The Monstrefact: El Coco

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the Spanish nursery bogeyman known as El Coco…

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas,
and monsters in time. Spanish artist Francisco Goya's seventeen nine

(00:27):
collection Los Capricios consists of eighty different prints, each critiquing
a different folly of contemporary Spanish society. While number forty three,
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, is perhaps the most
famous selection from this album. Today, I'd like to talk
about Capriccio number three. Here comes the boogey Man or

(00:50):
care Vienna el Coco. In the illustration, a hooded figure
approaches a mother whose children's squirn and horror. The mother's faith, however,
is not possessed by fear. She seems eager, even as
described on met museum dot org. The image is thought
to express Goya's criticism of the indoctrination of Spanish children

(01:13):
into the terror of supernatural beings in both the home
and the educational system at large. But who or what
was El Coco? In Carol Rosa's Giants, Monsters and Dragons,
The folkloreist described it as a kind of ogre used
to scare children into good behavior. Better be good children,

(01:38):
or El Coco will come and take you away. Better
listen to mother, or el Coco will come and eat you.
The figure also appears in Portuguese traditions as well as
throughout the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world. Its female counterpart
was known as the Kuca. Descriptions of the monster's appearance

(01:59):
are terrible but vague, often invoking shagginess, burning eyes, novel size,
and comparisons to skulls or disembodied heads. In fact, the
old Portuguese word coco meant head or skull. When Portuguese
and Spanish explorers ventured amid the Pacific Islands, they discovered

(02:20):
something most unusual, a shaggy head shaped object with three holes,
reminiscent of a human skull. This, of course, came to
be known as the coconut. So the next time you
enjoy a coconut water or a perhaps a pina colada,
give a thought to El Coco, the terror of children

(02:42):
for centuries and propagator of supernatural anxiety. Tune in for
additional episodes of the Monster fact each week. As always
You can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

(03:07):
a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for
my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.