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Exploring the Haunting Legend of El Coco

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The Spanish legend of El Coco frightened children and was used by parents to make their children go to sleep. But what really was behind the horrible legend about the child devouring monster that would come for you?

Go to sleep child,
go to sleep now,
the coconut is coming
and it will eat you

Many Spanish parents spook their children by cautioning them about El Coco, a Boogeyman monster who snatches children away if they misbehave or refuse to sleep. It has also been associated with a horrible crime that was like a manifestation of the old legend. 

Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from Spain

Parents warn their children of El Coco using the popular rhyme, “Duermete niño, duermete ya, que viene El Coco y te comerá.” (“Sleep child, sleep now, or else Coco will come and eat you.”

Origins and Cultural Variations of the El Coco Legend

The legend of El Coco has its roots in Galician Spanish and Portuguese folklore, but it has spread to various countries and cultures around the world, each with their own unique variations. 

In Spain, El Coco is often depicted as a dark, shadowy figure lurking in the night. Some say that he appears on moonless nights and puts lying children in a sack and turns them into soap.

Other cultures have their own versions of the legend, such as the Bogeyman in English-speaking countries and the Sack Man in France.

El Coco: Francisco de Goya illustrated, Que viene el coco (Here Comes the Bogey-Man), published 1799.

The origins of the legend can be traced back to the 17th century when the first lullabies were written down, where parents would use stories of monsters and boogeymen to frighten their children into behaving. These cautionary tales served as a way to instill discipline and obedience in children, as they believed that the threat of El Coco would keep them in line. 

Over time, the legend evolved and became deeply ingrained in the collective consciousness of various cultures. And with time, the tale of Coco spread to Latin America that also put their own touch on the legend. 

Terrifying Tales and Encounters with El Coco

Throughout history, there have been numerous chilling tales and alleged encounters with El Coco. These stories have been passed down from generation to generation, fueling the fear and fascination surrounding the legend. One such tale recounts the story of a young boy who was abducted by El Coco and never seen again. The boy’s parents claimed to have seen a dark figure with glowing eyes and a black cloth bag lurking outside their home on the night of the abduction.

Perhaps the most terrifying thing about this is that it is well in with a horrible real crime that happened to a child. 

The Real El Coco Francisco Ortega

A real person that has been associated with El Coco was Francisco Ortega. In 1910 he lived in Gador in Spain with no family, alone in his house. He had tuberculosis and was near death. 

At the time there was no cure for tuberculosis, but Ortega didn’t want to die. He went to a healer called Francisco Leona that also practices black magic. He told Ortega he needed the blood of a child and 3000 reais to pay the healer. 

They kidnapped a seven year old named Bernando from his house and put him in a sack. Leon cut the child’s heart out with a knife and crushed his head with a rock. They drank his blood, put his heart in a jar and used his body to make a medical paste. 

Leona got rid of the body with the help of Julio. But Julio didn’t receive any payments so he went to the police and turned them in. They were all arrested and sentenced to death. 

The Goodnight Story El Coco

The legend of El Coco is a haunting tale that has been passed down through generations, instilling fear and fascination in children and adults alike. Its origins in Spanish folklore have spread to various cultures, each with their own unique variations of the legend. Throughout history, there have been terrifying tales and alleged encounters with El Coco, fueling the fear and intrigue surrounding the creature.

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References:

Crime of Gádor – Wikipedia
Simple Stories in Spanish: La Leyenda del Coco
Coco (folklore) – Wikipedia
La Leyenda del Coco

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5 Movies Based on American Urban Legends

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Urban Legends are more modern day ghost or horror stories. We’ve always heard it from a friend of a friend without knowing entirely who we are talking about. Some are so famous it has become a part of our horror canon like the famous ghost stories of the past, showing the story telling is not a died out genre.

When a Stranger Calls
(1979 film and 2006 remake)

Urban Legend: Based on the legend of an unknown caller to the babysitter.

The film has developed a large cult following over time because of the first 20 minutes, now consistently regarded as one of the scariest openings in movie history.

The babysitter and the man upstairs — also known as the babysitter or the sitter — is an urban legend that dates back to the 1960s about a teenage girl babysitting children who receives telephone calls from a stalker who continually asks her to “check the children”. The basic story line has been adapted a number of times in movies.

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I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

Urban Legend: The hook-handed man

Ah, the glorious 90’s. The beautiful teens caught up in a slasher horror movie in high school flicks era. How we miss it now. This created spin-offs and everything, ghost

The Hook, or The Hookman, is an urban legend about a killer with a pirate-like hook for a hand attacking a couple in a parked car. The story is thought to date from at least the mid-1950s, and gained significant attention when it was reprinted in the advice column Dear Abby in 1960. It has since become a morality archetype in popular culture, and has been referenced in various horror films.

The film centers on four young friends who are stalked by a hook-wielding killer one year after covering up a car accident in which they killed a man.

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Candyman (1992)

Urban Legend: Well, the Boogyman, Bloody Mary, and… the hook?

In the film series, he was portrayed as the vengeful ghost of an African-American man who was brutally beaten, mutilated and fed to the bees by having honey smeared on his body for a forbidden interracial love affair in the 19th century and would haunt and kill anyone who called the name of the Candyman before a mirror five times in a row

Based on the short story, “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker, the film follows a Chicago graduate student completing a thesis on the urban legends which led her to the legend of the “Candyman“.

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Willow Creek (2013)

Urban Legend: Bigfoot

Set in Humboldt County, California, Jim (Bryce Johnson) is a Bigfoot believer whose idea of a romantic getaway is to head deep into Six Rivers National Forest in Northern California, video camera in tow, trying to shoot his own Bigfoot footage at the site of the Patterson–Gimlin film. That 1967 fragment of footage purporting to show a Sasquatch striding along a dry sandbar beside Bluff Creek became a key artifact in the cryptozoology community and Jim dreams of nothing more than setting foot on the actual location where it was shot. His long-suffering girlfriend Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) agrees to tag along for the ride, despite the fact that she thinks Bigfoot has about as much chance of being real as leprechauns.

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Urban Legend (1998)

Urban Legend: Really. Just… Every-single-one

Urban Legend is a 1998 American slasher film directed by Jamie Blanks, written by Silvio Horta, and starring Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, and Tara Reid. So, the best of the 90s as you can see.

Its plot focuses on a series of murders on the campus of a private New England university, all of which appear to be modeled after popular urban legends. The film has been credited by both cinema and folklore scholars as being one of the first major films to redistribute the urban legends and folklore depicted within it to the public.

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