Raton Perez
El Ratoncito Pérez or Ratón Pérez (lit. transl. Perez the Little Mouse or Perez Mouse) is a fantasy figure of early childhood in Spanish and Hispanic American cultures. The folklore states that when children lose one of their milk teeth, they should place it underneath their pillow or on their bedside table and he will visit while they sleep, replacing the lost tooth with a small payment or gift, as does the Tooth Fairy in other cultures. Although he first appeared in oral tradition folktales such as The Vain Little Mouse, it was Luis Coloma who in 1894 turned him into a tooth dealer in a tale written for an eight-year-old King Alfonso XIII.
The tradition is almost universal in Spanish cultures, with some slight differences. He is generally known as "El Ratoncito Pérez", except in some regions of Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and Chile, where he is called "El Ratón de los Dientes" (transl. The Tooth Mouse), and in Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Colombia, where he is simply known as "El Ratón Pérez". Similarly in the Philippines, some Christian ethnic groups have the same allusion of a rat when they lose the teeth. However, unlike in the Hispanic countries, the rat is not named.
El Ratoncito Pérez stars in the 2006 Spanish-Argentine film The Hairy Tooth Fairy and its 2008 sequel. He has also been used in Colgate marketing in Venezuela.
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