{"id":2688,"date":"2011-09-12T21:00:39","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T21:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/?p=2688"},"modified":"2014-07-24T18:54:11","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T18:54:11","slug":"the-legend-of-the-cuca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/the-legend-of-the-cuca\/","title":{"rendered":"The Legend of the Cuca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While there are a number of Brazilian legends, one of the best known is that of the <em>cuca<\/em>, a mythical character popularized in Brazilian culture. The cuca, which originally came from the Portuguese coca, a dragon legend, was brought to Brazil in colonial times. The cuca is an ugly old woman who appears in the form of a crocodile and robs disobedient children. The cuca only sleeps once every seven years, and parents sometimes use this element of the legend to scare children who don&#8217;t want to go to sleep, telling them that the cuca will get them if they don&#8217;t go to bed. Although cuca came from the Portuguese coca, in Tupi (an indigenous language of Brazil), cuca means to swallow something with a single gulp.<\/p>\n<p>The cuca legend was further popularized by a 1921 book by Monteiro Lobato, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">O Saci<\/span>, which detailed a number of Brazilian legends, including the cuca. Later, the legend was made into a movie in the 1950s, and was adapted for TV on the Globo show <em>S\u00edtio do Picapau Amarelo<\/em> beginning in the 1970s. The TV cuca had a blonde wig, lived in a cave, and made magical potions.<\/p>\n<p>The cuca was also popularized in music, including the lullaby &#8220;Nana nen\u00e9&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RHe_wnilnXQ\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RHe_wnilnXQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The main refrain of the lullaby goes:<\/p>\n<p>Nana nenem\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sleep, little one<br \/>\nque a cuca vem pegar\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The cuca&#8217;s going to get you<br \/>\npapai foi pra ro\u00e7a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daddy went to the fields<br \/>\nmam\u00e3e foi trabalhar\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And Mommy went to work<br \/>\nDesce gatinho\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Come down, little cat<br \/>\nDe cima do telhado\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From the roof<br \/>\nPra ver se a crian\u00e7a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To see if the child<br \/>\nDorme um sono sossegado\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is sleeping peacefully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"160\" height=\"250\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/09\/cuca.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p>While there are a number of Brazilian legends, one of the best known is that of the cuca, a mythical character popularized in Brazilian culture. The cuca, which originally came from the Portuguese coca, a dragon legend, was brought to Brazil in colonial times. The cuca is an ugly old woman who appears in the&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/the-legend-of-the-cuca\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":2690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[105101,5860],"class_list":["post-2688","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-cuca","tag-legend"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2688"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5715,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688\/revisions\/5715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}