About us | CM Idiomas

OOur story

To talk about CM Idiomas, we have to talk about its founder, Italia Morayta, a key figure and promoter of interpretation and translation in Mexico.

It all began in 1947, during the Second General Conference of UNESCO, held in the capital of the country, which Morayta attended as a journalist for El Universal. Circumstances obliged her to stand in as an interpreter in one of the conference rooms and, subsequently, to interpret in the Spanish booth in the plenary hall.

Read more Italia Morayta Foundation

Founded in 1948 as the first regional association of interpreters and translators (Association of Technical Personnel for International Conferences), CM Idiomas has more than 75 years of experience offering its services at the highest level of multilingual communication in the public and private sectors.

This is a brief summary of our story:

1945

Simultaneous interpretation is born at the infamous Nuremberg Trials (Germany), developed by the French linguist and interpreter Léon Dostert.

1946

After the resounding success of simultaneous interpretation at the Nuremberg Trials, Léon Dostert is invited to implement the same simultaneous interpretation system together with IBM receivers at the world headquarters of the United Nations in New York (USA).

1947

Italia Morayta becomes the first Mexican simultaneous interpreter during the Second General Assembly of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), where the same receivers are used as in the Nuremberg Trials. She is chosen to work at the Bogotá Conference, where the Organization of American States is created.

1948

Italia Morayta founds the Association of Technical Personnel for International Conferences (APTeCI) in Mexico, the first translation and interpretation services agency in the region (now CM Idiomas).

1951

Our founder, Italia Morayta, interprets for Miguel Alemán Valdés, president of Mexico, during the Congress of the International Confederation of Free Trade Union Organizations, beginning a collaboration that has spanned 13 successive administrations of Mexico's federal government and continues to this day.

1967-1968

The agency founded by Italia Morayta is consolidated at the World Petroleum Congress and the press documentation services for the 19th Olympic Games.

1970

President Luis Echevarría Álvarez hires Italia Morayta and her team to take charge of the linguistic services of the Mexican President’s Office. Our founder is appointed official interpreter to the President, becoming the only person in Mexico to occupy such a position, one she held for 18 years, working on a great number of presidential tours all around the world.

1981

The North-South Summit brings to Cancún, Mexico leaders and heads of state from 22 countries with the participation of a large number of translators and interpreters to facilitate communication between more than a dozen different languages.

1994

The APTeCI, founded by Italia Morayta, is renamed CM Idiomas and Gonzalo Celorio Morayta takes over the executive leadership in a decade in which our client portfolio grows significantly towards the private sector, without neglecting the public and diplomatic sectors.

2000

CM Idiomas renews its contract with the Mexican President’s Office and commits to reinventing itself in a sector where technology plays an important role in language communication.

2012

CM Idiomas is responsible for providing linguistic services during the G-20 Summit, held in Los Cabos, Mexico. The international firm CSA Research recognizes the company as the number one language service provider in Mexico and a leader in the entire region.

2013

CM Languages begins to provide remote simultaneous interpretation services, offering its clients the possibility of communicating by telephone in different languages. Each user is able to speak in the language of their preference and select the language in which they want to hear the message, either in the speaker's own voice or through the voice of an interpreter.

2015

A global pioneer, CM Idiomas holds the first videoconferences with simultaneous interpretation, making available to its clients its multilingual event system and interpretation services in the cloud, providing virtual global communication without borders and the highest levels of confidentiality through state-of-the-art secure technology.

Firmly established as a dynamic language service provider company, CM Idiomas reaffirms its commitment to the values of equity and equality and allocates a percentage of its earnings to the Italia Morayta Foundation, a civil association that seeks, among other objectives, to promote linguistic equity in Mexico by training a comparable number of interpreters and translators regardless of whether their working languages are foreign or indigenous Mexican languages.

2017

CM Idiomas brings to Mexico the possibility of holding a world-class congress with remote interpretation, with the 48th World Conference on Lung Health of the Union Against Tuberculosis. The congress was held in Guadalajara, Mexico and the interpretation in five simultaneous conference rooms was carried out from the CM Idiomas remote interpretation studio in Mexico City. The organizers recognize this effort by stating that the resources saved on travel expenses for the interpreters was used to provide scholarships for medical students so they could attend the Congress.

2020

With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, CM Idiomas draws on its innovative experience in organizing multilingual virtual events to offer its clients an effective and tested solution to communicate from the safety of their place of lockdown, enabling them to maintain their international operations.

2021

From hubs in Mexico City, in several states of Mexico and in seven countries on four different continents, CM Idiomas provides simultaneous interpretation for the 57 sessions of the Generation Equality Forum. For this task, more than 40 interpreters and a similar number of support people (from technical operators and logistical assistants to cooks) were involved to help the more than 10,000 registered attendees to communicate in a dozen languages, among which stand out the official languages of the UN, Nahuatl (used for the first time in a United Nations International Forum) and international sign language.

2024

Following its 75th anniversary, CM Idiomas renews its image and expands its linguistic services from the Americas to Europe with the opening of a new office in Madrid (Spain).

Take an illustrated walk through our history.

Visual CV

OOur values

01. Linguistic excellence: Our commitment is to offer our clients the highest standards of linguistic excellence in the industry. At CM Idiomas we have the best professional linguists and interpreters for each project, ensuring we can always guarantee linguistic excellence to each of our clients.
02. Cultural sensitivity: Effective communication goes beyond words and languages: it also involves cultural sensitivity. At CM Idiomas we respect and celebrate the rich diversity of all the languages and cultures represented by our clients and their organizations. Our professional approach is deeply rooted in cultural sensitivity, ensuring that each project and interaction is accurate and faithful to the source language and, in turn, natural and correct in the target language.
03. Teamwork: At CM Idiomas we have a large team of expert professionals in the language services industry in various regions of the world who promote teamwork and collaboration between the different departments of our organization to make the most of our collective human and technical experience, providing solutions that guarantee seamless global communication.
04. Global team: As we live in a globalized world, we are a 100% digital company with a team of highly talented linguists, interpreters and directors across all departments of our company and in different regions and continents. The experience and passion that our global team demonstrates every day contributes to a more interconnected world where communication knows no borders.
05. Balance between personal and professional life: At CM Idiomas we appreciate each of our employees and value both their physical and mental health. That is why we promote an open-minded, performance-focused culture that embraces creativity and encourages autonomy and flexibility in order to ensure a healthy and productive balance between personal and professional life.
06. Diversity and inclusion: Our 100% digital culture allows us to maintain a multilingual and multicultural professional team that reflects the diversity of our company. At CM Idiomas we firmly believe that the fundamental values of diversity and inclusion are powerful drivers of progress and success in the business world, since complex challenges can only be overcome by celebrating our diverse ideas, experiences and perspectives. We are an equal opportunity organization and do not tolerate discrimination against race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or any other status or personal choice.
07. Customer support: Our commitment to linguistic excellence places our clients at its core. We work shoulder to shoulder with you and your organization to understand your unique requirements and specific needs, and we tailor our language services to your objectives and goals, ensuring fluid communication and a productive experience. We foster a close relationship with our clients based on mutual trust. Your success is our priority.
08. Experience and innovation: At CM Idiomas we combine our 75 years of experience in the industry with continuous innovation as fundamental pillars of our progress and that of our clients and partners. We are constantly exploring the latest technological developments in the field of linguistics (AI, MT, LLMs, S2ST...) and we invest in cutting-edge online and IT tools to remain relevant and improve the quality of our services and the reliability of our linguistic solutions in a constantly evolving market.
09. 24/7 adaptability and availability: Although our HQ is located in Mexico, as we continue to expand our business from the Americas to Europe and Asia, CM Idiomas provides the highest-quality language services to all our clients, companies and organizations globally (AMER, EMEA and APAC). Our global team guarantees 24/7 availability in any time zone and is always ready to respond to your linguistic needs on any continent, whether in person, virtual or hybrid form.
10. Sustainability and care: At CM Idiomas we share an essential value in everything we do: care. For us it is very important to take full care of our employees, our clients, our partners, our work, our profession, the users and beneficiaries of our linguistic services, the next generation of linguists, the future of our profession, and, of course, our planet.