Óscar A. Unzueta Ledesma

My first passion is structuring and writing down ideas. My second passion, rediscovered not so long ago, is to study languages. Thus, I decided to combine them and reinvent myself as a translator, after almost twenty years as a tax lawyer. Nevertheless, my ultimate goal was to become a full-time literary translator, especially from Nordic languages to Spanish.

Thus, after just one and a half years as a full-time translator, I went from translating and/or proofreading diverse sorts of texts (a theater piece, movie scripts, art books prologues, TV series synopses, contracts, websites, corporate presentations, ads, user guides, etc.), to translating my first novel, from Swedish to Spanish. Several works came after that, including a non-fiction book which I translated from English to Spanish.

I’ve had the privilege to work with a publishing house with branches all over the world, writers, translation and PR agencies, law firms, nonprofit organizations (as a volunteer), etc., meeting their expectations by fulfilling deadlines, having great communication and delivering precise translations with attention to detail.

Below you may find a brief description of all my professional literary translations, which include seven translations already published: six from Swedish to Spanish (all of them novels and novellas), and one from English to Spanish (a non-fiction book).

• My most recent translation, made from Swedish to Spanish, is "Mi abuela me pidió que te dijera que lo siente" ("Min mormor hälsar och säger förlåt" in Swedish, "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry" in English), by Fredrick Backman, a very successful Swedish author whose works have been adapted to TV series and films. This book was published by HarperCollins Español on March 24th, 2026.

• I also did the translation from Swedish to Spanish of "El divorcio" ("Skilsmässan" in Swedish, "The Divorce" in English), by Moa Herngren, an accomplished author of novels and TV scripts. "El divorcio" is her first novel translated to Spanish, and was published by HarperCollins Español on August 12th, 2025.

• I have translated from Swedish to Spanish the "Beartown trilogy" written by Fredrik Backman. These books, published by HarperCollins Español, are the following:

1) "Beartown" ("Björnstad" in Swedish, also "Beartown" in English), published on March 28th, 2023.

2) "Nosotros contra todos" ("Vi mot er" in Swedish, "Us against you" in English), published on October 17th, 2023.

3) "Los ganadores" ("Vinnarna" in Swedish, "The winners" in English), published on March 11th, 2025.

• I've also translated from Swedish to Spanish two short novels by Fredrik Backman, which were edited together in a single book, "Dos novelas de amor y redención" ("Two novels of love and redemption"), which was published by HarperCollins Español on November 19th, 2024.

• I've translated a work of non-fiction too, this one from English to Spanish: "Dharma para la vida diaria" ("Everyday dharma"), by Suneel Gupta. It was published on July 30th, 2024.

• During 2021, I did a translation sample of the YA novel “Slutet” (“The end”) by Mats Strandberg, from Swedish to Spanish. For this I received a grant by the Swedish Arts Council.

• I've also proofread the translation from Swedish to Spanish of the theater piece "El príncipe Sintristeza" (“Prins Sorgfri”) by Suzanne Osten and Per Lysander. The translation was made by Humberto Pérez Mortera, and it was published on 2021 by Editorial de la Casa, in Mexico.

• Between September 2019 and June 2020, I took an online professional translation course, imparted by Cálamo & Cran. The course has an accreditation by the European University of Madrid, in Spain.

• In 2012, 2015 and 2016 I took several creative writing courses taught by Jesús Chávez, Santiago de Arena and Venus Rey Jr.

• From May till July 2023 I took the "Transcreation Essentials" course imparted by Nina Sattler-Hovdar at the ProZ learning platform. Besides, between October 2020 and November 2021 I also took online courses imparted by Platzi, about content strategy: 1) Information architecture, 2) Online writing and 3) UX writing.

Although these are not directly related to literary translation and writing, they helped me to understand better how to craft texts and translations that tend more to the needs of the reader.

As a translator, I would like to highlight the following achievements:

• I was selected by the Swedish Arts Council to participate as a literary translator in the 2022 Gothenburg Book Fair’s Fellowship Program, a meeting of translators and publishing houses from around the world. I was also selected by the Swedish Arts Council to receive economic support to attend book fairs in Sweden and in Mexico.

• I'm also the recipient of a grant from the Swedish Arts Council, to do a translation sample of the novel “Slutet” by Mats Strandberg, from Swedish to Spanish (November 2020).

• During my professional translation course at Cálamo & Cran, I received a perfect grade in my final project (10), and my average grade throughout the course is 9.55.

I would also like to mention that during my studies related to my former career as a tax lawyer, I achieved the following:

• During my Master’s Degree in Taxes at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua in Mexico, I had my generation’s highest average grade (9.8).

• When I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the Institute of Technology and Higher Education of Monterrey in Mexico, I graduated Summa Cum Laude, with an average grade of 9.8.

Although I'm aware that these achievements aren't related to my work as a literary translator, I mention them since I consider them evidence of my dedication to my craft and the effort I put on to reach my goals.

Since May 2023, I'm a member of Översättarcentrum (https://oversattarcentrum.se/), an association of literary translators based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Since 2024, I'm also a member of AMETLI, Asociación Mexicana de Traductores Literarios (the Mexican Association of Literary Translators, https://ametli.org/).

I'm also the coordinator of two language meetup groups in Mexico City, one in Swedish (supported by the Swedish Embassy in Mexico), and one in Norwegian.

While I worked as a tax lawyer before becoming a translator (and already as a translator), you could say that I've had somewhat of a parallel (and sometimes sporadic) career as an amateur writer. These are some of the works I participated in, in several capacities:

• I worked as the editor of the graphic novel "Reflejo cautivo" ("Trapped Reflection"), by Raúl Manríquez Gardea, published independently with the support of the Secretariat of Culture of the Government of the State of Chihuahua in Mexico (2025).

• I'm the author of the short story “La tercera” ("The third"), included in the First Anthology published by the Zona Rosa Cultural Center in Mexico City (2017)

• I'm the author of short stories and comic scripts, as well as proofreader and editor for the anthologies ““Quæntum”, “Terminal”, “Concreto”, “Demo” and “Gris”, published independently by Quimera Estudio (2001-2008) in Chihuahua, México.

• I participated as proofreader, columnist and comic scripts author for the independent magazine “Cenizas” (2005-2006), published in Mexico.

• I also collaborated in the story of the comic “Lullaby”, published by Image Comics in USA (2005).

Among my hobbies, as you might expect, I can mention reading literature, as well as watching TV series and films of different sorts, ranging from the works of giants such as Kubrick and Bergman to the typical summer blockbuster.

I also like to travel, having been to all the sovereign Nordic countries, several countries in Western, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as some of the major cities of USA and Canada.

Last but not least, as I mentioned in the "About me" section, I like to learn languages, and the Nordic languages in particular.