“Ay Papacito” by Groupo Limite (LMT), English translation of lyrics

“Ay Daddy” Lyrics
Singer: Alicia Villarreal
Style: Regional Mexican, joyful dance song, about being happy being in love and being happy dancing. This song was nominated for Best Regional Mexican Song in the 2003 Latin Grammy Awards.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube

Translation:

[Hablado:]
(Risa)
Parece que me están esperando.
¿Es cierto? ¿Ya estamos listos?
¿Hey? ¿Que cosa? Ya está corriendo,
Subele, subele dame más volmen,
Que se sienta el ritmo.

[Speaking:]
(Laughter)
It looks like they’re waiting for me.
Is it true? Are we ready?
Huh? What was that? It’s started (running) now,
Raise the volume, raise it, give it more,
So you can feel the rhythm.

Desde Monterrey, para el mundo
Limite…(Risa)…Auch!, Jejepa!
Dupaje!

All the way from Monterrey, for the world
Limite… (Laughter)… Ouch! Hahahe!
Dupaje! (???)

Ay Papacito como me acuerdo
Que bailamos y bailamos hasta cansarnos
Y nos dimos besos (x2)
Toda la noche.

Oh daddy how I remember
That we danced and danced until we tired
And we gave each other kisses (x2)
The whole night.

Ay Papacito como olvidar que
Esa cita nos uniera a la primera.
Sabes que te quiero (x2)
Desde entonces yo a ti te quiero.

Oh daddy how to forget that
That date would unite us at the first try.
You know I love you (x2)
Since then, I do love you.

Oh sí (Menea, menea)
Aja (Menea, Menea)
Oh sí (Menea, menea)
Aja (Asi papito!)

Oh yes (Shake it, shake it)
Ah ha (Shake it, shake it)
Oh yes (Shake it, shake it)
Ah ha (Like that, daddy)

Ay Papacito cuando bailamos,
Tú y yo muy pegaditos,
Tomados de la mano,
Sabes que te quiero (x2)
Y desespero.

Oh daddy when we dance,
You and me so very close,
Holding each other’s hand,
You know I love you (x2)
And I’m hopeless.

Chorus A:
Mira la raza como disfruta,
De seguro este ritmo sí que les gusta.
Mira como gozan. (x2)
Menea, menea,
Solo menea así (Menea, menea)
Aja (Menea, menea)
Oh sí (Menea, menea)
Aja (Asi papito!)

Look at la raza, how they enjoy themselves,
Definitely, for sure they like this rhythm.
See how much fun they have. (x2)
Shake it, shake it,
Just shake it like this (Shake it, shake it)
Ah ha (Shake it, shake it)
Oh yes (Shake it, shake it)
Ah ha (Like that, daddy)

Chorus B:
Siente el moviemiento
Acercate más, mira como me pongo
Con tu respirar.
Mueve las caderas,
Hazlo circular, así, así.

I feel the movement (the rhythm)
Get closer, see how I get
With your breathing.
Move your hips,
Do it circularly, like this, like this.

Ay Papacito cuando bailamos,
Tú y yo muy pegaditos,
Tomados de la mano,
La gente nos mira (x2)
Porque les gusta.

Oh daddy when we dance,
You and me so very close,
Holding each other’s hand,
People look at us (x2)
Because they like it.

[Chorus A, “Mira la raza como disfruta…“]

[Chorus B, “Siente el moviemiento…“]

Saben como hacerlo
Se mueven genial
Las manos para arriba
Vuelvanlo a menear
Muevan la cadera
Haganla girar…
Así (Todos, Bailando)
Así (Todos, Gozando)
Así (Todos, Meneando)
Así (Y todos, Gritando)
Ejejey!

They know how to do it
They move excellently
Hands in the air
Go back to shaking it
Move your hips
Make it girate
Like this (Everyone, dancing)
Like this (Everyone, enjoying)
Like this (Everyone, shaking it)
Like this (And everyone, yelling)
Ahehey!

Translation Notes:

Parece que me están esperando
It looks like they’re (alt.: you’re) waiting for me

me están esperando could mean “they’re waiting for me” or could mean “you’re (plural) waiting for me”

—

Dupaje! = ???
I couldn’t find this in dictionaries or anywhere else on the internet. Google suggested “dupage,” but that didn’t turn up anything either. I think it might be a proper noun.

—

Como olvidar que esa cita nos uniera a la primera
How to forget that that date would unite us at the first try

cita (f.) = appointment (as in a doctor’s appointment) or date (as in a romantic date) or meeting.

—

yo a ti te quiero vs. te quiero

te quiero = I love you

yo a ti te quiero = I love you. It provides emphasis similar to hand gestures pointing to oneself and then the other person.

—

Tú y yo muy pegaditos
You and me so very close

pegados = stuck together, glued together
pegaditos = very stuck together, glued together; the -itos implied being careful to keep it that way

–ito can imply meticulousness: kind of like “temprano tempranito” in Calle 13’s “Pal Norte”.

—

Tomados de la mano
Holding each other’s hand
lit. Taken by the hand

—

Sabes que te quiero / Y desespero
You know I love you / And I’m hopeless (lit. And I despair)

They mean “I despair over how in love I am”

—

Mira la raza como disfruta
Look at la raza, how they enjoy themselves

la raza = literally “the race,” but used universally to mean “the people,” “the community.”

In the 1920s, “race mixing” was seen as bad by white Americans and Europeans. White supremacist thoughts, eugenics public policies, and anti-indigenous sentiments were common throughout the Americas and Europe. The Mexican book that coined the term “la raza” in 1929, despite having its own cringy problems*, spread the idea that maybe race mixing isn’t so bad and that good things could come from mestizaje. The term la raza spread to mean something akin to “the human race” with the idea that we are all mixed anyway, or will be in future generations. Nowadays, the term tends to be used mostly by Mexicans to describe Mexicans or Latin Americans, but it still maintains its inclusive “the people” connotation. When I visited Tijuana in the 2000s, I saw a public bathroom that had a one racist anti-black graffiti scrawl and dozens of anti-racist responses written around it telling the person that they were wrong to hate, including one which said “solo hay una raza… ¡la raza humana!” (there is only one race… the human race!)

*Edit 10/2024 to add further context:

“cringy problems” = The author had racist ideas about which human traits were beautiful and which weren’t. He pushed back against race mixing taboos, but unfortunately wasn’t actually anti-eugenics. For years, I was not aware of the extent of his racism since the only thing I knew about the book was that it coined “la raza” to mean “human race”, but that the rest of the book was “awkward” and that the author had weird “opinions” about what race traits were beautiful so no one actually recommended it. This essay from Brown University adds more historical context: “Eugenics in Nation Building: Post-revolutionary Mexican Identity Formation” by Francesca Contreas. Apparently the book author was a strong supporter of the racist/eugenics idea of “mejorando la raza” (improving the race) which plagues Latin America. Ugh!

Growing up in the United States, my understanding and historical context of la raza came from learning about the Chicano Movement (a civil rights movement) of the 1960s and 1970s. For brown/mixed/mestizo Mexican-Americans at the time, la raza became a popular group identifier to use because it was an open-ended alternative to the United States’ strict racial categories that classified Mexican-Americans as just white and encouraged deculturation and abandonment of any other identifies. Nowadays, I still see la raza used in a benign way to mean “the community” or “humanity” generally, and that is the context in this song.

Sorry for the heavy history in the translation notes of an otherwise cheerful song. However, since I originally explained the etymology of la raza in a naive “fun trivia” sort of way, I feel a responsibility to add historical context now that I know more. I am NOT suggesting that using la raza is a dog whistle to indicate support for the concept of mejorando la raza. The terms are separate, but I think it is important to understand how they are historically tied. Per Contreas’ essay:

Eugenic logic was instrumental in the construction of mestizaje. Accordingly, in retrospect mestizaje emerges as a reordering of theories based upon colonial evolutionary hierarchies (which posited the superiority of the white race) rather than a rupture with racist European logic.

—

De seguro este ritmo sí que les gusta
Definitely, for sure they like this rhythm

de seguro…que = for sure…that

sí adds emphasis for the affirmative (sí, les gusta = yes, they like it)

Another way this could have been written: De seguro que este ritmo (sí) les gusta. Optional sí.

—

Mira como gozan
See how much fun they have

disfrutar vs. gozar: gozar is a stronger word. Disfrutar is a regular, everyday sort of enjoy. Gozar is an event/experience sort of enjoy.

—

Se mueven genial = They move excellently

genial = lit. “geniously”
Spanish “genial!” is like British English “brilliant!” It kind of means “cool” and “awesome” and “excellent” together.

—

manos para arriva = lit. “hands towards above”; it means “hands in the air.”
It’s the phrase that police officers use. In this case, it’s “hands in the air” out of joy, though.

—

así = “like this” (when demonstrating), “like that” (when seeing someone else demonstrating, and agreeing)