The Cocorícamo of the Dominican Republic: Aesthetic Journeys between America and Europe through a Zoomorphic Mask

The Cocorícamo is a traditional character in Holy Week performances in San Juan de la Maguana (Dominican Republic), characterized by a mask made from the complete skull of a cow. Drawing on the Cocorícamo mask, this article proposes a comparative analysis of zoomorphic masks made from the complete skulls of bovines and equines in the Americas and Europe. Besides outlining the uncertain origins of the Cocorícamo mask, the study highlights aesthetic journeys spanning both sides of the Atlantic through a type of mask that has been documented—with local variations—in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, the Lesser Antilles, the British Isles, and the Iberian Peninsula between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries.