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Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

Consejera de Agricultura

English translation:

Regional Minister of Agriculture

Added to glossary by Robert Carter
Feb 8, 2019 19:08
5 yrs ago
10 viewers *
Spanish term

Consejera de Agricultura

Spanish to English Other Government / Politics Government
I'm looking for a translation of "Consejera de Agricultura de Castilla y León" for a media/marketing content piece.

I found a perfectly reasonable translation for "consejería de agricultura" here (i.e., the answer chosen):
https://www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish-to-english/wine-oenology-...

...but I'm not quite sure what to call the "titular" of the "consejería". I suppose "department head" or "councillor" would be options, but I'd like to get some other thoughts, particularly as I'm unfamiliar with this position.
Obviously, it shouldn't be too long either.

Thanks in advance!
Proposed translations (English)
4 +2 Minister of Agriculture of Castile-Leon
5 +1 Agriculture minister
5 +1 Regional Minister
2 Regional Chief Executive for Agriculture / Autonomous government Executive for Agriculture
References
We've had this before
Regional Minister

Discussion

neilmac Feb 9, 2019:
Regional Minister Is how I used to translate it back in the day (I very rarely get work from the regional government nowadays). Ditto what Charles said, basically.
Noni Gilbert Riley Feb 9, 2019:
To avoid regional... ... start with CyL: "Castile-Leon Councillor/Commissioner for Agriculture".
Chema Nieto Castañón Feb 8, 2019:
Regional Councillor of Agriculture is probably the most accurate, though I wonder what does this convey to you English natives. I am one of those that Charles describes who would feel really uncomfortable with Minister here. Regional Minister still sounds a little off -but this of course is not something to take into account ;)
Noni Gilbert Riley Feb 8, 2019:
She is indeed one of the bigwigs... ...but as Charles is right to emphasise, she ain't no minister. I wonder if it would be possible to work in "with responsibility for agriculture..." Here's the organigrama: https://gobierno.jcyl.es/web/jcyl/Gobierno/es/Plantilla100Or...
The other idea that occurs to me is "commissioner" - or is that too EU?
Rachel Fell Feb 8, 2019:
Don't forget Knight's Castile soap... spelt and pronounced as "eel" - as in these lovely ads;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hq_taL79LU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRoI4SlRL8w

I agree with Charles about including "regional"; and with Chema about "Councillor" on reflection.
I often prefer "for" to "of" but:
"...the Regional Councillor of Economy and Employment..."
https://www.ree.es/en/press-office/press-release/2013/09/cha...
Robert Carter (asker) Feb 8, 2019:
@Charles Or perhaps, given how "tile" and "till" are pronounced in English (not to mention the French spelling), "Castile" was itself a misspelling of "Castille" :-) Totally unintuitive.

BTW, thanks, regarding "secretary". Still, I can't help feeling there must be a better solution to this than "minister" / "department" for "consejera" / "consejería".
Charles Davis Feb 8, 2019:
@Robert "Secretary" is a tempting alternative, I agree, but I think that potentially opens another can of worms, since it could easily be understood to correspond to "secretario", which denotes a lower tier of the hierarchy (secretario de estado, secretario general) within ministries at both national and autonomous community level.
Charles Davis Feb 8, 2019:
Castile "Castille" is a very common misspelling of "Castile". I suppose people get muddled because of the double L in Spanish.
Robert Carter (asker) Feb 8, 2019:
@Charles Thanks for the insight. I couldn't get away with just using "minister" here in any case because, as I said below, the national minister is already mentioned in the same sentence. I was hoping I might be able to use another word entirely. I don't know, to me, "regional minister" seems to imply they are subordinate to the "ministerio", but that doesn't appear to be the case. "Secretary" or "Regional secretary" perhaps?
Charles Davis Feb 8, 2019:
I translate this as "regional minister". For "consejería" I often use "department" rather than "ministry". It's true, as Rebecca says, that an autonomous community is not strictly a "region", constitutionally, but although I would not refer to Castilla y León as a "region", I think the adjective "regional" is acceptable and it's certainly neater than the alternative.

I am strongly opposed to omitting "regional". I don't think you can just call this person the Minister of Agriculture or Agriculture Minister. That is a position in the national government. There is a deeply-held view among public officials in Spain that the word "ministro" cannot be used at autonomous community level, and I have had had objections from public-sector clients to the use of "minister" for "consejero". They really seem to feel very uncomfortable with it. My arguments for using it have always prevailed so far, provided that it is qualified by "regional". I am quite sure that "minister" alone would invite objections; indeed, as I say, I know from experience that this is so.
Robert Carter (asker) Feb 8, 2019:
@Pat and Rebeca Your answers came in almost at the same time, so I'll address them here if that's okay.
I should have mentioned that the "Ministro de Agricultura" is also mentioned in the same paragraph!

Proposed translations

+2
20 mins
Selected

Minister of Agriculture of Castile-Leon

(or) Regional Minister of Agriculture of Castile-Leon (if you want to underscore that this is not a central government position)

(or) Minister of Agriculture of the Castile-Leon autonomous community (if Spanish constitutionalists protest that Spain is not divided into "regions" but rather "autonomous communities)

These are just some suggestions, but since "consejerías" are the autonomous community counterparts of the central government's ministries, perhaps for audiencies unfamiliar with the Spanish system of territorial government, "consejero/a" might be translated as "regional minister" or "minister of the regional government."

Also "Castilla y Leon" could be left as is, or rendered as "Castile-Leon" (482,000 hits in google) or "Castille-Leon" (95,500 hits).
Note from asker:
Ah, I just noticed your "regional" clarification. Thanks for the tip about "Castile-León" too!
Peer comment(s):
agree Charles Davis : Definitely not just minister / Yes, fair enough. I must admit that every time I've thought about this I've found myself driven back to the word "minister".
20 mins
No, of course; that's why I suggested both the full title "of Castile-Leon", as well as "Regional Minister"
agree Yvonne Gallagher : yes, with regional OR with autonomous community in the mix
2 hrs
Thanks, Yvonne and, yes, there has to be some indication that the reference is to a regional or autonomous community "minister".
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks, Rebecca, your answer was most complete and included the "regional" option. I've taken the liberty of including that for the glossary. Thanks to everyone who contributed!"
+1
19 mins

Agriculture minister

Juntas, etc, have ministries

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 25 mins (2019-02-08 19:34:05 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of the Junta of Castile and ...
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news.../the-minister...ag...
Jul 17, 2017 - The Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of the Junta of Castile and Leon Milagros Marcos Ortega looks on prior to the start of a European ...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2019-02-08 20:11:30 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Wikipedia on the Junta:

Vice-presidents and ministers
The President can appoint and dismiss freely one or more vice-presidents. At the head of each ministry there is a minister, who is appointed freely by the President, and each one is subdivided into departments that coordinate and direct the administrative services. Some ministries include one or more vice ministers in their structure. In addition each ministry has a general secretary, various departments and even diverse autonomous branches and state-owned companies.

In Decree No. 2/2015, of 7 July, from the President of the Junta of Castile and León, regarding restructuring of the ministries, the current organizational structure of the Board of Castile and León is defined.

The current council and its ministers (Spanish: consejeros) are:
Note from asker:
Thanks, Pat.
Peer comment(s):
agree philgoddard : I agree with Charles that it's a good idea to add "regional".
4 mins
Thanks Phil!
neutral Charles Davis : Definitely not just minister
21 mins
Agreed, in Spanish they are not "ministros", they are "consejeros"; in English they can perfectly well be "ministers" of C-L, as Rebecca says.
Something went wrong...
10 hrs

Regional Chief Executive for Agriculture / Autonomous government Executive for Agriculture

Wikipedia and even Oxford goes with "minister", but I agree with Charles et al.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junta_of_Castile_and_León

https://es.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/spanish-english/...

https://es.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/spanish-english/...

Perhaps I would use, instead of "regional", "autonomous region Administrator for Agriculture" or any other synonym that would indicate she is the boss and In Charge of the matter.

I thought about "Councilwoman", as Chema notes, but it would not work as it immediately refers to a municipal sphere, rather than a broader autonomous regional one.

My take goes in the direction of "Autonomous Goverment Executive for Agriculture"...

Good luck.

(And luckily this is not about Catalonia... where "region" would be sacrilege for some radicals - they would "attack" you with their favorite palindrome "català a l'atac")

The other option would be "Autonomos Government Snr Adviser for Agriculture" (?)

Just throwing few more ideas.

Note from asker:
Thanks, John, some useful points you make there.
Something went wrong...
+1
1 day 1 hr

Regional Minister

Habitual entre la jerga regional española, suelen llamarse así entre ellos a menudo en reuniones. Después añades el ramo (agriculutra) y el sitio (CyL)
Peer comment(s):
agree neilmac : De toda la vida - o al menos 20 años - desde Zaplana....
13 hrs
Something went wrong...

Reference comments

23 mins
Reference:

We've had this before

Peer comments on this reference comment:
neutral Charles Davis : But as ever, previously accepted answers are not necessarily right.
38 mins
It is correct in my opinion. Your objection seems to be the omission of "regional", but Nikki, whose answer was selected, quite rightly pointed out that this may not be necessary depending on the context.
neutral JohnMcDove : Agree with Charles take here.
10 hrs
Something went wrong...
16 hrs
Reference:

Regional Minister

This is the form the guiri newspapers tend to use in my area…

Torrevieja's Conservatory Auditorium in full swing - Euro Weekly News ...
https://www.euroweeklynews.com › News › Costa Blanca South
Mar 29, 2011 - Trinidad Miró, Valencia's Regional Minister of Culture and Sports, officiated over the opening, helped admirably by a rightly proud mayor in the ...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 16 hrs (2019-02-09 12:05:35 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I'd like to just add that from a European standpoint, what used to be called the regions are now called autonomous communities. However, as I see it, it's a case of same stuff, new wrapping - and regional should be readily understandable to most readers.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 16 hrs (2019-02-09 12:07:15 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_minister
Example sentence:

Valencia Grand Prix (Global Champions Tour); the trophy was presented by Valencia's regional minister of Sports and Culture, ...

Valencia's regional minister of economy, industry, tourism and employment, Maximo Buch

Reference:

http://www.fruitnet.com/eurofruit/article/7448/valencia-s-pledge-to-citrus-cooperative

Note from asker:
Thanks, Neil.
Something went wrong...
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