by Natalia Essigmann
They told me about him,
How he was so charming and beautiful.
I wanted to see him,
But I knew I would never be able to.
When it happened to me,
They claimed that he was the one responsible.
But deep down I knew
He was as innocent as the color of his imaginary clothes.
They tarnished his name to protect one of their own
When they should have been protecting me and him, the boto.
The boto cor de rosa is the Amazons’ pink river dolphin and despite being a real animal, is one of Brazil’s most mythological creatures. Considering its complex and deep-rooted history, the pink dolphin is probably my favorite folklore creature in this series! Although there are a few legends involving pink dolphins, one remains the most popular: pink dolphins transform into handsome men wearing all white clothing and a hat (to hide their blowhole) and seduce and potentially impregnate single women (Subramanian, 2020; Myth / Brazilian Folklore, n.d.). Such a seemingly fun and light-hearted legend is actually very dark. Essentially, this legend was created in the Amazons to both cover up sexual assaults and to protect women (ironic, right?). Let me explain. For one, if a woman had gotten sexually assaulted and had reported the incident, people could quickly cover it up by saying that a pink dolphin was responsible. On the other hand, if a woman had gotten pregnant out of wedlock and/or the child’s father did not want to get involved in his child’s life, she could protect herself by saying that she was seduced by a pink dolphin. According to the legend, once the pink dolphin completes what it set out to do, it returns to the river and never walks on land with the same physical appearance again. Thus, since it is impossible to prove the existence of these “boto-men,” these stories covering up sexual assaults and out-of-wedlock pregnancies worked. The state of Pará has one of the highest sexual assault rates in Brazil and has a very Amazon-folklore-rich culture, which, needless to say, is not a coincidence. Unlike Cuca mythology, which is more of a playful thing in Brazil, mythology involving pink dolphins is often seriously believed in isolated river communities near the Amazons (Subramanian, 2020; Myth / Brazilian Folklore, n.d.).
During colonization in South America in the 1500s, Europeans often sexually violated Indigeneous women; this is where the all-white imagery of boto-men is thought to originate (Subramanian, 2020). Thus, another aspect of the legend is that pink dolphins are inherently evil and bring fishermen bad luck. Today, pink dolphins are endangered. Although the legend once protected pink dolphins from being hunted since people were scared of them, today, fishermen hunt pink dolphins and use their meat as bait using the same legend as justification. In other words, the negative beliefs associated with pink dolphins are the reason for their demise; people do not feel bad for killing and using something they believe to be evil. The main reasons for their demise are overfishing, water pollution from mining and drilling, and habitat fragmentation from hydroelectric dams. Pink dolphins also do not breed often. In addition, pink dolphin tourist attractions cause pink dolphins to compete against each other for food and become aggressive, which hurts their numbers in the long run. In 2016, the Daughters of the Dolphin, Never Again was founded as a womens’ anti-abuse support group. Although several women were interested and joined the group, many dropped out because they were told that they were troublemakers and that they would never find a boyfriend if they maintained their membership. This, of course, just goes to show how much of a negative role the legend of the boto cor de rosa plays in Brazilian culture (Subramanian, 2020).
Translated interview with my grandmother, a Brazilian raised in the 1950s and 1960s:
When did you first learn about the boto cor de rosa?
It has been more than 40 years since I first heard about the boto cor de rosa.
What do you know about the boto cor de rosa?
To be honest, I do not know much about it since the legend is not popular [in São Paulo]. I know that it is a legend but that the boto cor de rosa is an animal that actually exists. I think the boto cor de rosa shows up on the beaches in Rio. Also, it seduces women. There was a soap opera on Globo about a woman who got pregnant by her boyfriend and later claimed that the father of her child was a boto cor de rosa, but I do not remember the name.*
*The “soap opera” is actually a 1987 Brazilian film called Ele, o Boto (translated to “Him, the Boto”).
Here is a YouTube video showing the Amazon’s pink river dolphin:
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