THE AUTHOR - TRANSLATOR

Magdalena Gorrell Jaén Guimaraens

Magdalena is the eldest gran-daughter of Antonio Jaén Morente (1879-1965), eminent historian, author, scholar, diplomat and politician of Cordoba, Spain. A founding member of the Izquierda Republicana and Member of the Spanish Parliament, he was a principle author of the 1931 Spanish Constitution.

When the democratically-elected II Spanish Republic was defeated by Franco’s fascist military coup in 1938, Antonio Jaén, Spanish Minister Plenipotentiary for the Far East and the Philippines and his family, went into exile from Manila to Ecuador, where his daughter met and married Juan Leese Gorrell, an American diplomat, Magdalena’s parents.

As the daughter of a diplomat, Magdalena was educated in Canada, France, Guatemala and the United States. She was graduated from Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia and Magna Cum Laude in the Humanities and History from the University of Maryland University College. She also has a post-graduate qualification from the University of Cordoba in Spanish Archives and Genealogy. Magdalena is a member of Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society and of the British Historical Society of Portugal.

In 1963 Magdalena accompanied her family to Portugal where she met and married Bruce Duncan Guimaraens, an Englishman and renowned Port Wine Shipper. After the Portuguese 1975 revolution, she became an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, also later Director, of the American Language Institute in Porto. In 1980, Magdalena left teaching to develop her life-long activities as a specialist translator of articles, books and other works into English from Portuguese, French and Spanish. At the same time, she became an International Conference Interpreter. She is a member of AIIC - International Association of Conference Interpreters, Geneva, where she served as Regional Secretary for Portugal, Member of Council for Portugal (2 terms) and Member of the Disciplinary and Disputes Committee.

Nowadays, Magdalena and her sisters Cristina and Angela, are endeavouring to restore the historic memory of their grandfather, beginning with the 2016 publication of his illustrated biography Antonio Jaén Morente - Hijo Predilecto de Córdoba. This was followed by the printing, in April 2018, of a facsimile of the fourth edition of their grandfather's highly praised Historia de Córdoba, the last edition he annotated and corrected before his death in 1964. In response to repeated requests from the Cordoba Municipality, Magdalena and her sisters launched a first, private, edition of their English translation of Antonio Jaén Morente’s Historia de Córdoba, in Cordoba, September 2019. A second, revised edition is currently being published in the USA by Westwood Books. Today, the Cordoba Municipal Archives are currently preparing the long-awaited and sought-after publication of their grandfather’s PhD thesis dated Madrid 1908, on the San Geronimo of Valparaiso Monastery of Cordoba, regarding which there are currently only three known studies.