aché

What it means

1. 1.

   Good fortune, blessing, the invisible charge that makes things go well for someone. Tener aché is to be lucky in a way that looks slightly supernatural.

2. 2.

   Charisma, stage presence. Of a singer or a dancer, the quality that cannot be taught.

3. 3.

   In Santería proper, the divine power that flows from the orishas and is transmitted through ritual — the sense the word still carries for practitioners.

Examples with translations

• Ese tipo tiene aché, todo le sale bien.

  That guy is blessed, everything works out for him.

• La orquesta tiene un aché tremendo arriba del escenario.

  The band has serious magic on stage.

Where it comes from

Yoruba àṣẹ, the power to make things happen, carried to Cuba through the Lucumí religious tradition and now fully naturalised in secular speech. Unlike most Afro-Cuban vocabulary on this list it travelled upward rather than sideways: it is used comfortably by people with no connection to the religion.

Other forms

Spellings and variants:

ashé, axé