Mandar a la porra
To send someone to the porra.
to tell someone to get lost; **to tell someone to get lost**; **to tell someone to go to hell**; **to send someone packing**; **to tell someone to shove off**; **to tell someone to piss off**; **to scrap something**; **to give up on something**; **to throw something out**; **to abandon something**
Mandar a la porra means to tell someone to go away, to dismiss someone angrily, or to tell someone to get lost.
¡Mándalo a la porra!
Tell him to get lost!
Estoy harto de sus quejas; que se vaya a la porra.
I'm sick of his complaints; he can go to hell.
Al final mandé el proyecto a la porra.
In the end, I scrapped the project.
Si no quieren colaborar, mando todo a la porra.
If they don't want to cooperate, I'm giving up on the whole thing.
Me dijo que me fuera a la porra.
He told me to get lost.
It can also mean to abandon or reject something, especially when the speaker has become annoyed or fed up with it.
Common constructions include:
Mandar a alguien a la porra.
→ To tell someone to get lost.
Mandar algo a la porra.
→ To give up on something / to scrap something.
- are annoyed with someone
- want someone to leave them alone
- reject someone's request or attitude
- decide to abandon a plan
- give up on something out of frustration
- express that they have had enough
Like many popular sayings, it took hold in casual conversation before settling into a fixed phrase.
One traditional explanation connects porra with the baton or club carried by military officers. In military contexts, ¡a la porra! may have functioned as a command sending someone away or dismissing them.
Another interpretation sees porra as a deliberately vague or euphemistic destination, allowing the speaker to express rejection without using a more explicit vulgar expression.
Whatever its precise origin, the modern expression functions as a colloquial dismissal.
The expression can be directed at a person:
¡Vete a la porra!
→ Get lost!
or used transitively:
Lo mandó a la porra.
→ He told him to get lost.
It can also refer to an activity or project:
Mandó el trabajo a la porra.
→ He scrapped the whole project.
In this second use, the expression often conveys frustration or exasperation.
Mandar a la porra belongs to a large group of Spanish euphemistic expressions for telling someone to go away:
Mandar a paseo
Mandar al cuerno
Mandar a freír espárragos
Mandar a hacer puñetas
Mandar a la porra
They vary in strength and regional preference, but all allow the speaker to express rejection or irritation without necessarily resorting to an explicit swear word.
Do not translate:
¡Vete a la porra!
literally.
Depending on the context and desired strength, natural English equivalents include:
Get lost!
Go to hell!
Piss off!
Shove off!
The last two are considerably more vulgar in English.
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