So in Mexican culture, there’s this thing called “El Cucuy,” (pronounced, koo-koo-ee) which is basically like the boogeyman. Like when you’re a kid, and you’re being bad, it’s something that parents will tell you about to make you behave. Like if you’re not eating your dinner, or you were told to clean your room and you aren’t, you’re mom might say like “you better eat your dinner or clean your room or el Cucuy is going to eat you.” And it works. That shit was the scariest! I was so afraid that he was actually going to eat me. Literally like every single time they pulled the “cucuy” card on me I did whatever they wanted me to do.

And where does the Cucuy live?

Uh, I knew some other kids whose parents told them about “el cucuy” too and for them, he lived under the bed like the boogeyman, but the way my Nina told it to me was that he hid in the closet and he only came out if I was misbehaving.

Did this ever make you afraid of going into your closet?

Only if I was doing something I knew I wasn’t supposed, otherwise it was just a closet, cause they told me that [el cucuy] would only come out if I was being bad or wasn’t listening to my mom or something.

And this is a Mexican thing?

Well, ya like any Latin country really. I don’t know who like actually made it up, or started the el cucuy thing, but it’s definitely spread throughout Latin culture.

When did you stop believing in El Cucuy?

I mean, I don’t know the particular date or year or whatever, but just at that like age you get to when you start thinking you’re too cool for things. And nothing triggered my disbelief in him, but you just figure it out at some point, you know?

My Reaction:

I have a bunch of friends who come from Mexican families, so I’m very familiar with the cucuy. Parents do things like this all the time. They threaten kids with a creature so that they will do what their told, however, cucuy is particularly scary because he is supposedly something that will eat children.