The Cuban décima is commonly associated with the espinela stanza, whose ten octosyllabic lines follow a demanding rhyme pattern. In guajiro performance, poets may improvise verses in response to a theme, rival, audience, or musical prompt, often accompanied by string instruments. The tradition combines Iberian stanzaic inheritance with Cuban speech, humor, local imagery, and communal participation. Its formal constraints encourage verbal agility while its live setting makes poetry a shared contest, celebration, and record of everyday experience.

The Cuban Decima Tradition centers on the décima espinela, a ten-line stanza usually composed in octosyllabic lines with a demanding rhyme pattern. It is strongly associated with punto campesino, a rural sung performance in which poets may improvise verses, answer one another, narrate events, or comment on social life. Guitar accompaniment and verbal wit are important, but performances also depend on memory, local knowledge, and audience interaction. Related ideas include oral poetry, improvisation, stanzaic form, and call-and-response.