Rotar a baiana is a Brazilian slang that means make a mess or create a scandal in order to take satisfaction with someone, clean up a situation or “build a shack”.
When someone threatens another person with a sentence like: "stop it or I'm going to run the baiana", any Discreet person stops right away or at least be careful, otherwise the threat could turn into a scandal public.
Differently from what it may seem, this expression does not have its origin related to Bahia, but to Rio de Janeiro, because the The region was the stage, in the beginning of the 20th century, of famous parades of the Carnival blocks, where the Bahians were the main attraction.
Supposedly, in the middle of these blocks, some boys pinched the girls, and to end the problem, some capoeiristas started to dress up as baianas, and at the first sign of disrespect, they applied a blow of capoeira. The people who watched the parades didn't understand anything: they only saw the Bahian girl walk.
There is no literal translation for the popular expression “rotar a baiana” in English, however the meaning of this saying can be translated to
fly into a rage or give someone what for, for example.Learn about the meaning of others popular expressions.