Throwback Thursday is taking it back to 1894 and the origins of “Ratoncito Perez” or Perez the Mouse. Perez the Mouse is to Spain as the Tooth Fairy is to us in the United States. The story came about because Prince Alfonso XIII (nicknamed Buby), a sickly child, was deeply bothered when he began to lose his primary teeth. To help ease his fears, the Queen called upon Father Luis Coloma, a popular writer of the era, to write a story for him. In the story young Prince Buby loses his tooth and is visited by a small mouse. The mouse carries a red satchel that he uses to collect all the teeth. In their place, he leaves a small amount of money. When Prince Buby catches the mouse in the act, Perez agrees to take him along on his evening’s work. During the course of the story, Perez takes the prince to his home to meet his family; they live in a Huntley Biscuit box. Later, Perez takes Prince Buby on his errands to collect teeth in one of the poorer areas of town. Here the story takes on a moral message as the prince sees the miseries of the poor and understands that he must do more for the people of his country. Regardless of its political slant, what really stuck with children was the image of the small mouse collecting their teeth and the details of his life. In the story, Perez is described as living in his biscuit box at Calle Arenal #8, just off of Puerta del Sol in Madrid. Sol is Madrid’s Times Square, and Calle Arenal is a busy pedestrian-only shopping street. The mouse’s residence was in the back of Prast’s Confectionary store. For many years there was indeed a confectionery store located at this site. Today, the confectionery store is gone, and #8 is a small shopping arcade with a DVD store, a video game store, and a travel agency. Although the arcade no longer holds the sweet smell of a confectioner, it does commemorate Spain’s tooth collecting little mouse with a plaque, a small statue, and several story boards. In the upper level of the shopping mall is a small museum dedicated to Ratoncito Perez.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 13:45:01 +0000