Cadena temporal and cadena perpetua were legal punishments. Cadena temporal included imprisonment for at least 12 years and one day, in chains, at hard and painful labor; the loss of many basic civil rights; and subjection to lifetime surveillance. Cadena perpetua is identical except that it is a sentence of life as opposed to a temporary status. The "title" of the punishment is actually descriptive, as cadena is a Spanish word meaning chain while temporal means impermanent or temporary, in addition to the meaning it shares with English and perpetua, means continuous in Latin and Spanish.