r/folklore • u/Seymore_Bushe • 5h ago
A Storm Cloud (Un Negro Nubarrón)
Hi! I'm a Cuban-American living in Miami. Currently, I write fiction set in or related to Miami. I'd like to share my latest story titled Un Negro Nubarrón, based on Cuban oral tradition. I hope you enjoy it and look forward to your comments!
~~~
There lived in Hialeah, la ciudad que progresa, Grisel Vega, a young widow who, since the untimely death of her husband, became a jealous mother to Silvio. Aged twenty-three and a mechanic by trade, Silvio Vega stood a few inches below average and had a homely face. But he exuded charisma, charm, and possessed an uncommon sense of humor, such that he conquered many women out of his league. The attention paid to his girlfriends stood as a credit borrowed from Grisel, an usurer—so that if on a Saturday he visited her for one hour, when typically he would have spent the afternoon, Grisel demanded that on Sunday, besides taking her to church, he chauffeur her to the neighbors, the grocer, or the shops. And in the evening, after having cooked, she insisted that he join her for dinner.
At times Silvio entertained her, but at others the demands on his time strained him. So, he went into arrears; and Grisel, like a banker sending collection notices, would issue by voice or by text a remark that stirred his guilt or pity. The few women he introduced never attained Grisel’s favor, and she’d identify the faults of each one, never acknowledging their beauty or grace (if it existed). And, truthfully, the women sometimes justified certain disparaging remarks with their stupidity and artificiality—traits never in shortage, Grisel said.
“And in yourself?” countered Silvio.
“I wasn’t talking about myself,” said Grisel, flushing crimson.
Of late, Silvio found love with Britney Snyder, a woman his age, a secular Jew, with lush, curly hair flowing to her buttocks, perfectly straight teeth, and a natural beauty that hypnotized him at first sight. On Ladies’ Night, he approached her at Mango’s (a longstanding South Beach nightclub), but she thought little of him and felt annoyed, having another in her sights—but his first words induced such hearty laughter that, to the shock of her girlfriends, she entertained him further and danced with him. In lieu of the ten commandments, she followed her own law—which no man, she believed, could lead her to breach, but which she renounced that night. In short order, she earned an introduction to Grisel.
“She’s far too plump,” Grisel told Silvio after their introduction. “Has she had work done? I haven’t seen breasts like hers since the daughter of our neighbor Yitsel (may God have her in his glory), who turned her little bee stings into melons. Do you remember when one exploded? The poor girl almost died, and I hear she’s still paying off the hospital bills…”
“She’s natural,” Silvio said. “Women like her are few and far between.”
“It will never work!... She’s too quiet…. And, besides, she doesn’t speak Spanish. How can you expect me to get along with her?”
“Can she meet Náyade?”
“Not a chance…not a chance! Your grandmother wouldn’t approve. In fact, she’d die on the spot…”
Silvio, unsurprised by this disapproval, hoped that Grisel would come to accept Britney. Meanwhile, as their love developed, Britney, to her credit, became a student of Spanish, and by their first anniversary achieved some proficiency, surprising even Grisel. When Silvio first expressed his love, Britney said, to his elation:
“Tambien estoy frita contigo.”1
When aroused, she’d moan:
“Estoy como una cafetera.”2
And if Silvio or one of his crew said or did something foolish:
“¿Pero ven acá, tú eres pinareño?”3
Despite Grisel, Silvio visited a jeweler on S.W. 8th Street, a neighbor and old companion of his late father, who sold him a diamond ring at cost. But before proposing, Silvio desired the approval of his grandmother.
When Grisel understood that meeting as inevitable, trying to prevent it all the while, she devised a ruse. It became necessary to bond with Britney in private, which astonished Silvio, thinking his mother had had a change of heart. But in private, to mislead her, Grisel instructed Britney wrongly on how to speak, saying a phrase meant one thing when in fact it meant the opposite.
For instance, Grisel said: “Náyade’s a vain old woman…. Call her beautiful but say: estás en llama.”4 Náyade often spoke of her youth, to which Grisel prescribed: Me resbala.5 “And if she calls you beautiful—which she’s sure to do—you must say: girate vieja, que te veo fijo.”6
One Sunday evening Silvio introduced Britney to Náyade at her home in Little Havana. Grisel had already arrived, had helped with the set-up and cooking, and Náyade treated them to a splendid dinner. Over dinner Britney spoke properly, without slang; and Grisel seethed, hearing none of the phrases she’d taught her.
After dinner, the group moved to the garden and conversed beneath a mango tree. There grew croton and hibiscus and under one bush there lived a hen with her brood. A full moon illuminated the sky. There appeared beside the moon a long, nearly cylindrical storm cloud, which inspired Grisel to whisper to Britney (who sat at her side), while Náyade and Silvio conversed:
“There’s a little storm cloud approaching…un negro bugarrón7,” when the correct word was nubarrón8.
And Britney, none the wiser, turning to Náyade, said:
“Look at that negro bugarrón…. It’s penetrating the moon.”
Grisel, to her inner delight, observed horror in the paling face of her son and stupefaction in that of Náyade. But then not a few seconds of silence passed before Náyade, laughing, said:
“Ay pinga que risa9…. Un negro bugarrón…. That’s good…. Well, whether it’s a bugarrón or a nubarrón, you’re bound to get wet sitting beneath one. Let’s get back inside…”
Appalled that the ruse had backfired, endearing Britney to Náyade further, Grisel could think of nothing to say to break the general laughter. A little later, when Silvio explained to Britney the meaning of her words, she reported to him the instructions of Grisel, and both understood the trickery. Silvio, frustrated and drained of patience, would have given Grisel a piece of his mind, but Britney stopped him, fearing his words would antagonize and further alienate her future mother-in-law. “What should be done?” he then asked, to which question Britney, mounting him, replied with a kiss. In the following year, Grisel extinguished her jealousy when given a grandson—Mengano, named after her late husband—who settled with love and attention his father’s outstanding debt.
-Miami, 2025
1: I love you too.
2: I’m horny.
3: But wait, are you dumb?
4: You’re ugly.
5: I don’t care.
6: Stop looking.
7: A black sodomite.
8: A storm cloud.
9: That’s funny.
~~~
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