Babalu Blog

I linked to your post here.

I proudly announce that many of my friends in Cuba read Babalublog.com WHICH IS THE DEFEAT OF CAGASTRO IN HIS OWN FIELD!

I recently had a conversation with someone who was trying to tell me how wonderful Cuba is. I gratefully found your post and linked to the awful conditions in that hospital. Thanks for pointing me to more information with which to counter the ridiculous claim that Cuba is "just misunderstood."

I wonder how many Cubans, running across those hospital pictures and reading people's reactions (outside Cuba) would think "what's the fuss about? It looks like any hospital".

Val,

Thank YOU for opening our eyes and letting the world see what really goes on in Cuba. I can only imagine what someone in Cuba thinks when he/she reads your blog.

You're creating a monster here, one that will hopefully help to bring about real and positive changes in Cuba.

Oyeme que te voy a dicir, Gusanitos. Mi hermano ya no guanta esta basura que ustedes ponen aqui. BASURA! Ahora, dejan nos vivir. Yo tengo una cita con un mulattico a las una y tengo que prerparar me, si me rechasa el mulatto, acabo con el kinto y los mangos. Aprocura que todo me vaya bien. Bueno. Ya tu sabes. Vete pal carajo.

Patria O Muerte, Venceremos!

My Spanish teacher asked for the address to your blog. He too was interested.

Keep rocking in the free world, Mr. Prieto. As long as you post, there's another reason that I feel proud to be an American.

Ne Val....Gracias por tú ayuda in displaying Cuba as it really is, not as some would like it to be portrayed.

Let's hope more Cubans have access to the Internet and your blog. Couldn'r agree with you more. I would only add if that's the case, then why not "invade" Cuba with hundreds of thousands of US tourists each year from one end of the island to the other? That's something I think the Cuban government would find difficult to handle, especially given Castro's edict that there be no fraternination with tourists. We should call his bluff.

Val

I have not yet linked you because it is my blog policy to avoid discussing things outside of Venezuela, per se (otherwise I would not have time to sleep or eat). However that link will be used soon as there is a need to write about the deteriorating health care system in Venezuela. So, you shall be linked!!!!

Val, the pisser is that the internet that algore invented is helping screw one of his communist idols with blogs like yours. Algore's commie buddies in Weirdwood must really be pissed at him. Betcha Glover won't even return his calls. I lovit!!!

nad NONE of you have had the full complmentary "Cam Smell" effect. and yes cubans THINK this is like USA quality health care , whi is the part that just drives me NUTS.
Compare this shit with Haiti I will shut up , but "the Mayo clinic" FUCK UOU!
THat hospital is EXACTLY as you see with a couple of extra hots wouldve driven you a full session of projectile hurling . and when they pull out these 1945 syringes boiling in watr and wrapped in nrown paper bags ,and go for your vein youd think they are insearch of crude !
Of course ANY foreigner would inmeditale be banned from the place and be sent to the sea side resorts like El Commodoro with a fully staffed Phramacy where you can get ANYTHING an MD can prescrive , even morphine for a tooth ache. They saw me as YUma a mile away but my cousing came up with a great lie and wa s "attended" in that shit hole. My pesuo castris cousing asked me when we left "what ya think uh " I just couldnt say what I felt I just went "Margarita you remeber the hospitla you hda your tonsils removed when you were 8? "yes" she says , now what did they do with THAT inmacualte, pristine place .. the answer "hay mijo tu sabes lo que es aqui nadie trabaja.."

I guess I got lucky the "emabargo" was not at fault that time.

"hay mijo tu sabes lo que es aqui nadie trabaja.."

Hey, no fair - I don't speak Spanish so I don;t know what the punchline is.

i'm shocked. i've linked your post.

Jay, first I suggest you learn some Spanish. Just be careful which version you choose to learn, unless you want to learn multiple dialects. Secondly, to make it easier on you in future, check Bablefish for all your translating needs. They're translation this time sucked, so here:

hay mijo tu sabes lo que es aqui nadie trabaja

means:

Baby boy, you know there is nobody that works here.

Also Jay, here is a quick breakdown of the sentence...

hay = it has

Mijo is the pronunciation, but not the spelling I learned = baby boy (O means male); can also be translated as Little boy or Little one (male)

tu = you

sabes = know (verb form must agree with noun form)

lo que es = there is

aqui = here

nadie trabaja = nobody/no one works

This is the literal word-for-word translation, while my previous post gets the 'meaning'. If anyone else would like to translate it differently (Cuban dilect?) I'm happy to learn.

Sorry Jay and thanks Rhianna.

I forget the internationality of this Blog
So....
"hay mijo tu sabes lo que es? aqui nadie trabaja.."

"mijo" is a contraction of "Mi Hijo" (My son, Child of mine ) but has become just a term of endearment so "mijo" in "cubano" is the equivalent to "dear" so the WHOLE sentence loosely translates to:

"My dear, you know what it is? No one works in this place" (“this place” meaning Cuba)

Last week I was having lunch with my wife next to a Chilean couple. The Lady (older lady) turns to me and asks is Spanish “Pardon, where are you from?" "We are Cubans " I said.. She then smiles and says with a THICK Chilean/Argentinean type of accent.

"I love the way Cubans talk, you speak with such.... emotion."

Cubans are the Southern Italians or Gitanos of Latin America. Hands flaring lots of contractions and a good dose of Santeria thrown in the mix, just to confuse everyone ;)
Habaneros, we are the WORSE!
“no e’verda’ acere?”
(ain’t it the truth, buddy ?)
It amazes me how much of our slang has made it to other latin american contries as figures of speech.

Argies are Italians, too. They scream and bang on pots and pans to have their say, too, I saw it myself in BsAs. And they'll kiss you right off the bat on both cheeks when they meet you, believe me, I was surprised when I met my first Argy! Different geography, different kind of Italian, I guess. Every country gets its own Italians. I didn't realize Cubanos had so much Italian heritage, though. Very interesting! Thanks KC.

Oops - misunderstanding here :
I meant we ACT much as they do in Southern Europe (choose a country) we gesticulate a lot, speak VERY fast and if Habanero a LOT of it is Cuban slang. We have a rich heritage of European, African, Asian and a little native. Our native Indians were totally decimated. Being an Island they had very few places to hide, unlike the rest of the Americas
I think that is what gives Cuban music its unique flavor. We inherited the drumming from Africa the guitars from Spain’s Flamenco music.
In fact speed up any Flamenco song to a 4/4 beat and you have Rumba. El Dansón is a very complicated rhythmic variation on a waltz.
We integrated a lot of the Yoruba language (through the Yoruba religion) into our Spanish and the only other language influence I know of which made it into “Cuban” was USA English.
I was amazed after not going to Cuba in 30+ years when I heard the younger people calling each other “bro”. Digging into this with a language professor I found, it was a direct gift from Cuban-Americans traveling back to Cuba.
Another direct translation was “Llamo pa’ tra” or “I’ll call you back” a totally new expression in Cuban Spanish. In my young days it was devolver la llamada

KC, thanks for the alternate translation. I honestly didn't even think to make Mijo = dear. :)

I shall shortly know all about the "Italian" form of talking/gesticulating.

I linked as well.

http://www.arguewithsigns.net/archives/2005/03/13/the_islands_free_healthcare/

Blogs are a wonderful thing.

Remember also that a bunch of the "Cuban" words and names of places such as bohio, aguacate, guajiro, guantanamo, guanabacoa, guayaba, guayo, a bunch of words with "gua" are of indian origin. I just learned this not too long ago reading the book, Cuba, the pursuit of freedom by Hugh Thomas, PP. 1511 to 1529.

It also says that even though most people asume that the Cuban Siboneys, Tainos and Guanajatabeyes were decimated and became extinct, that this is not really true because even as late as the year 1900 there were as many as 400 pure blood indians that lived in Yara, Doz brazos, La Guira, etc..

Intermarriage in the 20th century and the fact that their legal identity, and that by then they were classified as spanish, had effectively caused their culture and other traits to be absorved into the mainstrean Cuban culture.

Courtesy of,
Cubiche anthropology 101

A website that may be of interest to bloggers. Even though the site creator is a Cuban-American, I found the material contained within the site "white washed" and leaning left.

http://www.historyofcuba.com/cuba.htm

Val,

Your blog is my link to the pulse of conversations between Cubans, about things Cuban. Gracias por tu obra contundente, Sigueles dando duro.

My understanding is that "guajiro" has a more interesting derivation.
When the Mambis met with the Yanks after the Spanish-American war, they were praised by the Americans a as War Heroes. So now you have all of these "war heroes" being decorated in La Habana. Since most of the Mambis were from el campo ... “warhero” (which by now had morphed into "guajiro" ) became synonym with people from the country side.

Killcastro, after bistec and beibol anything is plausible. I was just quoting "Cuba, the pursuit of freedom by Hugh Thomas, PP. 1511 to 1529." Bueno, el tipo no es Cubiche asi que pueda ser que se equivoco!

Another enigma de el saga y evolucion de el idioma Cubano. Enseguida que abrimos la boca, todos los otros Hispanos saben quien somos. ;^)

Otra Buena:
Guagua is a cubanism for the english word "Wagon"
initially they became guagons and eventually the singular form of guagons became guagua.
It is funny that your wrote bistec 'cause in my neighborhood it sounded more la "biteh" God we "Marianaens" were the WORSE!
Other favorites of mine is a TUBEY or a TRIBEY on un JILITO or the over popular JONRON!