How do you say, "That is a s**tload of bats!" in colloquial Spanish?

October 26, 2015 9:58 AM

How would a Mexican-American, raised in Texas in the 1990s say the sentence, "That is a s**tload of bats!"

I'm writing a story where a character speaking the above line is a Texan who was born in Mexico, and the story takes place in the 1990s. I'm looking for an authentic colloquial rendering of something along the lines of:

"That is a s**tload of bats!" or
"Look at all those g*ddamn bats!"

Doesn't need to be exact. Just needs to capture the profane sense of wonder at seeing a lot of something in one place.

posted by vraxoin to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

I am not Mexican-American, or Texan, so I will leave the bulk of this translation to someone with a closer ear to that voice.

But you clearly need to use my favorite Mexican-Spanish word: un chingo, meaning: a shit-ton, a crap-load, a metric ass-ton, etc.
posted by chainsofreedom at 10:09 AM on October 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

Best answer: "Un chingo de murciélagos" was my first thought as well (though I too would defer to a native Tejano/a).
posted by RogerB at 11:29 AM on October 26, 2015

Best answer: Yeah "un chingo de murciélagos" sounds about right.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 11:42 AM on October 26, 2015

If you're making a list of people who are going to have the phrase "un chingo de murciélagos" stuck in their head all day, well, put me at the top.
posted by komara at 1:24 PM on October 26, 2015 [9 favorites]

I just checked with a native Mexican at my office and she liked un chingo de murcielaos.
posted by 4Lnqvv at 2:24 PM on October 26, 2015