Tradition / Region: Brazilian Mythology
Alternative names: Coca, Coco, Cucuy, Cuco, Cucu, Cucuí, El Cucuí
Category: Crocodile

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The Myth

The Cuca is the Brazilian form of the Iberian bogeyman known as the Coco or Coca. In Brazil, she is traditionally portrayed as a female humanoid alligator who comes during the night to seize disobedient children. Parents invoke her in lullabies and nursery rhymes, warning that children who refuse to sleep or misbehave will be carried away by the Cuca.

Unlike many other versions of the Coco, which have no fixed appearance, the Brazilian Cuca is depicted with the face and body of an alligator, dressed like a woman. This reptilian form became firmly established through adaptations of Monteiro Lobato’s children’s stories, although in the original novel O Saci (1921), she is only described as having an alligator’s face and clawed fingers.

As a bogeyman, the Cuca serves as a supernatural warning against disobedience. Rather than acting as a guardian or trickster, she is a child-stealing monster who watches from rooftops or lurks in the darkness, waiting for children who ignore their parents. In Brazilian lullabies, she is said to come while parents are away, carrying off children who refuse to sleep.

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Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Coco (folklore). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 29, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_(folklore)

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