“El Toro Relajo” (The Rowdy Bull) by Felipe Bermejo, Selena Quintanilla Perez, English translation of lyrics

“The Rowdy Bull” Lyrics
Album: Dreaming of You, 1995
Style: Ranchera written by Felipe Bermejo, sung by various including Selena Quintanilla. It’s a mariachi song about calming a charging bull while flirting with your sweetheart who watches from the sidelines.
Country: Mexico; USA (Texas)
Listen: YouTube

Translation:

(A~)Aguas que ahí viene un toro,
Es el relajo,
Escóndete tras las trancas, chatita,
Que viene bravo.

Watch out, here comes a bull,
He’s the source of that commotion,
Hide yourself behind the fence bars, shortie,
Because he’s seeing red.

Y aviéntame tu rebozo, mi vida,
Pa’ capotearlo.

And throw me your shawl, my love,
To distract him.

Toro, toro, toro~
Entra de largo
Que mi prieta chula, torito,
Te está mirando.

Bull, bull, bull~
Keep walking past
Because my tan sweetie, little bull,
She’s looking at you.

Toro, toro, toro~
Toro relajo,
Ya te estoy quitando, torito,
Lo alebrestado.

Bull, bull, bull~
Rowdy bull,
I’m finally shutting it down, little bull,
Your agitation.

Ya~ van a abrir las trancas de su chiquero,
Que ya le quité a ese toro, mi vida, lo mitotero,
Y ahí va como borreguito, chatita, a su potrero.

Now~ they’re going to open the fence doors of its enclosure,
Because I’ve finally lulled that bull, my love, out of its ruckus,
And there he goes like a little sheep, shortie, to his pasture.

Toro, toro, toro~
Entra de largo
Que mi prieta chula, torito,
Te está mirando.

Bull, bull, bull~
Keep walking past
Because my tan sweetie, little bull,
She’s looking at you.

Toro, toro, toro~
Toro relajo,
Ya te estoy quitando, torito,
Lo alebrestado.

Bull, bull, bull~
Rowdy bull,
I’m finally shutting it down, little bull,
Your agitation.

Ya te estoy quitando, torito,
Lo alebrestado
Ay, ay~

I’m finally shutting it down, little bull,
Your agitation.
Ay, ay~

Translation Notes:

“El Toro Relajo” is a song that has uses a lot of cowboy Mexican/Texan words.

Per the Selena fandom wiki, Selena’s cover of “El Toro Relajo” was recorded for the 1995 film Don Juan DeMarco.

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Aguas que ahí viene un toro

Watch out, here comes a bull

The exclamation “¡aguas!” (literally “waters!”) supposedly comes from old Spain, pre-modern sewage systems, when people would throw their waste buckets out their windows into the alleys. They would yell this to warn anyone who might be walking below.

Nowadays, it means “watch out!” or “look out!” There is no tie to the original meaning.

---

Aguas {que} ahí viene un toro,
Es el relajo

Watch out, {for} here comes a bull,
He’s the source of that commotion

The song title, “El Toro Relajo” has been translated by others to “The Partying Bull” or “The Messy Bull” but that seems awkward and too word-for-word literal. I prefer “The Rowdy Bull”.

Un relajo refers to a lot of commotion and chaos noise. It is associated with noise from a boisterous party where people are drinking and loudly talking over each other. Here, obviously, it’s the noise of a running bull creating chaos and making people yell.

---

Escóndete tras las trancas, chatita,
Que viene bravo.

Hide yourself behind the fence bars, shortie,
Because he’s seeing red.

Hide yourself behind the fence, shortie,
Because he’s coming in ferocious/bad-tempered/angry.

I was surprised that “las trancas” did not bring up the correct contextual meaning in Spanish-English dictionaries: Collins, Word Reference, SpanishDictionary.com. It refers to a thick-bar fence (either wood or metal) used to hold in cows, bulls, horses, and other large animals. It is the kind of fence seen in rural areas. If you do a Google image search for “fence trancas”, you will see what I mean.

Chatita is affectionate slang for a short girl. In this song, the narrator is telling their sweetheart to hide while they deal with this bull.

The word bravo, in the context of bulls (toro bravo), refers to a charging, angry bull.

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Y aviéntame tu rebozo, mi vida,
Pa’ capotearlo.

And throw me your shawl, my love,
To distract him.

After telling their sweetheart to hide, the song’s narrator tells them to leave their shawl so the narrator can use it to attract the bull’s attention and distract it. This is a technique that bullfighters use.

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Toro, toro, toro~
Entra de largo
Que mi prieta chula, torito,
Te está mirando.

Bull, bull, bull~
Keep walking past
Because my tan sweetie, little bull,
She’s looking at you.

To entrar de largo (enter too far) or pasar de largo (pass too far) means to walk or run with long strides and miss something by going past it too quickly. In this case, the narrator is coaxing the bull to run and go past the point where their sweetheart is hiding, so she can see the bull but not be in danger.

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Toro, toro, toro~
Toro relajo,
Ya te estoy quitando, torito,
Lo alebrestado.

Bull, bull, bull~
Rowdy bull,
I’m finally shutting it down, little bull,
Your agitation.

I’m finally taking it away from you, little bull,
Your over-stimulation/excitement/anxiety.

The narrator is rejoicing over their success in bullfighting. The bull is becoming less rowdy.

---

Ya van a abrir las trancas de su chiquero,

Now they’re going to open the fence doors of its enclosure

The narrator is talking about finishing the bull fight and sending the bull off to their enclosure. Un chiquero is a “bull pen” (this context) and can also mean “pigsty” (other contexts).

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Que ya le quité a ese toro, mi vida, lo mitotero,
Y ahí va como borreguito, chatita, a su potrero.

Because I’ve finally lulled that bull, my love, out of its ruckus,
And there he goes like a little sheep, shortie, to his pasture.

Because I’ve finally rid that bull, my love, of its commotion-causing behavior,
And there he goes like a little sheep, shortie, to his pasture.

Un mitote = an Aztec dance with drums and costumes; a loud party; a commotion, a ruckus; a large demonstration.

The narrator rid the bull of its mitotero behavior, meaning they calmed the bull and now it is no longer charging and dangerous. The bull is now safe like a baby lamb, heading off to its pasture to rest. The word “mi vida” (my sweetheart, literally “my life”) and “chatita” (shortie) both refer to the narrator’s sweetheart who was watching the bullfight.