Rabos verdes literally translates to "green tails", but it's a colorful Mexican idiom for lecherous or dirty old men. The phrase compares them to old parrots who can still talk but are no longer in their prime.
In the song, Selena comically brushes off unwanted attention, singing "le digo que no me caen los viejos rabos verdes" (I tell him I don't like dirty old men). Learning this playful slang is a fun way to understand the sassy personality in the lyrics and add some authentic flavor to your Spanish!
This song tells a complete story about having a massive crush, and it's got a plot twist worthy of a movie! Selena sings about her daily walk to her apartment, which is an obstacle course of unwanted attention. She gets whistled at by a guy she thinks should "ir y darse un baño" [go take a bath] and hit on by an old man she calls a "rabo verde" [a dirty old man]. She's totally unimpressed by any of them.
That's because all her attention is on one person: "El chico del apartamento cinco doce" [The guy from apartment 512]. He's the one who makes her "pobre corazón saltar" [poor heart jump] and even makes her stutter. She writes him letters day and night that she's too nervous to deliver. Finally, she works up the courage to go to his door and confess everything. But when she knocks, a blonde woman answers, and Selena's heart breaks. Just when you think it's all over, the woman asks, "¿Buscabas a mi hermano?" [Were you looking for my brother?]. It's his sister! There's still hope after all.
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez grew up in Lake Jackson, Texas, fronting her family's band, Selena y Los Dinos, with her brother A.B. writing the songs and playing bass and her sister Suzette on drums. She was raised speaking English, and her father drilled the Spanish lyrics into her phonetically, line by line, years before she was fluent in the language she sold millions of records in.
Tejano was a men's business when she took it over: she won the Tejano Music Award for Female Vocalist of the Year nine years running from 1987, and Selena Live! took the 1994 Grammy for Best Mexican-American Album. "Como la Flor", from 1992's Entre a Mi Mundo, is the song attached to her name more than any other, and Amor Prohibido (1994) put four singles at number one on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart, among them "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" and "No Me Queda Más". She was shot and killed in Corpus Christi on March 31, 1995, aged 23, by the former president of her fan club. Dreaming of You, the English-language crossover album she had been recording, was released that August and entered the Billboard 200 at number one.