The Big Spanish Fuss

Everyone likes to make a big fuss every now and then. Let's learn how to do it in Spanish!

In the telenovela Yago, Morena uses alboroto to refer to the atmosphere at the office after some thieves broke in:

Y parece que se ha armado todo un alboroto. -¿Eh?

And it seems it kicked up a big fuss. -Huh?

Caption 48, Yago - 5 La ciudad - Part 7
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To describe Mexico City’s downtown, our friend David prefers to use the words relajo and desmadre to refer to “mess” and “chaos,” respectively:

Donde realmente se aconglomera todo el relajo

Where all the mess comes together...

y todo el... el desmadre, ¿no?

and all the... the chaos, right?

Captions 41-42, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF
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In Argentina and other countries, the words despelote (chaos/fuss/trouble) and quilombo (mess) are also used. Aldo, Yago’s evil uncle, gives us an example of despelote:

¿Cómo está la familia?

How is the family?

Bien. -Seguro que estuviste haciendo despelotes vos.

Fine. -Surely you were causing trouble.

Captions 2-3, Yago - 1 La llegada - Part 7
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and Ramón, certainly not the most honest forest ranger in town, uses quilombo:

Con todo el quilombo que tuve ¿qué querés?

With all the mess that I had, what do you expect?

Se me escapó.

It came out.

Captions 18-19, Yago - 4 El secreto - Part 2
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In Muñeca Brava, the perverse Damián Rapallo dismissively applies the word lío (fuss) to describe his brother-in-law reaction when he finds him assaulting Milagros:

Aquí estoy yo, no te va a pasar...

Here I am, [nothing] is going to happen to you...

-Tanto lío por una mucamita.

-So much fuss over a little housemaid.

Caption 39, Muñeca Brava - 44 El encuentro - Part 10
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Now, if you have a taste for more exotic words, we suggest you learn them from the masters, Puerto Rican band Calle 13, who give us three colorful expressions: bullanga (ruckus), burundanga (mess/disarray) and jolgorio (revelry):

Que por ahí viene la ganga con una bullanga

From somewhere the gang is coming with a commotion

a llenarse los ojos con tu burundanga.

to fill up their eyes with your disarray [mix-up, mess].

Captions 48-49, Calle 13 - Cumbia de los Aburridos
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Se formó el jolgorio en el purgatorio

Revelry went on in purgatory

Caption 58, Calle 13 - Tango del pecado
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Notice that most of these words (alboroto, relajo, desmadre, lío, quilombo, and despelote) have a negative connotation. Bullanga and burundanga could be used either way, but are most commonly used as positive expressions.

Topics Vocabulary