The beast, which some believe to be a chupacabras and others feel is some gargoyle come to life, has attacked animals and at least one human near Guánica. Locals say the nocturnal assailant is a sinister entity that makes its lair within the ruins of an old sugar mill. According to reports, the creature has been sighted for a number of years in Guánica, San Germán, and even Lajas - "the UFO capital" of Puerto Rico. Lajas has seen so many reports of UFO's that, in 2005, locals such as Reynaldo Ríos wanted to build a "landing strip" in anticipation for a more official alien visitation.
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As some of you may be aware, I lived in Puerto Rico for several years. During that time, I researched as much as I could about such myths on the island. This is a new one I had not heard before. However, it shares a great deal in common with more established tales, especially those of the 'Moca Vampire', a legend that antedates the chupacabras phenomena by 20 years but shares many similarities. There are also tales of vampiric birds that cropped up in 1989. In 1995, a federal employee reported a giant bat that landed on the hood of his vehicle as he drove through El Yunque, the island's mountainous rainforest.
Over the years, many various reports have cropped up on this island, but they all share the same components: an otherwordly nocturnal creature (usually winged) that attacks locals for the purpose of feeding on their blood.
Thematically, these may be traced back to mythical monsters found among the indigenous people of the Caribbean, specifically the Tainos, who even then described vampiric entitites.
2 comments:
Great Post. Very interesting!
Thank you, Jessica. I am far more interested in the socio-historical facets of these myths than I am in investigating the veracity of reported sightings. I see a cultural motif threading together these disparate accounts that serves as almost a template for future encounters. Does this mean nothing real is causing these stirs? Maybe, but we can't deny that our cultures certainly dictate how we see a given anomaly and how we choose to characterize it.
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