Babalu Blog

It comes from the theater slang. Stage, in Spanish, is "el escenario" but also"las tablas" which means literally the planking of the deck that makes the theater stage. When you loose la tabla, it means that you have lost your stage composture and that you're showing all your emotions.
When somebody doesn't have "tabla" means that the person in question can loose his/her composture really easily and therefore doesn't belong on the stage.
I had that questions many years ago, and my granfather, who was a theater buff in his youth, told me about that... He had a lot of tabla!

I know what that feels like!

I love to find the roots of our Cubanismos !

And you will be surprised of the origing of certain words: Guajiro, war hero, as the American called the Cuban peasants who fought against the Spanish Crown (this is a bit in dispute, but my family sources always stuck to this denomination)
Fuca (hand gun in "Havanese") comes from fucker in English. The handguns were apparently called like that in the nineteenth century.
Rufa, in Havanese bus. Why? Because the first buses were "open-air" carriages. The "roofers" were the enclosed ones suitables to be used in Havana... So they were called rufas by the populace....

There's another one: fufu.
That's mashed green plaintains. It comes from "food".
The enslaved Africans were given only smashed green plaintains as food in the slaveships. The British slave traders would scream "food, food" while passing the bowls with the meal. To their African ears it sounded as "foofoo" and therefore it got transformed into "fufu".

oye cb estas en candela .
muy interesante.

Tocororo, I believe that one can get to know and use those forms as long as one knows and make good use of the correct speech, be it English or Spanish.... Thanks, it's my pleasure to share...

The (alleged) origin of the word guajiro kept me away from believing that some guy like Kerry was one!

The origin of Guajiro is actually documented as a cubanism for WAR HERO - Given to all mambises , since all of them received their medals in La Habana and being for "el campo" the word morphed from war-hero to guor-jiro. As they arrived in town they were called "guorjiros" and eventually everyone from the country side was a guajiro - I mean for us in La Habana anyone who is not from La Ciudad de la Habana is a guajiro (for those of us from Marianao, even someone from Luyano is a guajiro... but we are and I admit, a bunch of comemierdas)
The Word GUAGUA - came from WAGON, GUAGON eventually turned into GUAGUA , the word BUGARRON (pardon all) came from "BUGGER" who is the "pitcher" in male homosexual tryst.
A "FLETERA" (loose woman) comes from women who followed the Navy Fleets" when they came to La Habana port
The word BALLU (whorehouse) (or BAYU) is a direct lift from the French Bayou (however the French spell it) and it was derogatory word to describe a bad part of a town.
a TUBEY and a TRIBEY in baseball of course are a "two base" and a three base" hit, jonron we all got "fongueo" is also a lift from Fungos during baseball practice
These come from a good friend who is an America / Latin America linguist.
There are TONS of these, and next time I chat with him I'll ask for some.
Oh "Acere" or "Asere" is a Yoruba word meaning "friend"
The one I would LOVE to know how they got was "Jinetera" the word has spread in such way that is even known in Spain and Latin America as a synonym for whore.

Jinetera, horsebackrider.
(THIS IS JUST FOR HARDENED ADULTS ONLY, IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION DO NOT READ WHAT I AM ABOUT TO WRITE)

SAFETY SPACE

Since those gals prefer to be on top (to control and smother the filthy john in case that it would be necesarry to put up a fight with the perv) they started calling themselves like that, because of the rocking motions and their top positions. Montar, in Spanish, can have a pretty strong sexual connotation too.

Many Spaniards and Latin Americans are the usual johns, that's why the word has gotten exposure

Hmmm makes sense CB.
What a god dman contribution to world culture uh? KaSSTRO you PIECE OF DONKEY SHIT !

A handyman once came to my house and on his business card were his name, telephone number, and the words "guanco" and "chiro". If anyone can tell me what they are (I know) I won't send you a t-shirt, but you will enshrined on the main wall of the CASHOF (Cubiche Americano Slang Hall of Fame).

Oy. Definitely not from my Spanish 101 book. And I love the link to the french and whores. Bayou. They of course think young girls selling themselves is chic.

guanco = one coat
chiro = sheetrock
(I am in the "business" George!)
And I have a Cubanism for Yuca, TRONCO E'YUCA
Which means some unbelievable stupid idiot, and if he wears a business suit to his office when being so idiotic, then he is a ÑAME CON CORBATA

Tronco'e yuca: the useless stem of the yucca plant.
ñame con corbata: literally, a yam wearing a tie. Somebody that is trying to pass for an egghead but who is as bright as an offseasson yam!

oh shit I am gonna peepee - guanco - chiro
One that blew me away in Miami was TROCA.
As in " Luisito se tiene que comprar una troca nueva"

Good thing my mother would slap the crap outta me if i spaneglish in the house ... My life in NYC was originally amongst Puerto Ricans (the only people who ACTUALLY gave us a hand) and Man , purto ricans in NYC will have you speaking neither english nor spanish in NO time at all .. but I still LOVE THEM!

Actually TROCA is a Mexicanism for Truck. I was driving a SUV in Houston and I needed to change my tires. It happened that I had "una troca matadora, donde pongo la llanta, en el tronco?"
Troca = Pick up truck, SUV
tronco = Trunk, cargo space.

Yo lo que se es que la vieja me hubiera dado un pescozon si yo le hubiera dicho que "la troca tenia un flat" el grito atras de "muchacho, decidete si vas hablar ingles o espanol pero no hagas un arroz con mango" de segurisimo!