MinerAlert
MinerAlert
May 2026
By Sandra Ramirez ’08, ’21
As millions of soccer fans around the world tune in to the FIFA World Cup this summer, they will cheer on their favorite teams, strikers and defenders. The matches will be broadcast in more than 200 countries and territories, requiring skilled language interpreters to connect global audiences.
Valeria Delmar ’07 wants students at The University of Texas at El Paso to know that one day they could be among them.
Delmar is the senior coordinator of UTEP’s Translation and Interpretation Program. In her role, she ensures students understand the many opportunities a career in translation and interpretation can offer.
“I have colleagues who interpret for car racing in Japan,” Delmar said. “I have colleagues who interpret for the FIFA World Cup or even the Olympics.”
Delmar noted other career paths in the field, including creating subtitles for Netflix, working as a video game localizer or serving as a diplomatic interpreter for dignitaries and presidents.
As she considered potential careers, Delmar reflected on her own path.
She graduated in the top five of her class from San Elizario High School and was awarded the UTEP Presidential Scholarship. She initially enrolled as a math major after participating on her high school math team, but she recalled that her first pre-calculus class at UTEP quickly changed her mind and convinced her to change majors.
Delmar graduated with double majors in French and psychology. During a study abroad semester in France, she took French-to-English and English-to-French translation courses.
“I saw translation as this linguistic puzzle to be solved that’s a little bit of craft, a little bit of science,” Delmar recalled.
After graduating, Delmar enrolled in two translation courses at UTEP, including a court interpreting course taught by a federally certified court interpreter.
“I was in love with the challenge that bridging cultures and being a court interpreter presents, helping people communicate, especially in complex and life-altering situations,” she said.
Delmar went on to pursue a master’s degree in Spanish translation and interpreting in California. She returned to El Paso for a translation and interpretation internship with the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission and later worked as a translator, interpreter and victim services liaison with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.
When the grant-funded position ended, Delmar moved to Houston with her fiancé, where she worked freelance as a medical interpreter for the Texas Medical Center and performed quasi-legal work. She later accepted a position as a translation project manager and interpreter trainer with a language company before becoming a project manager for an engineering firm in Houston’s oil and gas industry.
“Through my work in Houston and even in California during my master’s program, I realized that the demand in the United States for interpreters and translators is primarily in the judiciary and medical sectors,” Delmar said.
Delmar returned to El Paso with her husband and eventually launched her own business, A Lingua Franca, offering consulting, translation and interpretation services. In 2016, she was hired to teach interpreting courses as an adjunct professor at UTEP. In her current position as senior coordinator, she has expanded the program. What was previously a minor in translation is now a minor in translation and interpretation that also offers a certificate focused on medical and judiciary settings.
Delmar encourages students to embrace what she says many realize after leaving El Paso and offers some professional advice.
“They have this bilingual, bicultural superpower that is often ignored,” she said. “To the extent that students want to pursue another discipline they are really passionate about, they could marry the two and become a niche translator or interpreter in that field.”