A & R Traductores is a husband-and-wife team of translators/writers. Tomás Ayala-Torres and María Yolanda Rivera founded the company in 1999 in Puerto Rico, and then moved to Dallas, Texas, in the summer of 2000.

Tomás Ayala-Torres holds a B.A in Humanities with a major in Music from the University of Puerto Rico and in 1999 obtained his M. A. in Translation, also from the University of Puerto Rico . He holds a Ph. D (abd) in Humanities with a focus in Creative Writing and Literary Translation from the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD).

At UTD he co-founded the Graduate Translators Association and was Translation Editor of Sojourn, the journal of literature and arts of the School of Arts and Humanities. He is a member of the American Translators Association (ATA) and the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA). Since 1995, Mr. Ayala-Torres has worked as a freelance translator for the following:

• Atabex Translation Specialists, Inc.;
• P.R Teacher’s Assoc.;
• U.S. Community Law Enforcement;
• Bio-Psychological-Social Program of the Pediatric Hospital of the University of Puerto Rico ;
• Doctoral Thesis of Gustavo Batista on the History of Religious Music in Latin America ;
• Office of the Registrar of the University of P.R ;
• Central Administration and Office of the President of the University of Puerto Rico
• Doctoral Thesis of Isar Godreau on Race and Culture as Viewed from Barrio San Antón, Ponce , P.R.
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (Director’s Office and Public Information Office);
• El Nuevo Día (leading newspaper in Puerto Rico);
• Banco Popular of Puerto Rico — Acángana: 100 years of Puerto Rican Music
• Women and Health Center of the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico
• Voyager Expanded Learning

María Yolanda Rivera holds a B.A in Modern Languages (Italian and French) from the University of Puerto Rico and an M.A. in Translation from the University of Puerto Rico (1998). She also pursued postgraduate studies in law at the University of Puerto Rico and in linguistics at the University of Texas at Arlington . Ms. Rivera has worked as an Adjunct Spanish Professor for Richland College and the Collin County Community College District. She is a member of the American Translators Association (Certified English > Spanish), the Metroplex Interpreters and Translators Association, and the Austin Area Translators and Interpreters Association. Since 1995 she has worked for the following organizations:

• El Nuevo Día Newspaper (Translator)
• Atabex Translation Specialists (Translator/Proofreader)
• Inlingua School of Languages (Spanish Instructor/ Translator)
• Caribbean Hospitality Training Institute (Translator/Proofreader)
• Por Escrito, Inc . (Public Relations Agency) (Translator/Copywriter)
• University of Puerto Rico Press (Translator)
• CADD Northwest, Inc. (Translator)
• Toyota of Puerto Rico (Translator)
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) (Translator)
• Biometrics Imagineering, Inc. (Copywriter/Translator/ Technical Writer)
• Mary Kay Inc. (Translator/ Editor)
• Voyager Expanded Learning (Translator/Editor)
• Homemade Gourmet Inc. (Translator/Editor)