Podcast #2 -Ashley Pacheco

The podcast is about urban myths and legends. The topic of this episode is El Chupacabra, a legendary creature known for killing animals by sucking their blood. The sightings and stories come from Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the United States, as well as other countries. In Puerto Rico, there were animal killings in 1975 and 1995, with the animals being drained of blood. There are similar legends in other places, such as the Ozark Howler, Puechins of Chile, Sigbin in the Philippines, and Grunchins in New Orleans. Hi, and welcome back to the podcast. This is the second episode, and as a reminder, this podcast is about urban myths, legends, and stories we all grew up listening to. Well, maybe not all of us, but some of us. So, for today's topic, I chose El Chupacabra, and the El Chupacabra is a legendary creature, or cryptid, in folklore. The physical description of the creature may vary depending on your source, but most will say that it is no larger than an average-sized dog. So, Chupacabra translates, or means, goat sucker, and El Chupacabra is known for killing animals by sucking on their blood. Which, that sounds kind of familiar, because we all know of a creature called a vampire. So, the first major wave of alleged Chupacabra sightings come from farmers in Puerto Rico, in the late 1980s to the early 1990s. These sightings and the stories really come from Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the United States, but there were other animal deaths reported in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru. In 1975, there was a series of livestock killed in Puerto Rico. It was originally suspected as a satanic cult, so a group of people that did sacrifices, as they would put it. Later on, there was more killings reported, so this theory was cut short, and these animals that were reported had been drained of their blood through a series of small, circular incisions. In March of 1995, eight sheep were found dead. There were three puncture wounds in the chest, and they were drained of their blood as well. In August of 1995, Madeline Palantino, I believe that's how you would pronounce her name, reported seeing the creature in a Puerto Rican town, as many as 150 farm animals were killed around this time as well. So that is the basic overview of the Chupacabra, or as much knowledge as I can find about it. I mean, you would find many different variations of this, but this is what I have come to find. There is related legends, such as the Ozark Howler, which is a large, bear-like animal. The Puechins of Chile, and I'm very sorry if I mispronounced that at all. The Sigbin in the Philippines, again, sorry if I mispronounced that. And the Grunchins in New Orleans, again, very sorry if I mispronounced it. But yeah, so that's it for today's podcast, and I hope to see you again for the next one. Thank you, and I hope you had a wonderful day.