Why this word is great
BALSERO — [Noun] A refugee who flees from Cuba to the United States by sea, typically on a makeshift raft. From Spanish balsero ("raft person"), derived from balsa ("raft") + -ero (agent suffix). Unlike "exile" (which suggests political expulsion but not the means) or "boat person" (which lacks the specificity of origin and craft), "balsero" is a word weighted with salt and desperation. It is the slap of waves against lashed-together inner tubes, the glint of a tin-can rudder under a pitiless sun, the horizon both destination and delusion—a testament to the human will to cross impossible distances with nothing but the flimsiest of vessels.