A health related Cubanism

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I havent done a Cubanism in a while – heck, I havent been blogging much period – so I thought I’d post a health related Cubanism, given that one of the reasons for my sparse appearance here on Babalu has been a health related one.
Back in May I had what appeared to be some kind of bite on my belly. I briefly mentioned it here. To say the spider bite and the subsequent staph infection has been quite a cumbersome adventure would be a major understatement. Suffice it to say that Ive gone through three different antibiotic treatments.
The whole infection thing is under control right now – if one can call the side effects of the meds “under control” – but at one point the affected area was – and this brings us to our Cubanism of the day – en carne viva.
Cubanism: En carne viva.
literal translation: In live meat.
Actual meaning: When you have something, a cut, scrape or sore “in live meat” it means that basically you have an open wound, with the affected area having no skin or dermis and thus, the meaty underpart exposed.
I am no longer in live meat, and the infection as almost gone, but let’s just say the side effects of the latest antibiotic are less than pleasant. Very much less. Toilet paper ala Costco proportions less.

6 thoughts on “A health related Cubanism”

  1. hey I’ve been teaching my wife spanish, I speak it at home, and since it’s very similar to Portuguese she undersatnds 95% of it, and the stuff she doesn’t understand she gets the context because of the words she did understand. The mighty exception is the word Pinga, which is alcohol, aguardiente. It also means ‘drip’, when your nose is runny, or the roof leaks, “esta pingando”. I got a big kick out of naming the dog “pingon” and no one is the wiser. Anyways, I was looking for a site that had a good list of “cubanisms” like “te cogeiron con el culo en la puerta” and “me la pusistes en China” y “no lo salva ni el medico Chino” stuff like that.
    Thanks in advance.

  4. Val;
    Next time you’re at Costco getting TP grab some yogurt as well. The live cultures in the yogurt replace the natural flora in your intestinal tract that the antibiotics have killed — and cure the runs in a day or tow (or, as we call them in Casa Largo, the “castro salutes”.)
    Hey, I been a nurse for 26 years — works every time.
    ~~JD~~

  6. Keep these coming! I’m a faithful reader who almost never comments. I speak fair Spanish, but Cubanisms baffle me. Is there anywhere online I can look this stuff up?

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