Manners
When speaking to the elderly, or to strangers, Cubans speak more formally as a sign of respect. They shake hands upon both greeting and saying farewell to someone. Men often exchange friendly hugs (abrazos) and it is also common for both men and women to greet friends and family with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Informalities like addressing a stranger with 'mi corazón' (my heart), 'mi vida' (my life), or 'cariño' (dear) are common. "Mi amor" (my love) is used, even between strangers, when at least one of them is a woman (for example when being served in a shop).
Read more about this topic: Cuban Spanish
Famous quotes containing the word manners:
“Of course poets have morals and manners of their own, and custom is no argument with them.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“The farmer stands well on the world. Plain in manners as in dress, he would not shine in palaces; he is absolutely unknown and inadmissible therein; living or dying, he never shall be heard of in them; yet the drawing-room heroes put down beside him would shrivel in his presence; he solid and unexpressive, they expressed to gold-leaf.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Good manners have much to do with the emotions. To make them ring true, one must feel them, not merely exhibit them.”
—Amy Vanderbilt (1908–1974)