United States District Court, Southern District of New York

With great sadness we inform the court interpreting community that Mirta Vidal Orrantia died on January 3, 2004 after a long illness.

Mirta was a longtime certified Spanish interpreter associated with the federal courts in NY since 1981. She was the first staff interpreter in the Eastern District of New York. Several years later she left fulltime employment to work as a freelancer, until she became a staff interpreter in the SDNY in 1990. Although forced to resign from full time interpreting due to health problems, she continued to be active as a freelance court and conference interpreter. She served two terms on the board of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators, becoming President in 1992. Over the next 10 years she was active as a fierce champion of professional interpreting standards, leading to the creation of the Society for the Study of Translating and Interpreting and a new national interpreting credential.

She is survived by her husband Dagoberto Orrantia, mother Olga, father George and sisters Graciela and Jeannine.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Scleroderma Foundation.

Scleroderma Foundation
12 Kent Way, Suite 101
Byfield, MA 01922

or for more information, see http://www.scleroderma.org/

A memorial site is under development at http://mirtavidal.org.

Interpreters Office   |   USDC-SDNY