Argentina Cultural Services was set up in 1999. Founded by Graciela Prosperi in 1999 as a language and intercultural management bureau with the aim to build bridges between Argentina and The Netherlands, Argentina Cultural Services has developed into an all-round consultancy specialized in Latin America, thanks to the broad network established across various countries in the region and the experience gained throughout the years.
Graciela Prosperi was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and earned a University degree as a Sworn English-Spanish Translator and Conference Interpreter, after which she continued her studies at Georgetown University, USA. During more than ten years she worked for a large Argentine group of companies with international focus. After moving to the Netherlands in 1996, she got a diploma as a Dutch-Spanish Court Interpreter. Alongside her translation and interpreting career, she has worked as a freelance consultant for intercultural projects since 1999. She published several articles and the book ´One Foot on Either Shore – A Dutch-Argentine Portrait´ in 2003. As TEFAF PR Consultant for Latin America for 16 years, she liaised with press, galleries and collectors in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay, bringing TEFAF Maastricht and TEFAF New York closer to Latin American art buyers, museums and art lovers. With an established network of journalists, industry figures and influencers, she also helps artists, galleries, museums and luxury brands connect with the right partners and make their stories resonate at the other side of the Atlantic, by cultivating relationships with new communities through matchmaking and collaborations.
My name is Graciela Prosperi and I come from Buenos Aires, Argentina
I am a language, culture and communication specialist for Latin America in The Netherlands
As a professional communicator, I believe in the power of words
Each voice is unique, each message is meaningful and each experience unforgettable
I discovered my passion for languages very early on.
Growing up in Argentina, far away from the rest of the world – and before the internet even existed – sparked my curiosity about other cultures. Before I could even dream to travel abroad, I never missed a chance to meet foreigners living and working in Argentina. As a teenager, I enrolled in as many language courses as I could: English, of course, but also French, Portuguese, German and, even Arabic for a couple of years. Becoming one of the first interpreters in Argentina with a University degree was a great accomplishment and it felt like the official launch of my language and culture journey, which would soon become an international adventure. Although I was on a tight budget, I managed to see quite a lot of the US and Europe in a few years. The more I traveled, the more I wanted to explore other destinations, not just as just an average tourist adding one more trophy to the list of destinations and having great fun but trying to understand why things were different from what I knew.
Not surprisingly, I ended up living abroad. I moved to The Netherlands in 1996, where I started the fascinating experience of finding out how deeply culture can be rooted in a country and its people and how imperceptible differences can fool us every day if we are not aware of them. I continued navigating that path both in real life and – in the meantime also online – to find out why the cultural context could sometimes look so similar and sometimes so different in my second fatherland. This cultural immersion process not only meant understanding the Dutch but also bringing my new perspective and knowledge back to Latin America. With each business trip, new doors were opened in the countries where I worked – Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina – where things never stood still. All that combined with my intercultural communication training and personal observations, triggered the publication of a bundle which I had compiled, with lots of experiences and anecdotes while trying to adjust and survive in The Hague.
Working as an interpreter for Spanish and Latin American audiences in The Netherlands also gave me countless opportunities to see brilliant diplomatic moves and embarrassing mistakes which people make when they think communication is just about words.
Words are only one part of the equation. That is why Google Translate may be of great help to get by, but it cannot entirely solve the intercultural gap. True engagement is about understanding verbal and non-verbal communication within a given context.
Communication is my business and my passion.
Whether it´s writing a letter, telling a joke, trying to make sense of an intricate legal text, or interpreting a most inspiring speech, I love every aspect of it. Irony, subtlety, plays on words, understatements, idiomatic expressions, and nuances can be so rich and colourful! I find languages intriguing… sometimes – I must admit – to the point of obsession! You are never done with them, there’s always something new to learn, to discover. There´s not one day in my life when I don´t look up words in a dictionary. Languages are so dynamic and alive, as they evolve with our lives, with science and technology. Think of Covid-19 for example, and all the array of new words and expressions which appeared overnight! New words are coined as new realities arise, new phrases come in fashion and others are forgotten. The language trip is never-ending…
Now that I am more settled, my dream is to do something with everything that I have learned so far and share it, especially with younger people. But I also need to keep on learning and getting involved in new projects.
I need harmony in the world around me. That is something I have been always looking for, so that pops up quite often in my dreams – both in real life and at night. Balance is also an important element to me. I feel good when things make sense. It is nice to see that after many years of hard work, my life and accomplishments look very much like what I wished for. But that did not certainly happen overnight. I took risks and some of those dreams took much longer than I had expected to come true. There were also ups and downs along the way, but luckily, I am quite stubborn, and I never gave up.
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