Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Chupacabras
I was born and raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico, as was my entire family. The story of the Chupacabra is one I heard as a child from my older cousins. It was told to me that it was a large monster like animal that attacked goats, chickens, and other farm animals of the families that lived up in the mountains. It liked to suck the blood of the animals and leave the carcasses behind. It only came out at night and that's why as children we needed to come inside to play as it got dark because the Chupacabra could come get us. Some of my older cousins would try to bring us into the forest and mountains at night to search for it and even one claims he heard the screech. I think of it now a lot as Puerto Rico's boogie monster. I was scared of the Chupacabra and kids in New Jersey were scared of the Jersey Devil. To me it seems that its just in human nature to find an answer for things or occurrences we don't understand regardless of how ridiculous it may seem.
I remember watching an episode of a show about the Chupacabra when I was younger but I knew it was nowhere near me so I never worried about it. Then I was in the middle of the El Yunque Rain Forest in Puerto Rico, climbing through the woods and swimming in waterfalls, having a blast. One of the people I was with mentioned that someone was telling a story about a monster on the rocks near the waterfall. I don't speak fluent Spanish but I can understand the main parts of their language. As I was listening I heard them say El Chupacabra, and it rang a bell in my head. I thought oh yeah,its that weird little monster thing in the woods in the caribbean. Then i realized they were telling the story of it there on that day because that's where the stories of it originated. I couldn't believe I forgot about the story and that I was right in the middle of the woods (again), with a monster.
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