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flamingdem

(39,304 posts)
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 05:02 PM Mar 2016

President Obama tweets from Havana! (And he's learned Cuban street slang omg)


https://twitter.com/POTUS
¿Que bolá Cuba? Just touched down here, looking forward to meeting and hearing directly from the Cuban people.



Only thing is that Que bola is considered pretty marginal. But it's cool he knows the casual way to speak in Cuba. The oldsters are probably scratching their heads a bit.

It's like Raul Castro landing in the USA and tweeting "Whaassup my people"!!!



As long as he doesn't address anyone as "Asere" we'll be okay..

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alcibiades_mystery

(36,437 posts)
4. We will not have a President as awesome for the foreseeable future
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 05:27 PM
Mar 2016

By far the best President of my lifetime.

ebayfool

(3,411 posts)
5. Off to google "Asere", brb ...
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 05:30 PM
Mar 2016

Nope. Still confused. This is a bad thing? Asere? I think my google-fu is broke!

flamingdem

(39,304 posts)
6. Best translation "Homie"
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 05:33 PM
Mar 2016

and frequently said with que bola as in:

Asere que bolaaa?

It comes from the Abakua religion in Cuba and that religion was oppressed over the years and associated with crime mainly because it was mostly, but not all, made up of black men who practiced African rituals from the Calabar area - some were very accurate in fact groups from there have met the Cubans and they can still communicate. However, it is considered very very street as a term.

asere
Asere takes its name from the sacred Efik-language greeting of the Afro-Cuban Abakuá religion, meaning literally, "I salute you." Today, it is a common greeting among Cubans. Meaning friend, buddy, homie, dude, etc.

Found this if you can put it in a translator it's pretty good:

http://yamilemateo.blogspot.com/2012/05/las-raices-del-asere.html

ebayfool

(3,411 posts)
8. Ahhh! I saw that but couldn't get why he shouldn't say it.
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 05:40 PM
Mar 2016

But then I forget the political climate he lives in, and to be honest, I forget he's 'black'. He's just my Prez!



flamingdem

(39,304 posts)
9. It's just popular language vs. elite language, more than race
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 05:47 PM
Mar 2016

But race in this case is a factor.

I had a friend in Cuba and knew his family. His father was in the party. I heard him admonish his son for saying Asere. Said son then told me, in a whisper that it meant "A group of monkees gathered in a tree". Very convoluted but I kinda figured out that this word was racially tinged and also associated with the uneducated. But also that this word was powerful in some historical sense and was the way slaves communicated when they recognized one another, perhaps as being from the same area of Africa, or in a general sense being "Lucumi" the name for the slaves of African descent in Cuba, and their language that was a mix of different languages and Spanish.

So I think the dad was trying to convey that it was a word that could backfire and make one look bad in society, as a black person especially.

Everyone says it now, but it's still nothing you would hear a President say, or a journalist or anyone in a formal setting. It has been reduced to meaning "friend" homie - and used mostly but not only by black Cubans on the street.

ebayfool

(3,411 posts)
10. TY - That explains it better for me.
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 06:07 PM
Mar 2016

That's the beauty of DU, instant elucidation just by asking the question. Makes me wonder how we got any where before the net. And I was around then too!

flamingdem

(39,304 posts)
11. The history of Cuba is amazing, Americans just don't know about it
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 06:18 PM
Mar 2016

My mind was blown down there especially when I learned about Afrocuban history, unlike here much of the culture survived and is practiced today, sometimes in the countryside it felt like being in Africa. But then again in other areas it's like being in old Spain. Amazing place to visit, thus I've visited dozens of times, never get bored!

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