Are you familiar with what happens with children’s teeth in Spain when they fall at a young age? Who comes along and gets the tooth from under the pillow? Many cultures have different traditions: In England there is a tooth fairy, in Italy there is a small mouse named Topolino, in France and french speaking Belgium they have la petite souris and in Catalonia they have els angelets.
In the rest of Spain and a lot of Hispanic American cultures, they have a little mouse called Mr.Perez, which is a very common Spanish surname. Personally, I find this hilarious, as I have many friends with that surname, so to me it’s a person’s surname. This figure originated in Madrid in 1894 and nowadays when a Spanish child loses a tooth, they must place it under their pillow so that Mr.Perez can sneakily come into the room and replace it for a gift. How fun!
This tradition extends to most Spanish speaking countries to the exception of Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and Chile, where he is called “el Ratón de los Dientes” (The Tooth Mouse), and in Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Colombia, he is known simply as “El Ratón Pérez”.
There it is, an interesting little Spanish culture fact.