This article examines various kinds of metadata that allow us to explore the ways in which translation was showcased in two turn-of-the-century Mexican literary periodicals: the Revista Azul (1894–1896) and the Revista Moderna (1898–1903). It describes the methodological challenges that arise when approaching such uncharted territory, especially those related to the creation of datasets of translated texts, and argues in favour of the integration of qualitative and quantitative analysis in their treatment. More precisely, it demonstrates the importance of implementing descriptive statistics in order to establish distinctions in the uses of translation that would not be evident at first sight due to the size of the corpora. Combined with content analysis, these inform us about the contribution of each magazine to the institutionalisation of literary activity and to cultural renovation. Ultimately, this also reaffirms the importance of data visualisation in this process.

In the context of the modernization of the Cuban and Spanish cultural fields, around the middle of the nineteenth century, romanticism offered Cuban and Spanish women writers an opportunity to express themselves as subjects. However, confronted with the reluctance of the literary and cultural institutions to include them, they proceeded to develop various strategies to legitimize their literary work. Through the inclusion in her poetry of more or less free translations of various canonical romantic poets, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda uses translation as a mask with which she can access discursive spaces related to the public sphere, legitimize women’s poetic activity, inscribe herself in a recognizable tradition, appropriate the literary fame of the translated authors, and display her virtuosity. In this way, she endowed her own poetry with authority. Through the modifications she makes to the translated poems and under the aegis of these canonical poets she is thus able to establish a feminine lyric subject and advocate for the inclusion of women in all aspects of the literary field.