I emigrated from Colombia in 2004 and quickly learned how privileged I was to be fluent in English prior to coming to the United States. I worked as a certified Spanish court and medical interpreter as well as a translator where I saw first-hand how my bilingualism was my key to education, job advancement, and understanding of my essential rights in America.

During my career, I saw first-hand how judicial understanding for indigent litigants and medical understanding for patients was affected and even hampered due to the unavailability of professional translation. These people would often rely on friends and family to provide effective and accurate translations of medical and judicial information. This had a dual impact on patients and litigants, where they were unable to fully understand the situation at hand and they were unable to respond effectively to their situations.

Competent and professional translation services must be available to everyone regardless of the individuals' abilities to afford them. Hence, the founding of Community Language Access.