‘Barrio’ is a phrase you will hear on a regular basis in Spanish, however not many foreigners are conscious of the connotations that include it.
Barrio is the Spanish phrase for neighbourhood. The phrase comes from the Hispanic Arabic bárri, that means ‘outdoors’, and that is derived from the Arabic barrī, that means ‘wild’.
Though barrio is the most typical strategy to consult with a district of a metropolis or a city, the phrase is usually linked to extra humble elements of a metropolis.
For instance, there’s the expression ser de barrio, a bit like saying ‘to be from the hood’.
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It implies that you just’re from a closely-knit neighbourhood the place everybody is aware of one another, the place children develop up ‘within the streets’, extra so than in prosperous areas.
A working-class neighbourhood is known as a barrio common or barrio obrero. Folks dwelling in these neighbourhoods will typically be known as gente de barrio. A neighborhood grocery retailer shall be known as una tienda de barrio, a neighbourhood bar un bar de barrio.
There’s truly a well-known Spanish flamenco singer known as El Barrio, who selected that stage identify to honour his neighbourhood in Cádiz.
If you wish to particularly say {that a} neighbourhood is dodgy or a bit tough across the edges, chances are you’ll name it un barrio bajo, and even un barrio de mala muerte (actually ‘a neighbourhood of unhealthy demise’).
There’s even the pejorative adjective barriobajero, which describes one thing or somebody that’s thought of trashy or frequent. If used to explain an individual, it’s just like saying trailer trash in American English.
A extra politically right means of referring to the sort of neighbourhood could also be to name it una barriada, which is a neighbourhood that tends to be on the outskirts of a metropolis and is made up of low-quality buildings.
There’s additionally the time period barrio marginal, a neighbourhood on the fringes of society, for instance a slum. This will also be known as a barrio de chabolas if it’s extra like a shanty city.
Then once more, barrio can be utilized to explain different forms of neighbourhoods. You possibly can say un barrio pijo (a complicated neighbourhood), el barrio histórico (the outdated quarter), barrio industrial (industrial neighbourhood) or barrio chino (Chinatown).
If somebody’s the discuss of the city, in Spanish you say they’re la comidilla del barrio.
There’s additionally the expression el otro barrio to consult with the afterlife or the nice unknown, so if you happen to ‘ship somebody to the opposite neighbourhood’ in Spanish (mandar al otro barrio), it signifies that you kill them, or in the event that they’ve merely ‘gone to the opposite neighbourhood’ (irse al otro barrio), they’ve handed away.
Examples:
Me crié en un barrio obrero en el que todo el mundo se conocía.
I grew up in a working-class neighbourhood through which all people knew one another.
Un accidente de moto le mandó al otro barrio.
A motorcycle accident landed him six foot below.
La Juani parece bastante barriobajera ya que siempre va vestida de chándal y tiene muchos tatuajes.
Juani appears fairly trailer trash as she’s all the time sporting a tracksuit and has a lot of tattoos.
