Que quiere decir ´Pelear la plaza´.

Question

Entiendo las palabras pero creo que tenga un sentido más colquial

In English to "Fight your own corner" - lagartijaverde, Sep 10, 2010

Answer 1

"Pelear la plaza" it is kind of fighting for your territory. Sales people fight for their sales territory, or a bad example: drug cartels fight for their territory. I hope this helps.

Answer 2

I disagree with the interpretations given so far. "Plaza" in this context probably refers to a placement, a job position. To me "pelear por la plaza" means to fight (figuratively) to obtain the coveted job.

Yes, i agree , this is the sense more usual in Spain - kawalero, Sep 11, 2010

Interesting! However, in the article I cited, I´m pretty sure they weren´t going after job promotions!! :) - kattya, Sep 12, 2010

Answer 3

"turf war"

Answer 4

Helpful tip: with creer don't use subjunctive. If you use creer, it's something you believe. You can't show uncertainty and be saying you believe it in the same sentence. I'm not sure what pelear la plaza means, but it's possible it's missing a word like "en" or something. Where did you see this?

Answer 5

Good question, its not in the dictionary I have either. Another good trick... search on google with the phrase in quotation marks. In this case you get about 8000 hits, which means its a not very common expression, but it definitely is an idiom. Usually it seems to be related to gangs / narcotraffic in Latin America, for example,

“El Jefe de Jefes” vino a Puebla a pelear la plaza

Reading the article (here) it sounds like there was a shootout, so maybe your expression means to have either a "rumble" (I know, old word, but I don´t know what they are called now) or a shootout.

Any native speakers...?

Answer 6

Heard it in the movie El Infierno, they say it a bunch of times. And thanks for the tip, I´lll keep that in mind.