What is CUBONICS?

It is strange mix of Cuban idioms and English language. In an article that appeared in the Miami Herald (Jan 27, 1997), it was defined as, "a Cuban American twist on Ebonics"

Although the term "Cubonics" is new, the phenomenon is not new. It started with the first Cuban refugees arriving in the United States in the late 50's and early 60's. We recall a cousin of ours, while we were living in New York, one day that a driver almost run over him, screaming back: "Your mother!" A literal translation from the Spanish, "Tu madre," which is nothing else than a common insult among Cubans when really offended and unable to do anything about it. Also, while living in New York in the mid 60's , we remember saying almost as a joke: "between, between and drink a chair" (Entre, entre y tome asiento = enter and sit down). Even now my good American boss occasionally recalls a literal translation I once did trying to explain a reaction to an insignificant problem: "We have a tempest in a glass of water."

We want to dedicate this page to our American friends, co-workers, and neighbors. To those who repeatedly have heard us saying: "Like we use to say in Cuba..."

Also we dedicate this page to our children... mainly to those who frequently use these Cubonics themselves.

We hope you enjoy these examples:
 

Lydia Martin, Hooked on Cubonics, The Miami Herald, January 27, 1997.

Termites are Falling on the Piano: It's Cubonics II. The Miami Herald, February 19, 1997.

Bill Cruz, Bill Teck, and the Editors of Generation Ñ Magazine, The Official Spanglish Dictionary, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, NY,  1998.

Kirk Nielsen, Cubonics, The Christian Science Monitor, May 18, 1997

José Sánchez-Boudy, Diccionario de Cubanismos más usuales. Ediciones Universal, Miami, 1978.

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