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When a person who speaks
only English steps into the Spanish-speaking world, you’d have to say
that he or she is absolutely speechless. Some weeks ago, the Pacific Pearl
ran an article about Vanessa Bernal, personal relations agent for Personal
Bilingual Assistant, a personable young woman put the words right into
the mouths of those voiceless souls. Well, actually Bernal doesn’t put
the words in their mouths, she does their talking for them. Out of curiosity,
we asked her the other day what types of needs she is filling for her
clients. By far and away, she says, the most in-demand service requested
so far is helping people with their immigration documents. While these
days there is usually somebody who can speak English at the front counter
of the Immigration office downtown, setting up an FM-3 (residence permit)
is a somewhat complicated, time-consuming matter. You need to submit pictures,
you need to obtain forms at a stationery store, you need to fill out application
forms which ask their questions in — what else? — Spanish. After accompanying
a number of clients to Immigration, Vanessa has worked out a fairly quick
and painless way to represent her clients and get the job done without
much effort on their
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part. With the help of a notary,she is now able to act on their behalf to
negotiate both new FM-3s and annual renewals without their even having to
go to the Immigration office in person. Other matters that Bernal has been
able to handle for this voiceless minority are complaints about timeshare
sales or other unfulfilled sales promises, which she and her customer can
take to the Consumer Affairs Bureau. Everybody calls this agency Profeco,
which is its Spanish acronym. Profeco is willing to help people get their
money back if they have been outrageously misled by fast-talking pitchmen
and have the sales receipts to back up their complaints. What else? Bernal
says she has been called upon to translate real estate contracts, fideicomisos,
condominium bylaws, and other legal contracts that her clients are unwilling
to sign without being able to read and understand them in their own language.
When it comes to big-money transactions like the purchase of a piece of
property in a foreign country, the cautious homebuyer has discovered that
having somebody like Bernal on hand to translate the fine print is, as the
saying goes, priceless. For more information, see ad on this page Personal
Bilingual Assistant. |
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