her ears as she began by interpreting the call to rise for the “Pledge of Allegiance.”
In a city where 54% of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, according to census data, many have long called for translation and interpretation services for vital municipal meetings and information. On Monday, acting Mayor Terence Murphy announced that City Council meetings would finally feature live interpretation, courtesy of the East Longmeadow translation and interpretation services company TransFluenci.
MacPherson and Vega agreed: This moment was long in the making, and they were excited to play a role in it.
“This allows the community in Holyoke who speak Spanish, or are more comfortable listening to Spanish, to be engaged and have access to the information about what is happening in local government,” Vega said.
Once the broadcast was underway, MacPherson appeared to breathe a sigh of relief. Comcast had only recently installed the last piece of technology, and he had worked tirelessly to ensure that the system — which allows viewers to switch to a Spanish-language audio track online or on their television — worked the way it should.
But despite the stakes, MacPherson said he wasn’t anxious. Meticulous preparation is just part of what Holyoke Media does, he said.
“Not nerves,” he said with a laugh. “Just double and triple checking everything.”
Jessica Ridley, a partner at TransFluenci and the firm’s operations manager, said everything went smoothly Tuesday evening.
For now, only full meetings of the City Council will be interpreted, though the city recently tapped TransFluenci to interpret a meeting at the Senior Center and another at the Holyoke Housing Authority.
Vega said that more is still needed, noting that, for example, the city did not have interpreters at the press conference announcing the interpretation of City Council meetings. He said interpretation and translation to Spanish should be embraced in Holyoke, given the large population of Spanish speakers in the city.
“It’s something that’s been long overdue,” he said. “Now, we fortunately have the technology to do it, and it’s just the logical thing to do.”
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.