Chupacabra

"A shepherd wakes at dawn to find that his flock has been devastated by what at first appears to be a wild animal. Usually, the victims are entirely drained of blood" (Carson 107). After closer examination, the animals appear to have small puncture holes resembling teeth marks. The Chupacabra has reappeared.

A question regarding Chupacabra was posed in response to one of our blog articles. I have no personal experiences about the Chupacabra to relate, and I do not know if one really exists. Still, the creature is interesting to discuss.

While not considered "a true vampire", "the tale of the Chupacabra seems eerily akin to vampire legends, making the creature all the more mysterious and frightful" (Carson 106). But, "to the folks living in this region," stretching from South America to the United States, "the "Chupacabra" is more fact than fiction," It is "the south-west's answer to Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster"(106).

"Chupacabra stories are relatively recent phenomena" (Koven 73). "The reputed creature has been part of local lore for hundreds of years, but only recently has begun to garner more public attention" (Carson 106). "The first recorded incident occurred in the turn-of-the-century (19th-20th) New Mexico, although rumors of a strange animal date back to early 1800's" (Carson 106). However, the majority of Chupacabra reports come from the past decade. "No one knows why it suddenly began to make regular appearances in the early 1990s, but since 1995 the Chupacabra has been blamed for the deaths of over 2,000 farm animals, and has been reported as far away as Russia and Hawaii!" (Ho 68).

Reports of the Chupacabra range "from Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and even Russia. After an intensive two-year period [1994-1996] of goat sucking, the creature seemed to disappear from Puerto Rico and everywhere else" (O'Keefe 292).

The name, Chupacabra, literally means "one sucks goat" or "goat-sucker". While this name sounds rather funny to us, it is very descriptive because the Chupacabra is the monster responsible for draining the blood of livestock, particularly goats, in the Americas. Some sources credit Silverio Perez, a Puerto Rican entertainer & entrepreneur, with coining the name. He noted the creature's propensity to drink the blood of goats in 1987 (Wikipedia). Other sources claim that "the term "Chupacabra" was first coined" in Mexico where "Goat-herding is a vital part of the economy" (Carson 107). Regardless of its origin, "most of the stories" associated with the Chupacabra "are basically the same" (Carson 107).

"Much of the information we have on the Chupacabra's appearance has been pieced together from eyewitness accounts. Allegedly ranging from three to six feet in length, the creature is said to have a sleek, hairless body with a tail that varies in size. Grayish-blue skin is usually complimented by huge, red eyes that peer out from a slightly oversized head. The most striking characteristic is undoubtedly the row of razor-sharp spikes that protrude from the animal's spine, rivaling its claws in sharpness"(Carson 106). "A typical chupacabra weighs about 30 or 40 pounds" (Morton). "Some reports have listed slightly different attributes" but "most are remarkably similar" (Carson 106).

The Chupacabra hunts at night and does not harm humans unless provoked. There is only a single report of a diurnal Chupacabra from Canovanas. This tale describes a "Chupacabra walking in the street in the middle of the afternoon! When [the spectators] approached it, the creature ran away" (Ho 68).

There have been several instances when authorities have attempted to discredit the tales of the Chupacabra or blame the instances on other sources. "The discovery of a 'vampire cult' in eastern Arizona" prompted an investigation into the Chupacabra stories. "In March of 1998, several cult members were convicted of stealing cattle and sheep...for their 'religious practices'" The carcasses recovered from the 'vampire cult' were "grossly mutilated, with large holes punctured in the torsos to facilitate the blood-letting. However, in the Chupacabra cases, the bodies have almost always been relatively intact, with the sole sign of injury being small, nondescript puncture wounds" (Carson 110). Another group sought publicity from the Chupacabra and fabricated an animal for display. The "Ghastly Cattle-Vampire" corpse starred in a traveling sideshow in the early 1990s. This creature was revealed to be a hoax--a corpse assembled from body parts of various animals including a crocodile and monkey. (109).

So where does the Chupacabra come from?
"In some circles, it is speculated that perhaps the elusive creature is in fact a real animal, a remnant from another geological period" (Carson 110). Other people believe the creature to be an extraterrestrial. The glowing red eyes make it appear other-worldly. The theory of an alien Chupacabra is particularly popular in West Texas and Arizona where reported UFO sightings are more commonplace than in other areas of the world. These are good theories, but to the Mexican "village folk...the Chupacabra" is "the Devil incarnate or...one of his demons" (110).

Hasta luego,
Ana

Note: We will not be discussing aliens, the Montauk monster, or any monsters not related to the vampire in our blog. Of course, you are welcome to bring them up in discussion topics/comments, but we will not formally address the topic of such creatures.


Sources:
Carson, Kyle. Sacred.
Ho, Oliver. Josh Cochran. Mysteries Unwrapped
Koven, Mikel J. Film, folklore, and urban legends.
Morton, EW. Out for Blood.
O'Keefe, M Timothy. Caribbean hiking.
Wikipedia. "Silverio Perez". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverio_P%C3%A9rez

Vampires in Mexico

Mexico possesses "some notable vampire lore because of the cultures that once inhabited the region" (Konstantinos 32). Vampires in Mexican folklore "are believed to be linked to Tezcatlipoca, an Aztec god" (Universal). "Tezcatlipoca, whose name means 'Lord of the Smoking Mirror', is widely regarded as the supreme god of the Mesoamerican pantheon" (Willis 239). He was a hideous creature and considered "the god of hell". "Tezcatlipoca was also known as Yaotzin, "The Enemy" and in a thousand horrid phantom shapes he haunted the woods during the dark hours" (Summers 261).

"The Aztecs had a belief in female vampire beings called the cihuateteo" (also written civateteo & ciuateteo). "Like many other female vampiric entities, a cihuateteo was created when a woman died in childbirth. The vampires would roam and attack children, as did the lamiae of Greece" (Konstantinos 32). "These vampire-witches held Sabbaths at crossroads and were believed to attack young children and mate with human men, producing children who were also vampires" (Universal). These creatures exhibit behavior common to the vampires of Ancient Greece--the lamia and empusa.

Another named variety of vampire in Mexico is the Tlahuelpuchi. The tlahuelpuchi is a "living vampire," which "makes a strong case for the existence of psychic vampires. This was a person who could somehow transform him or herself and feed off others" (Konstantinos 32). This vampire lives with his/her "human family, is able to shapeshift and sucks the blood of infants at night" (Universal).

"The tlahuelpuchi is born with their curse and cannot avoid it. Sometime around puberty they first learn of what they are. The vast majority of tlahuelpuchi are female and the female tlahuelpuchi are more powerful than the male" (Universal). "These vampires have a glowing aura and they "change form by detaching their body from their legs." They usually hunt in the form of a bird, and before the attack they fly over a house from the North to the South while maintaining the shape of a cross. "Garlic, onions and metal repel Tlahuelpuchi. Sometimes the metal is represented by a pair of open scissors", which is also usual in much of Eastern European lore (Universal). "The tlahuelpuchi have a form of society. Typically they each have their own territories" and they remain close to their human families. Family members usually protect the tlahuelpuchi, and if a family member reveals the identity of a tlahuelpuchi, "the curse will be passed down to that family member" (Universal).

Some scholars argue the source of vampire myths in Mexico. They claim that vampires did not descend from the Aztec god, citing the similarities of myths with those from Europe. John Kraniauskas suggests that vampires in Mexico rose amid the "themes of contemporary culture and global capitalism" and "introduces vampires into the cannibal scene." There is a progression from "ferocious man-eating" creatures of "mythic borderlands and colonial fantasy to the more refined and civilised sipping of blood." He asks, "Is vampirism a simultaneously aristocratic, modern and popular European form of cannibalism...recoded through the displacements of the 'civilising process'?" (Barker 31).

Other scholars assert that vampire bats are the source of the legends. Mexico is the home to one of the "two kinds of...blood sucking bat in the world: Desmodus rufus". The range of this bat is from "Southern Mexico to Argentina" (Gadow 441). These bats are feared for their blood-sucking nature and their ability to spread disease. Possibly, existing vampire lore was perpetuated by the aggravation created by vampire bats.

Whether scientific, political, or religious, stories of Mexican vampires are prevalent and persistent. However in recent times, Mexico has made advances against a different sort of blood-sucker. Read about the near-eradication of one type of blood sucker in Mexico.

Ca ndyi,
Ana


Sources:
Barker, Francis. Peter Hulme, Margaret Iversen. Cannibalism and the colonial world.
Gadow, Hans. Through southern Mexico, being an account of the travels of a naturalist.
Konstantinos. Vampires: The Occult Truth.
Summers, Montague. The vampire his kith and kin.
Universal Vampire: http://vampires.monstrous.com/universal_vampire.htm
Willis, Roy G. World Mythology.