Manny, who is 10 years old, was telling to me about his favorite sweetheart in school.
He had dreamed that he she had taken a ride with him in his Corvette, but then agreed that taking a walk on the beach might make for better conversation.
"She's not a cheerleader and she's not a jockey girl."
"What's a jockey girl?" I asked.
"It's a girl that wants to be with big buff guys. She's not like that."
In fact, at 10, she's already something of an accomplished ballet, jazz, and modern dance student. She's also an A student.
I have known about "jockey girls" for at least 22 years, since the first time I went to Cuba, 12 years before Manny was born there.
In Cuba, "jineteras" are the young women, actually, teenagers, who ply tourists for rides, meals, and clothes in return for sexual favors. In Cuba, the male tourist is king.
"Ai, como me gusta los Yuma," moans a popular Reggaeton song ("Ai, I just love those [American] tourists"], this refrain crooned by a female singer.
"Jinetera" literally means "jockey," and the "horse," is the alluring male tourist brimming with "dollars." It's not coincidental that in the popular religion known as Osha or Santeria, the "horse" is the human body that is possessed by a orisha (deity) in sacred drumming ceremonies. The horse may be powerful, but the orisha drives him.
I always knew what the term "jinetera" meant, but never could quite put it just as Manny put it this morning, "jockey girls."
Having been in the United States for almost four years, he claims he doesn't remember "jinetera."
- Out of the Mouths of Babes Come Gems -
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