I need help with a couple of spanish or Cuban nick names for a new story, please.

writerterri · Apr 14, 2007

They do speak spanish in Cuba, right?

A little white girl who came to live in Cuba with her family (her parents were missionaries). She's blond with freckles and nosy. I need a nick name for her given by the woman below.

The mothers friend. She's poor in pocket but not in spirit. She collects dirty rags from the streets and boils them to clean them. What her nick name be. I think I might use it for the title of the picture book.

Now I need help with spanish words.

Rag and rags in spanish?

The house the girl lived in had dirt floors and mud walls. What would that house be called in spanish? Adobe?

What are the main staple foods the friend could be cooking all day that would fill her home with strange smells?

Weird rag woman in spanish.

Little white girl in spanish.

That's all for now. Thanks for the help!

Terri

writerterri · Apr 14, 2007

Don't worry, I'm patient.

Chumplet · Apr 14, 2007

Dunno. Not Spanish, but I lived in Spain. I don't know what they eat in Cuba or what kind of food is common.
I was thinking a nice nickname for a girl would be Pina.

writerterri · Apr 14, 2007

Chumplet said:
Dunno. Not Spanish, but I lived in Spain. I don't know what they eat in Cuba or what kind of food is common.
I was thinking a nice nickname for a girl would be Pina.

Pina. That's a good one. Does it have a special meaning?

Chumplet · Apr 15, 2007

Not sure. One of the girls here at work had that nickname. I hope it's not short for Piñata.

writerterri · Apr 15, 2007

~giggle~

FergieC · Apr 15, 2007

I don't mean to seem rude, but it's really difficult to set something somewhere you've never been, or where you don't know the culture. Why Cuba?

I've been there once - they do speak Spanish, although it's slightly different from the original Spanish.

What they eat depends a bit on which part of Cuba they're in. In the cities, it would be different to the country, but staples are things like rice, chicken, pork, beans, although there's lots of little stalls selling pizza. In the country, the animals were all running around the village. There's lots of beer and rum about too.

Race is - I think - quite a big issue, and there's a lot of politics about it. But a large amount of the population is white, decended from Colonial Europeans, so a white person wouldn't be unusual.

Mud huts...I never saw any in the places I went. Most of the buildings are old colonial, a lot of them crumbling. All of them seemed to have TV. It's a very strange and beautiful place, full of amazing people and things, that I just don't think you could do any kind of justice to without having visited (or even having visited just once or twice).

Politics appears to hang over everthing, but as a visitor and stranger, it was impossible to judge what people were thinking: no one speaks about that, there's just a sense of things going on you can't understand.

If you ever get a chance to visit, it's well worth it...the people are lovely, and it's so different to anything we ever experience, although it's a very sad place too. It's the kind of place that'll challenge all your preconceptions...

FergieC · Apr 15, 2007

Sorry, that wasn't very helpful with your specific questions, was it?

I was just remeniscing really...

Chumplet · Apr 15, 2007

My current novel is set in Spain and Andorra. I lived there for one year in the seventies. I don't know a hell of a lot about Basque culture, but I'm researching and incorporating my findings into my WIP. Lots of writers set their work in countries they don't know. The Internet is a wonderful thing!

The book I sold is set mostly on a South Pacific island. Again, research.

But it sure helps to be there - to experience the sounds and smells of the place you visit in your mind.

Plot Device · Apr 15, 2007

When I was in college in Florida, I had a classmate from Miami whose nickname was Jazzy. Her REAL name was either Jazmelia or Jazmelinda (I don't recall which). She was very cute and very popular. And because she was a Miami girl, she was probably either Cuban or Puerto Rican.

I recently used the name "Jazzy" for a little Mexican-American girl in one of my works.

Oh, and the real life Jazzy from my college got "discovered" by a film company and was put in a rock video for MTV during my senior year.

::EDIT::

I just did a name search in a baby name web site (baby name web sites are AWESOME places for fiction writers, BTW).

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Jazmina

The name that the web site gave me was "Jazmina" and that sounds more on-the-mark as to what my classmate's name really was. So I might have been totally off the mark earlier today by saying her correct name was either Jazmelia or Jazmelinda. The name "Jazmina" seems to be the Spanish version of the English Jazmine (the name of a flower).

Either way, her nickname was Jazzy.

writerterri · Apr 16, 2007

FergieC said:
I don't mean to seem rude, but it's really difficult to set something somewhere you've never been, or where you don't know the culture. Why Cuba?

I've been there once - they do speak Spanish, although it's slightly different from the original Spanish.

What they eat depends a bit on which part of Cuba they're in. In the cities, it would be different to the country, but staples are things like rice, chicken, pork, beans, although there's lots of little stalls selling pizza. In the country, the animals were all running around the village. There's lots of beer and rum about too.

Race is - I think - quite a big issue, and there's a lot of politics about it. But a large amount of the population is white, decended from Colonial Europeans, so a white person wouldn't be unusual.

Mud huts...I never saw any in the places I went. Most of the buildings are old colonial, a lot of them crumbling. All of them seemed to have TV. It's a very strange and beautiful place, full of amazing people and things, that I just don't think you could do any kind of justice to without having visited (or even having visited just once or twice).

Politics appears to hang over everything, but as a visitor and stranger, it was impossible to judge what people were thinking: no one speaks about that, there's just a sense of things going on you can't understand.

If you ever get a chance to visit, it's well worth it...the people are lovely, and it's so different to anything we ever experience, although it's a very sad place too. It's the kind of place that'll challenge all your preconceptions...

I appreciate your post.

The picture book I'm writing is based on a true story. Her parents really were missionaries and they lived in Cuba. They moved there when the girl was 6. I can't remember what she said about the house they lived in but she said the floor was dirt. And yes they did have a tv. They ran an extension cord from a main source into their house. That extension cord served as the only electric service in the house. They carried a lamp from room to room when they needed light.

Is it possible that it was a house but the floors were made of dirt? Perhaps the family lived in a remote place in Cuba. That's why I was trying to get a correct name for the hut or house they lived in with dirt floors.

As far as strange smells, I meant unfamiliar to a child. So by saying strange I was hoping to set the scene.

I'd love to visit, someday.

Thanks for some of the incite.

Chumplet · Apr 16, 2007

I remember seeing television antennas sticking out of little shacks in Dominican Republic. Apparently, they paid less property tax if their house looked like a little dump. They probably had the interior rigged up like Snoopy's doghouse, with a media room, a pool table and a jacuzzi.

writerterri · Apr 16, 2007

Chumplet said:
I remember seeing television antennas sticking out of little shacks in Dominican Republic. Apparently, they paid less property tax if their house looked like a little dump. They probably had the interior rigged up like Snoopy's doghouse, with a media room, a pool table and a jacuzzi.

How funny!

DamaNegra · Apr 17, 2007

writerterri said:
They do speak spanish in Cuba, right?

Haha, late as always.

Yes, they speak spanish in Cuba, even if their spanish is the funniest ever

Including Spain spanish and Argentina spanish.

writerterri said:
A little white girl who came to live in Cuba with her family (her parents were missionaries). She's blond with freckles and nosy. I need a nick name for her given by the woman below.

If she's blond, she can be called 'Güerita', which basically means 'blondie'. People usually call each other 'güero' or 'güera' even if you're not, but it's a nice nickname.

writerterri said:
The mothers friend. She's poor in pocket but not in spirit. She collects dirty rags from the streets and boils them to clean them. What her nick name be. I think I might use it for the title of the picture book.

Her nickname can be something simple like 'Tía', which is aunt. I have no imagination right now

writerterri said:
Rag and rags in spanish?

In correct spanish, rag would be 'andrajo' or 'andrajos' in plural. In normal spanish it would be 'trapo' and 'trapos', but I'm not sure if they call it that way in Cuba. Cuban spanish is so different from Mexican spanish that I have trouble understanding what they're saying, but that happens with basically every other version of spanish.

writerterri said:
The house the girl lived in had dirt floors and mud walls. What would that house be called in spanish? Adobe?

I assume it's a nice house?? Because poor houses are made of cardboard and tin and spare bricks and basically whatever they could salvage from anywhere. Adobe would be... um... 'adobe', lol!! Or 'barro', although I'm not sure it's a correct terminology.

writerterri said:
Weird rag woman in spanish.

Mujer rara andrajosa? I'm not sure which idea you want to convey. The problem with this is that translations cannot be made literal because they make little sense. It's easier to have the idea you want to convey, and then I'll give you a better translation.

writerterri said:
Little white girl in spanish.

Here we get into the cultural barriers. In Spanish, at least in Mexican Spanish, this distinction is never made. If the girl's from the US, she would be a 'gringa' (at least in Mexico, again, I'm not sure if they use the word in Cuba). But the point is that you never mention if a person is white or not. Skin colors are not mentioned at all when referring to another person, except when that person is black (not really having to do with racism, only it's harder to see black people in Mexico than it is in the US, so it is a distinctive trait, otherwise it's just assumed the person is white or tan like the mayority of the population).

If you're willing to wait a little longer, I'll be going to Cuba in July (we're going to be the first people ever to bring Capoeira Angola to Cuba!! I'm so excited!!) so I could find these things out with more clarity for you, if you wish.

ghost · Apr 17, 2007

This is a really helpful website for baby names and they have a section of Spanish names and meanings. They also do nicknames too.
http://www.babynamenetwork.com/index.cfm

writerterri · Apr 18, 2007

DamaNegra said:
Haha, late as always.

Yes, they speak spanish in Cuba, even if their spanish is the funniest ever Including Spain spanish and Argentina spanish.

quote]

Dama, you're the best!

As I'm trying to remember the story, I think it was a concrete floor in a very modest house.

With Little White girl I want to see if I could have kids taunting her because she is new in Cuba. I may not allow it in the book, gringa may not fly too well in a picture book. And the weird rag lady--may be too hard to pronounce.

Thanks for your help!

Terri

PS. I will hold on to the story for a long time before I submit it. So it would be nice to hear about your trip and some nick names if you come home with some.

writerterri · Apr 18, 2007

ghost said:
This is a really helpful website for baby names and they have a section of Spanish names and meanings. They also do nicknames too.
http://www.babynamenetwork.com/index.cfm

I will look into it, Thanks for taking the time to post me a link. You're the best!

FergieC · Apr 20, 2007

They ran an extension cord from a main source into their house. That extension cord served as the only electric service in the house.

That was another thing I do remember - the electricity wires were all very hand knitted. You'd see them running into each house from poles in the street, a mass of cables. Loads of power cuts.

In once place, the transport was horse drawn carts and in the evenings, they'd hang empty tin cans with candles in them from the carts as headlights.

writerterri · Apr 24, 2007

FergieC said:
That was another thing I do remember - the electricity wires were all very hand knitted. You'd see them running into each house from poles in the street, a mass of cables. Loads of power cuts.

In once place, the transport was horse drawn carts and in the evenings, they'd hang empty tin cans with candles in them from the carts as headlights.

I feel so spoiled.

talkwrite · May 1, 2007

Literary translator here with hope!

Hi; I'm coming to this thread a little late but I translate childrens books (English<>Spanish) so I'd love to help. Yes Cuban Spanish is pronounced distinctively but the only other difference will be idiomatic nouns and expressions. But these will make your book so special so use them. Swimming through the messages I see that the tilde ( squggly line above the line that tells you it is pronounced "nya") is not coming through like on Pina. (which means pineapple) Tia means auntie or aunt.
When I offer up name suggestions to an author I ask about the personality traits (strengths and weaknesses) that will surface in the story. A woman who has to sell boiled rags would have to cling to hope that her efforts are worth it- how about Esperanza which translates to hope and is a common female name. The nickname I have heard for that is Espy (don't use ie endings in Spanish) Hope this helps! It sounds like a good sweet story.
Talkwrite

I need help with a couple of spanish or Cuban nick names for a new story, please.

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