November 8, 2006

Wag the Chupacabras?

Beware of El Chupacabra, mass livestock massacres

BY BRYON WELLS, SUN STAFF WRITER
Yuma (AZ) Sun

Farmers and ranchers: Beware of unexplained mass livestock massacres.

It could mean the legendary El Chupacabra is back.

In the recent past, the Chupacabra craze has grown like wildfire, and, capitalizing on popular culture, street vendors along the U.S.-Mexico border began selling Chupacabra T-shirts, piñatas and porcelain figurines resembling the lizard-like creature. An episode of the popular science fiction television series the "X-Files" even had a Chupacabra episode.

But then it sort of went away.

Sergio Fernandez, who works locally as a consultant for the Arizona Department of Economic Services, has been researching the supernatural for a book he is writing about highway memorial shrines and people who claim to have had encounters with spirits.

Fernandez described the Chupacabra phenomenon as more of a popular culture phenomenon or an urban myth rather than folklore. There is talk in Mexico that the Chupacabra myth got started as sort of a "wag-the-dog" rumor created by a former president to distract national attention away from his corrupt administration.

Fernandez said. "They’re saying that thing was created by Carlos Salinas to take the focus off the problems of Mexico."

According to Wikipedia, the Internet encyclopedia Web site, the "name translates literally from Spanish as ‘goat-sucker.’ ”

It comes from the creature’s reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock. Chupacabra is also supposed to have extraterrestrial connections and is common in areas with UFO sightings.

As Wikipedia explains: "The legend of cipi chupacabra began in about 1992, when Puerto Rican newspapers El Vocero and El Nuevo Dia began reporting the killings of many different types of animals, such as birds, horses, and as its name implies, goats."

Often, legends have some practical purpose or cultural significance behind them, Fernandez said.

Faron Owl, a teacher at San Pasqual High School and a member of the Quechan Tribe, said every culture has it’s own stories. And, "almost every tribe has its own monster," he added.

A figure in Quechan culture that resembles the Chupacabra is the "goat man," Owl said.

"It’s one way that if your children are not behaving or (are) making the wrong decisions, that guy’s gonna come and get you," Owl said.

Filed under Bigfoot Report, Chupacabras, Cryptozoology, Eyewitness Accounts, Folklore, Pop Culture, Public Forum