AAPTI board of directors  

Esther M. Hermida is a freelance certified Spanish interpreter. She is certified by the state of California and the US District Court (federal court). She has over 28 years of experience in different areas of interpreting including, legal, corporate, conferences, simulcast, dialect coaching, media interpreting, language consultant, script translations, and voice-over. She founded her own company, GeoLingua, Inc. in 2016, and continues to work as an independent contractor with language service companies who need her expertise and offer a variety of interpreting experiences.

Esther worked for 10 years as a contractor with Los Angeles Superior court. She now serves the private sector and is presently working as a contractor with the U.S. District Court in the Central and Southern District, and other U.S. District Courts servicing the Interpreters Office, CJA, and the Assistant US Attorney's Office. She is an approved vendor for other counties who need assistance with certification of transcription and translation and has testified as an expert in transcription/translation in federal court. 
Esther is an advocate of the profession and believes that we all have a responsibility to protect and improve our profession. She’s active in professional forums, leading and mentoring many newly certified interpreters. 
Esther is passionate about her profession and the services she offers. She believes that people we interpret for need to understand how their lives are being impacted in a language they understand. She strives in providing interpreting to all individuals from all walks of life.

For the past five years, she’s been working with nonprofits, interpreting for trainers who deliver services to disadvantaged communities. Some of these opportunities have been offered to her by some of her favorite agencies. 

A proud moment as an interpreter was when she was a featured guest of a series of workshops presented by a major CA nonprofit to show their nonprofit members why the use of a professional interpreter and the translation provided is of vital importance to the community. After a mock demonstration of how things can go wrong when not paying attention to those in the room who don’t speak English, Esther had to stand before the audience and answer questions and explain the modalities of interpreting, the process, and the extent of our preparation before an event. It was rewarding to see this initiative coming from a non-language related agency that encouraged other nonprofits to allocate funds for language services. 

On a personal level, Esther came to the U.S. with her parents at the age of 10. Her parents came as  political refugees from Cuba, none of her family members spoke English. She had to enroll in a school where other bilingual classmates served as interpreters for her. Knowing how to read and write in Spanish was helpful in advancing in her classes. 

Esther interpreted for her parents often so her mother thought she was ready for more and offered to help out. At 13, she went to court to serve as an interpreter for a church member to interpret in a civil case. Esther failed miserably as she didn’t know what it meant to speak in the first person as asked by the judge. It was a traumatizing experience for a young person and she hasn't forgotten. She knows how many young immigrant children experience this every day when there’s no language access. Little did she know then that she would be making interpreting a life-long career. 

Esther is a voting member of the American Translators Association (ATA); a member of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT); A founding member of Association of Independent Judiciary Interpreters of California (AIJIC); and a SAG-AFTRA member. 

Madeline Rios has been a freelance interpreter and translator since 1983. She holds a certificate in translation and interpretation from the University of California at Los Angeles, a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Clark University, and a Master of Arts in Spanish Translation and Interpreting from the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. Ms. Ríos is a life, voting, Spanish to English translator certified by the American Translators Association. 

She is a member of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators and the Association of Independent Judicial Interpreters of California. She is certified as a Spanish/English court interpreter by the Judicial Council of California and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. 

Ms. Ríos has worked as a translation instructor with the University of California at Fullerton, and has made numerous presentations, published papers, contributed to bilingual dictionaries, and offered training through the Judicial Council of California and professional organizations in the U.S. and Mexico. Her pro bono work includes interpreting for asylum cases and organizing interpreting teams for indigenous consultant organizations at the United Nations, for investigation of the zero-tolerance immigration policy, for the Pomona Habla coalition of Pomona, California, and for the Latino/Latina Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys, where she serves on its board of directors. She is the former director of the Guatemalan Education Action Project and was the editor of its Guatemala Review publications. Since 1986 she has also interpreted pro bono for the U.S. Southwest regional tours of Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum.