Desprecios translates to "scorn," "contempt," or "disdain." It's a powerful noun that describes the feeling of being looked down on or considered worthless by someone else.
This word is the key to the entire song, as it appears in the title, "Tus Desprecios." Selena sings, "Tus desprecios son los que mi corazón están matando" (Your acts of contempt are what's killing my heart), perfectly capturing the deep pain of being rejected by a loved one. Learning this word helps you express a more complex and intense emotion than just sadness.
Ever tried talking to someone who suddenly disagrees with literally everything you say? That is the exact frustration Selena is dealing with in "Tus Desprecios". She sings about a relationship that is slowly falling apart because her partner is constantly brushing her off. She describes his cold rejections (desaires) as feeling like sharp daggers plunged into her chest ("Son como puñales que me estás clavando" [They are like daggers that you are sticking into me]). The lyrics turn into a stubborn back-and-forth game where she says here, he says over there ("te digo aquí y me dices que allá"), she says yes, and he says never ("si yo digo sí, me dices que jamás").
What makes this track so relatable for language learners is how direct and conversational the complaints are. Selena even uses the classic idiom "sacar vueltas" in the line "Te ofrezco besos y me sacas vueltas" [I offer you kisses and you dodge me / make excuses], describing how her partner physically turns away and dodges affection. She admits she has run out of ideas to win back his love while her "I love yous" get met with total silence. It is a straight-up catalog of cold-shoulder behavior, delivered with plenty of Tejano attitude.
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.