sociolismo

What it means

1. 1.

   The system of getting things done through personal contacts rather than official channels. A pun that names a real institution: in practice most Cubans' access to goods runs through it.

2. 2.

   Used as a wry diagnosis of a situation: aquí lo que funciona es el sociolismo — what actually works here is who you know.

Examples with translations

• Aquí no hay socialismo, hay sociolismo.

  There's no socialism here, there's who-you-know-ism.

  Note: The joke in its canonical form. It is old, everybody has heard it, and it still gets said.

• Consiguió el turno por sociolismo, no por la lista.

  He got the appointment through contacts, not off the waiting list.

Where it comes from

A blend of socialismo and socio, 'contact, partner'. It is one of a family of Cuban political puns that circulated by word of mouth from the 1980s onward, and one of the very few that made it into print.

First attested: 1980s