THE WORD ON THE STREET

Humpty Dumpty said to Alice, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” The same applies for Cubans whose unrestrained, rich colloquial language flourishes alongside Spanish.

When a Cuban says that he or she has to see someone tinto en sangre [bloodied], they are not homicidal but simply need to see the other person come rain or shine.

Gas is neither for cars nor for gas-fired stoves, but kerosene which in other parts of Cuba may also be called luz brillante [bright light] or aceite de carbón [coal oil].

Nereida [Nereid] is not a sea nymph or a woman’s name, but an emphatic negative adverb. Thus: “What? Lend you five bucks? Nereida!” (Other nouns are used for positive assertions: Cirilo or Ciro).

Similar to English slang, there’s a peculiar habit of calling entities by some of their attributes, hence, parents are los viejos [old folks], and Havana, la grande [the big one]. If you want to order a beer, "dame una fría" [Give me a cold one] will do the trick.

The flu goes by another name. Successive bouts have been baptized in very curious ways: La cariñosa [the affectionate one] because of its attachment to the sick person; or 111 because “it begins with one, it continues with one and it ends with one,” and still others which have been christened according to the most unpopular figure in the TV soap opera of the moment.

It would sound ridiculous in Cuba to speak of poor quality rum. In true cubiche—Cuban slang—its called chispa ‘e tren [train spark], hueso ‘e tigre [tiger bone], guarfarina or gualfarina, derived from the word warfarin, an anticoagulant compound used as a rodent poison.
Because the majá—a large harmless Cuban rat snake—placidly coils up taking time out to digest whatever rodent or chicken it had for breakfast, the word majá is used to designate lazy, work-shy people. Someone who sticks to you like glue is referred to in Cuba as un chicle [chewing gum]. And a person throws stones at the imposing walls of Havana's Morro Fortress [ tirar piedras al Morro] when he or she engages in an impractical project.

Cuban slang has developed from a mixture of various sources: Indo-Cuban, African, Spanish, French Haitian, and English. And to a large extent, we are what we are because of how we speak…although it may drive members of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language to distraction.

* Argelio Santiesteban (Banes, Cuba, l945). Journalist and writer. National Award winner from the Critics for his book El habla popular cubana [Cuban Colloquial Language].