Cuarón told TODAY.com that he was a teenager when the myth began and “spread quickly throughout Latin America.”

“Where I lived in Mexico, a lot of news about chupacabra began to appear. I was very excited because there was something frightening, but also very exciting, that there could be a real being outside,” he says. “Unlike Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, which were legends, the fact that the Chupacabra was a new legend when I was a kid made it more believable.”

But what is the history of the legendary creature? Read on to find out more.

What is a chupacabra?

Chupacabra is a legendary creature from the folklore of Latin America. The Spanish word translates as “cozaker”, where “chupa” means “to suck” and “cabra” means “goat”.

The legend is associated with reports of depletion of the blood of farm animals and domestic animals.

According to Lauren Coleman, director of the International Museum of Cryptozoology in Portland, Maine, for many years chupacabras have been described as “lousy coyotes, dogs, and coyote-dog or coydog hybrids.”

“In 1995, the chupacabra was believed to be a three-foot-tall bipedal creature covered in short, white hair with spikes on its back,” Coleman said. National Geography. However, some reports also described the creature as walking on four legs, with bat-like wings, fangs and a hunched back, with large black or red eyes. PBSMonster series.

According to Coleman, images have changed over the years due to news errors and mistranslations.

Where did this creature come from?

The first reports of chupacabra appeared in 1995 in Canovanas, Puerto Rico, after “dozens” of farm animals were found dead. PBS. What made these deaths unique was that their blood seemed to have been sucked dry by small holes in their necks and stomachs.

By April 1996, reports of sightings had spread throughout the island, with over 2,000 animals allegedly killed by the Chupacabra.

The Puerto Rican government then brought in biologists to study the deaths after concerns rose in the county that it would negatively impact its tourism, the public broadcaster said.

Chupacabra reports later spread to Mexico, the US Southwest, and China.

Myth explained

Although sightings continued to be reported, scientists believed that the Chupacabras were coyotes suffering from severe cases of scabies. National Geography. Pictures of shriveled animals also appeared on the Internet, only exacerbating the myth.

Barry O’Connor, professor emeritus of parasitic mites at the University of Michigan, told TODAY.com that sarcoptic mange is a disease caused by parasitic mites that can infect canine-like animals. When affected, it can cause them to itch, hair loss, skin thickening and crusting, and the development of painful ulcers.

O’Connor says coyotes with mange may have a harder time catching their prey due to the effects, which can debilitate them and “severely affect their ability to hunt.”

“If such a predator really can’t hunt its usual prey, it will pursue whatever it can,” he says. “If a domestic dog, cat, sheep, whatever it is, is available and cannot escape, then they will take it away or try to kill it.”

As for the fangs in the Chupacabra, O’Conner says that one of the results of scabies is that the skin around the face and mouth tightens and pulls away from the lip, exposing the teeth.

“This gnarled face is quite typical of a lousy animal,” he says. “It’s not that they actually growl, it’s that their skin comes off their lips, they come off their teeth.”

To the untrained eye, a photograph of an animal suffering from severe scabies can easily be confused with another creature.

“Someone who is not familiar with this disease, someone who is in a culture where there is this legend, yes, they will see something like that and add two and two,” says Okonner. “And maybe say, ‘Yes, I saw one of those (chupacabra)’.”

“In every picture I have ever seen, it was very clear that the animal was sick with sarcoptic mange,” he adds.

Regarding those reports of Chupacabras sucking blood from their victims, O’Conner says, “It’s the only thing that’s out there.”

What are some references to the Chupacabra in pop culture?

Most images of the Chupacabra are terrible.

“Secret materials” touched upon a mythological creature in the fourth season, episode 11 titled El Mundo Gira. Released on January 12, 1997, it featured Mulder and Scully chasing a chupacabra, only to discover a fungal growth affecting the immigrants.

The Chupacabra storyline was also in a 2001 episode titled “The Course of El Chupacabra” from The Adventures of Jackie Chan and in the middle of the 2014 season, in the fourth season finale “Gloomy”. In the 2012 Easter issue, “South Park” pranked the animal.

In 2021, the Randy Rogers Band and La Maquinaria teamed up to release a song inspired by a creature called “Chupacabra”.

How is the Chupacabra represented in Chupa?

Cuarón wanted to play with the “inverted myth” and remove the horror surrounding the beast.

“Chupa is a baby, but he’s like a baby Chupacabra,” he tells TODAY.com. “We wanted to make him vulnerable and very charming. I wanted to evoke the same reaction in the children that Gizmo (from Gremlins) had in me.”

Although the director “fell in love with Gizmo straight away”, he knew that the tiny horror was powerful and that his family were “big creatures that pose a big threat”. “It’s like the play you see in Gremlins where you see Gizmo, adorable, but if he eats after midnight, he gets ugly.”

Inspired by Gremlins and ET, the director focused on two elements when creating Chupa.

“In many observations they describe it as a quadruped… and they also, in some observations, describe the chupacabra as having wings, which I always found interesting,” he says. “But on the other hand, I really wanted it to be a creature that the kids and the character of Alex could have an emotional connection with.”

He thought of animals that children have an innate connection with to create Chupa’s final design, adding that they used a real dog to film Chupa’s scenes.

“Whenever you see Alex interacting with Chupa, he is actually interacting with the dog Harper,” he says. “Because it was very important to me that Alex had a real being to interact with.”

What inspired Jonas Cuarón to create the family version?

The main source of inspiration for the Mexican director and writer was his children and the opportunity to share his work with them.

“Basically, I made Chupa for them,” he says. “Throughout the pandemic, I watched movies with them, and a lot of the movies we watched were movies from my childhood, like ET, Gremlins, and The Goonies. And then all of a sudden, after filming action movies, I suddenly had a desire to do something that I could share with them that would create that feeling of magic that those old films from my childhood created in me.

He also liked the idea of ​​touching a legend with which he was familiar. “I was excited because I knew I could make a film for a family audience, but I can also immerse myself in the reality that I know,” he says.

“Chupa” is something more than a fictional creature.

Actor Demian Bichir grew up listening to stories about the Chupacabra, but he never knew how to “buy weird stories,” he tells TODAY.com. “I remember the first time I heard it, it was crazy. I thought “Oh my God, another crisis, another lie.”

However, he considered the story of “Chupa” “brilliant”. He says he was drawn to the film by many factors, including starring alongside Christian Slater, working with Cuarón, and portraying the layered character.

He also never played a grandfather: “One thing is great.”

“I know those people who get strong and age gracefully and (are) still in shape, especially ex-athletes,” Bichir says of his character Chava, a former luchador. “There’s a lot of my father in the character that I created, because that’s who he is.”

The main message of the film, according to Cuarón, is the importance of family and reconnection with one’s roots.

“At its core, this is a film about family. I think that’s not all,” he says. “I really think it’s about the purity of the relationship between the boy and the creature.”

Bichir agrees, repeating that “Chupa” shows how the family – whether its biological or mythical being – will always be there for you.

“We’ll have your back under any circumstances,” the actor says. “Both heritage is important and going back to your roots is very important to know who you are in order to have a better bright future.”

Chupa is now streaming on Netflix.