Cuban Slang for People

noun · Informal · AHM-byah

Friend, brother. Markedly street: it places the speaker in the world of the barrio, the Abakuá lodge or the prison yard in a way that asere no longer does.

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noun, interjection · Informal · ah-SEH-reh

Mate, bro, buddy. The single most recognisably Cuban form of address, used to open a sentence, to close one, or as the whole sentence.

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noun · Colloquial · bahl-SEH-roh

Someone who leaves Cuba by sea on an improvised raft or boat. Used descriptively rather than pejoratively, including by the people it describes.

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noun · Colloquial · chee-vah-TOHN

An informer. In Cuba this is not a playground word: it means someone who reports neighbours or colleagues to the authorities, typically through the block committee, and it is about the heaviest social accusation that can be made in ordinary conversation.

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noun, adjective · Vulgar · koh-meh-MYEHR-dah

A pretentious fool: someone who puts on airs, stands on ceremony, or thinks they are above the people around them. This snobbery sense is the primary one in Cuba and is what separates it from the same word elsewhere.

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phrase, idiom · Informal · es-TAR en TAH-yah

To be on point: sharp, well turned out, in the know, up to the standard the situation demands.

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noun, adjective · Informal · FREE-kee

A rocker or metalhead — long hair, black shirts, imported cassettes. In Cuba this names a specific subculture that was harassed by the police through the 1980s and 90s, not merely a person with unusual tastes.

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noun, adjective · Colloquial · GWAH-poh

A tough, a bully, someone who throws his weight around and is looking for a fight. Not 'handsome' — this is the standing trap for Spanish speakers arriving from elsewhere.

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noun · Colloquial · goo-SAH-noh

A counter-revolutionary; someone who left Cuba, or who wants to. In official and pro-government mouths it is a straightforward political insult.

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noun · Informal · HEH-vah

A girlfriend. Mi jeva is the ordinary way a young Cuban man refers to the woman he is with.

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noun · Colloquial · hee-neh-TEH-rah

A woman who forms relationships with foreign tourists for material benefit. The term deliberately blurs sex work, a hustle and an actual relationship, because in practice the categories blurred.

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noun, adjective · Colloquial · pah-les-TEE-noh

A Cuban from the eastern provinces who has moved to Havana. Used by habaneros, condescendingly, about internal migrants — the standing joke being that they are people without a homeland who cannot be sent back.

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noun · Colloquial · PEEN-choh

A boss, a senior official, someone with a state post and the privileges that come with it. Said with resentment far more often than respect.

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noun · Informal · SOH-syoh

Mate, pal. Both a form of address and a way of referring to a friend, with a strong implication of practical mutual usefulness — a socio is someone who gets things for you.

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noun · Colloquial · soh-syoh-LEES-moh

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.

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noun · Colloquial · tee-tee-mah-NEE-ah

A middle-aged man's compulsion to pursue much younger women. Mocking rather than condemnatory, and usually said about a man by his friends.

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noun, adjective · Informal · YOO-mah

A foreigner, especially a white foreigner from a rich country. Originally specific to Americans, now applied to any tourist who looks like one.

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