Mistaken Memories of : Pseudohistories of the As well-known monsters go, the chupacabra is of very recent vintage, first appearing in 1995. However, some writers have created pseudohistories and claimed a false antiquity for the Hispanic beast. These examples provide a fascinating look at cryptozoological folklore in the making.

BENJAMIN RADFORD

ost people assume that the chupacabra, like its acy-laden Frankenstein scenario. Not coincidentally, these two origin stories cryptozoological brethren and Nessie, dates are identical to those of Sil, a chupaca- Mback many decades or centuries. However, as dis- bra-like monster in the film Species (see Figure 1 and Radford 2014). cussed in my book : The Vampire The alien/Frankenstein’s monster Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore and in the pages of the explanation, though embraced by , the origin of the mysterious vampire many and others soon after the chupacabra’s 1995 appear- beast el chupacabra can be traced back to a Puerto Rican ance, was unsatisfactory (and perhaps eyewitness who saw the 1995 film Species, which featured too outlandish) to some, who then offered their own histories of the a nearly identical monster. Though both vampire legends vampire beast. A blank slate history and “mysterious” animal predation date back many centu- creates an information vacuum easily ries, there seems to be no evidence of any blood-sucking filled by mystery-mongering specu- lation. (For analysis of historical ch- “chupacabra” before the 1990s. upacabra claims since the 1950s, see my SI columns “The Mystery of the The beast turned twenty last year, accounts of encounters with unknown Texas Chupacabra” in the March/ and its recent vintage poses a thorny corporeal creatures. (For more on this April 2014 issue and “Texas Monsters problem for those who wish to claim process, see and Don- and the Chupacabra” in the May/June it exists, because any evolutionary ald Prothero’s Abominable Science! Ori- 2015 issue.) provenance for these unknown mon- gins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous sters is glaringly absent. Real animals Cryptids; and Michel Meurger’s Lake Chupacabra Attributed don’t simply appear out of nowhere; Monster Traditions: A Cross-Cultural to Early New all animals are subject to the same Analysis; as well as the book I coau- evolutionary pressures and must have thored with , Because the chupacabra first appeared descended from earlier, equally known Mysteries: Investigating the World’s Most in and for several years animals. The tree of life simply doesn’t Elusive Creatures.) was mostly reported in Spanish- have a branch for the chupacabra, any The chupacabra has two origin sto- speaking countries, it’s not surprising more than it does for Bigfoot, Nessie, ries invoked to help explain its sudden that would serve as a dragons, or the Jersey Devil.1 appearance: the first is that the crea- plausible setting for an origin story. In When forced to account for this ture is an extraterrestrial brought here his book Enchanted Legends and Lore conspicuous lack of historical record, by visiting aliens; the second is that the of , Ray John De Aragon proponents often co-opt native myths chupacabra is an escaped entity cre- includes a fanciful tale titled “The and legends of spirits, tak- ated in a top-secret U.S. government Sheepherder and the Chupacabra,” in ing them out of context and mischar- genetics laboratory experiment gone which a shepherd named Francisco acterizing them as actual eyewitness wrong—essentially a classic conspir- recounts a story:

50 Volume 40 Issue 1 | Skeptical Inquirer Dona Serafina, the old curandera [medicine woman] . . . said that many, many years ago, people were finding dead cattle, dead chickens, dead cibolos (bison), dead , and and even a person who seemed like the blood had been drained out. Since whatever it was mainly attacked goats, she said—a goatsucker—the people called the mys- tery animal a chupacabra. Dona Serafina went on to tell them that ancient Indians had this strange breed of animal. She said that she herself had seen one with her own eyes following an Indian witch doctor who had it as a pet. “The chupacabra stopped and stared at me,” she said. “It was an evil stare that sent a chill up and down my spine. But I was not going to show it that I was afraid. I just took out my detente, my picture with an embroidered edge that said [in English] The Sacred Heart of Jesus is with me. Detentes are to keep evil away from you and protect you. When the chupacabra saw the detente, it gave me a mad stare and followed its master, dragging its long skinny tail and turn- Figure 1. The “chupacabra” first described in ing to look back at me every now and then. I just held my 1995 in Puerto Rico by eyewitness Madelyne detente out with my hand toward him. I don’t go anywhere Tolentino, along with the movie monster from the without my detente. You never know when you’re going to film Species, which she’d recently seen. see a chupacabra.” Illustration by the author. Some time after hearing this emotional story, while out on the plains tending sheep, Francisco encountered a strange creature . . . sniffing and giving the shepherd a mad stare. . . . It was a chupacabra, and it hungrily looked around at the scared sheep. Francisco took his detente out of his shirt pocket, and while holding it in his hand he recited the Lord’s Prayer several times in succession. The chupacabra looked at him with its red eyes and growled fiercely, then turned and walked away. His detente had saved The idea that a chupacabra his life. (De Aragon 2012, 91–92) was kept as a pet by a Native Anyone familiar with folklore or the true story of the chupacabra—and I modestly count myself in both catego- American witch doctor centuries ries—will recognize that it has no basis whatsoever in fact or history. If it is indeed a “legend” of New Mexico, it’s a ago is a novel twist. new one fabricated in 2012 by De Aragon with no truth or historical provenance. It’s a brand new story featuring a creature that first appeared in 1995, retroactively provid- ing the beast with a fictional—and to many readers likely plausible—ancient heritage. The idea that a chupacabra was kept as a pet by a Native American witch doctor centuries sent even a shred of corroborating evidence (for example, a ago is a novel twist, and the theme of a threatening demonic written historical mention of the creature or even an inde- beast being scared off by the faithful who invoke Jesus is pendent “eyewitness” account of an encounter with one), it’s straight out of standard Catholic canon. (For more on the safe to assume that this “legend” is wholly fictional. chupacabra being used as a symbol of Satan by religious authorities—primarily Pentecostals—see pages 53 to 55 in Coronado, Zuni, and the Chupacabra Tracking the Chupacabra.) Another “legendary” claim to a natural history of the This fictional story, while making for an entertaining tale, chupacabra comes from Bob Curran in his book Vampires: runs the very real risk of being taken as a genuine historical legend by the book’s readers. Though De Aragon clearly cre- A Field Guide to the Creatures That Stalk the Night. He ated the story, he implies that it is based on a legend told to describes early explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s him as true. Folklorists are careful to give references and cita- encounter with the goatsucker (see Figure 2). In a chapter tions for the stories they offer, to demonstrate both scholarly titled “El Chupacabra,” Curran writes: diligence and proper attribution, but these are unfortunately A legend says that as he camped during the night, absent in De Aragon’s book. Coronado’s livestock were attacked. It is told that some Even if De Aragon had heard some odd kernel of a of his men drove off the attackers—described as small, dark, horny-skinned men—with torches and spears. In the demon vampire story that he embellished into his chupaca- morning, many of the cattle, which made up the main herd bra tale, the details and facts he offers are so far removed (1,500 animals), were dead, drained of blood. Despite this from the original sources that any historical account of a real setback, Coronado was able to buy cattle from local Indians, chupacabra encounter is hopelessly lost and garbled. Ab- replacing most of those that he’d lost, and press onward in

Skeptical Inquirer | January/February 2016 51 Zunis, not swapping friendly stories with them, and it’s possible that the tribe told him the stories of the savage knife-spined dwarfs as an indirect warning to Coronado of the dangers his men faced in the area unless they moved along. Even if the legend is true—and there’s no reason to think it is—there’s also the problem that Spaniards and Indians didn’t speak the same language; in fact, the two groups communicated largely through hand signals and rough interpretations. In his book Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest in Pursuit of Coronado, Douglas Preston (1992) describes several instances in which the meanings of words and messages got mangled and mistranslated between Coronado and Zunis (chickens were mistaken for turkeys and cattle for buffalo, for example). When communicating important messages from Coronado “it is unclear just how much of this the Zuni understood,” Preston notes, which is not surprising since messages between the groups were “explained through signs” (285). Preston states that Coro- nado “asked the Indians to paint a cloth for him showing all the animals in the area, which they did” (304). It de- picted buffalo, elk, , and other known animals—yet the chupa cabra was conspicuously missing.

Thus we see that the dramatic, specific, and mysterious details offered in the legend are Figure 2. A garbled—and possibly nonexistent—legend suggests that conquis- tador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado encountered knife-wielding cannibal unlikely in the extreme. dwarves while exploring what is now New Mexico in the 1500s. Illustration by Celestia Ward.

his quest. In the Zuni Indian pueblo at Hawikuh in A more serious problem is that—even assuming for Western New Mexico, he heard tales of strange grey men the moment that details of the legend are true and that “with knives on their backs” who had sporadically fought Coronado accurately understood and reported what he with the Zunis in times long past. They could jump, the heard from the Zuni—there’s no clear connection with the Zunis told him, and drop off their warriors from above, killing them with pointed sticks. It was said, the Zunis chupacabra. Chupacabra have appeared in various forms went on, that they drank blood. These tales were of little and been reported to have a disparate variety of features interest to Coronado, as his destination was the legendary including wings, a tail, red eyes, and so on—none of the Cibola, and all this talk of ferocious dwarves was only a reports described “small, dark, horny-skinned men” or distraction. (Curran 2005, 46) “strange grey men” or “ferocious [warrior] dwarves” armed There are many clues that this story—confused as it with torches and spears. Even assuming the description is—is not true. To his credit, Curran does offer several has some basis in fact, the “knives” mentioned on the backs caveats about its veracity (“a legend says . . .” “it is told could simply describe where these mysterious “dwarves” that . . .” etc.), and as with De Aragon’s legend it’s import- sheathed their blades. The vampirism claim, though also ant to pay attention to this story’s fifthhand provenance: superficially aligned with the chupacabra, is in fact unre- Curran is describing what a legend says that Coronado markable and standard lore universally used to demonize claims about what he heard from Zuni Indians when they enemies (with echoes of the blood libel myths as well). told him about what their forefathers told them they did a Curran offers another (even more confusing and im- half-millennia ago. probable) version of this story in his book American Vam- I have no idea what, if anything, this alleged legend pires: Their True Bloody History from New York to Califor- means, and Curran clearly doesn’t either. Spanish con- nia. It concerns Coronado’s expedition whose cattle were quistador Coronado was of course attacking and killing attacked one night.

52 Volume 40 Issue 1 | Skeptical Inquirer Ancient Alien and Pre-Atomic The attackers were “little gray men” bus reached the Americas) knew of Age with hard and spiky skins, which set the chupacabra. It notes that “figures upon the animals in order to draw Other pseudohistories of the chupaca- their blood and consume some of of beasts are prominent in the mythol- their internal organs. They were bra can be found in a sensational, spe- ogy and artifacts found in the Taina only driven away by fire—the men cial edition of the Spanish-language culture” (translation mine); and “We held lighted torches to push them magazine Contacto OVNI (UFO Con- here at Redaccion Noticiosa believe that back. Local natives later told the tact), which contains an article titled the presence of the chupacabra dates Spaniards that these were chupaca- bras ( suckers) and that they “El Chupacabras Hace 70 Anos” (“70 back to the pre-Conquest days when lived in the surrounding hills. They Years of the Chupacabra”) and offered the Tainos ruled the island.” were cannibals who drank blood, wild conjecture about the creature’s The booklet goes on to theorize and, if confronted they would origins, including a section titled that the Tainos’ reverence for the attack humans as well as animals. It was said that they only came at “Chupacabras of the Pre-Atomic El Yunque rainforest and the deities night. . . . Locals told them that the Era,” which tries in vain to link the they believed existed there (claimed beings . . . had lived there for a very beast to a wholly unrelated 1925 news by some to be the home of the orig- long time, attacking their goats and story about animal predation in Africa inal chupacabra) allowed the ani- cattle and sometimes themselves, (Romero 1996). mal to thrive there. Nonetheless, the and that there were some among them who could change shape, tak- In the archives of the Universidad Tainos would apparently hunt—and ing on the guise of a bird or . Interamericana at Bayamon, Puerto sometimes eat—the chupacabra, as 2 (Curran 2013b, 190) Rico, I discovered another Span- depicted in a fantastic drawing il- Cannibals, of course, eat their own ish-language booklet, rather boldly lustrating a stereotypical scene of an kind and therefore the “chupacabras” titled La Verdadera Historia del Ch- armed Taino man watching a woman Curran describes would be neither upacabras (The True History of Chupa- preparing food next to a chupacabra extraterrestrial nor canid nor demon cabras), which purports to reveal the being roasted on a spit over an open but instead human—an identification true history of the beast. After be- fire (see Figure 3). reinforced by the descriptions of them ginning with long-since discredited Perhaps the most outlandish fic- as “little men” using spears. But of accounts of the chupacabra by UFO tional origin story for the chupacabra course this “legend” is not internally researcher Jorge Martin, the nine- presented as speculative fact comes consistent, as these “chupacabras” are ty-six-page book—written under the from writer Scott Corrales, contribut- also magical shape-shifting creatures. name Redaccion Noticiosa (1996)— ing a chapter on the beast to a book Thus we see that the dramatic, suggests that the Taino Indians (an of conspiracy theories. In it he quotes specific, and mysterious details of- Arawak-related group who inhabited a Chilean researcher named Ferrer fered in the legend are unlikely in the many Caribbean islands when Colum- who was told by an elderly man that extreme. Even if the Zuni did in fact try to describe some animal unknown to the invading Spaniards, who knows how garbled the description must have been (between Zuni hand signs and drawings translated into Spanish and later to English) to end up with something like “strange grey men with knives on their backs.” If this story is not made out of whole cloth, then its fabric content certainly approaches 100 percent. Again, despite the legend repeat- edly invoking the label chupacabra to describe the mythical cannibalistic, vampiric, gray dwarves that Coronado is dubiously reported to have heard about, the connection to the chupaca- bra is virtually nonexistent. To clarify the question about the source—and therefore historical veracity—of this Figure 3. Taino couple roast a chupacabra over an story I contacted Curran, who told open fire. From La Verdadera Historia del Chupaca- bras. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Redaccion Noticiosa. me “I’ve used the Coronado story in a couple of books but I’ve no idea whether it’s true or not.”3

Skeptical Inquirer | January/February 2016 53 “‘his grandfather’s grandfathers’ were hard to clarify (for years I have had a goats and cattle—were assumed by locals to not be coyotes at all but instead chupacabras that well aware that these predators [ch- standing, unclaimed $1,000 reward had cleverly changed into coyote form before upacabras] existed and that they were, for any verifiable, published pre-1990s attacking the livestock. This seems rather like in fact, gods who came to leave mes- reference to a vampiric chupacabra assuming that a pet dog that soiled the floor must have really been an unknown shape-shift- sages. In the past, these messages were anywhere in the world). ing animal at the time—instead of the dog it articulated as complete sentences, but The gradual expansion of what obviously was—because a beloved pet wouldn’t now they were numerical in nature . . . is popularly called a “chupacabra” is do that. 666—the mark of the beast” (Corrales common; in my book I describe how 3. Curran told me: “According to my notes it comes from a book which I was shown in the 2004, 127). Corrales gives free rein to the word originally referred to a very Biblioteca National in Barcelona a good num- this fact-free speculation and conjec- specific alien-type creature in the mid- ber of years ago. The book is Las Adventuras del ture, concluding by asking ominously, 1990s but had expanded to include Gran General Francesco de Coronado, Explorador y Goberndor de Nueva Galicia y Otres en America “Who or what are these strange deities hairless canids by 2000, and by 2010 and the date I have for it is 1895. For some rea- feared and worshipped by the ancient virtually any animal not immediately son I don’t have the author but it is published Atacamans [people from Atacama, identifiable was dubbed (either infor- in Madrid or so my notes say. It is in Catalan Spanish (I think that it’s Catalan) but I got ]? . . . . What would occur if mally or by the news media) as a chu- a friend to translate some portions for me” the Atacamans neglected to perform pacabra. This same phenomenon has (Curran 2013a). the [blood sacrifice] ritual? Did their occurred in the literature as well, with deities send monstrous minions [i.e., stories under the name “chupacabra” References chupacabra] to collect the blood they retroactively applied to legends and Corrales, Scott. 2004. Chupacabras: A study needed?” (Corrales 2004). rumors that historical figures claimed in darkness. In The New Conspiracy Reader: From Planet X to the War on Terrorism— to have heard about some strange en- What You Really Don’t Know, edited by Al counter. Since the references here pre- Hidell and Joan D’Arc. New York: Citadel date the publication of my research, Press. Rumor, urban Curran, Bob. 2005. Vampires: A Field Guide to it’s too soon to tell what effect, if any, the Creatures that Stalk the Night. Pompton legends, and it will have in correcting the record. Plains, New Jersey: Career Press. The migration of narrative themes ———. 2013a. Interview by the author, folklore are not seen in these and other pseudohis- January 27. ———. 2013b. American Vampires: Their True fixed but instead tories of the chupacabra is to be ex- Bloody History from New York to California. pected. Rumor, urban legends, and Pompton Plains, New Jersey: Career Press. folklore are not fixed but instead are De Aragon, Ray John. 2012. Enchanted Legends are constantly and Lore of New Mexico: Witches, , and constantly changing. As the researcher Spirits. Charleston, South Carolina: The changing. who first identified the origin of the History Press. chupacabra, I can lament the con- Preston, Douglas. 1992. Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest in founding stories that have emerged Pursuit of Coronado. New York: Simon & Conclusion around this Hispanic vampire beast. Schuster. However, the forces of folklore cannot Radford, Benjamin. 2014. Tracking the I’ve discovered several examples of Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, be stopped, and trying to correct the fabricated pseudohistories of the Fiction, and Folklore. Albuquerque, New record is a Canutian task. Folklore has Mexico: Press. chupacabra, ranging from Zuni med- a life of its own, and the best I can do Redaccion Noticiosa. 1996. La Verdadera icine man pet to vampiric minions is explain the true origin of the chu- Historia del Chupacabras. San Juan, Puerto sent by Mesoamerican deities to Rico: Redaccion Noticiosa. pacabra back as far as I can and help spear-wielding cannibal shape-shifting Romero, Armando Nicolau. 1996. El document the monster’s spread in pop Chupacabras hace 70 anos. In Contacto dwarves. I don’t begrudge authors their culture. The information is there for OVNI—Edicion Especial. Corporativo speculative historical fiction—Curran Mina, Mexico. those who wish to look, but I know and De Aragon are fine storytellers better than most that the truth never who offer vivid, engaging stories based ■ stands in the way of a good story. , on myths and legends—but one false MEd, is an investi- explanation is as good as any other Notes gator and author of absent references or documentation. 1. There have, of course, been various eight books, includ- The true history of the chupacabra attempts to place mythical creatures within ing several on mys- is a fascinating and improbable story an evolutionary framework. For a fascinat- in its own right, full of conspiracy the- ing look at taxonomical attempts to find a terious creatures, place for fairies, water spirits, and angels in a ories, vampire lore, and media hype. mass hysterias, and Darwinian worldview, for example, see Charles urban legends. His Presenting fabricated stories as “leg- W. Leadbeater’s 1913 book The Hidden Side ends” only serves to blur the lines be- of Things. next book is Bad Clowns, to be published 2. It’s not clear in this legend why animals in 2016 by the University of New Mexico tween fact and fiction—lines that re- that look and act exactly like coyotes—which searchers such as myself have worked are well known to attack livestock, including Press.

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