The Worker's Cauldron
A podcast about the cultural politics of the paranormal. Where Karl Marx shakes his fist at the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot speaks to us about the legacies of colonialism. We discuss the contemporary obsession with all things supernatural through a socialist, feminist lens and ask what our strange experiences and beliefs tell us about the society we live in.
The Worker's Cauldron
Goatsuckers at the End of History Neoliberalism, Borders and El Chupacabra
The Chupacabra is undoubtedly one of the most well known cryptids. It is a recent monster, emerging in Puerto Rico only in 1995. We discuss what was going on in Puerto Rico in the 1990s, the spread of the Chupacabra to Mexico after the North American Free Trade Agreement where it merged with President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and how it became associated with both coyotes suffering from mange and immigrants in the 2000s.
We are joined by Brenda Salguero and Dr. Orquidea of the podcast Monstras: Latinx Monsters and Folklore, Dr. William Calvo-Quirós, author of “Sucking Vulnerability: Neoliberalism, the Chupacabras, and the Post-Cold War Years,” and Dr. Ed Guimont of the Impossible Archive podcast.
Bonus: The time a teddy bear was victimized by El Chupacabra, Scully and Mulder get problematic, and kangaroo chihuahuas
References
William Calvo-Quiros: “Sucking Vulnerability: Neoliberalism, the Chupacabras, and the Post-Cold War Years”
Robert Jordan Michael: “El Chupacabra: Icon of Resistance to U.S. Imperialism”
Lauren Derby: “Imperial Secrets: Vampires and Nationhood in Puerto Rico”
Silvia Rodriguez Vega: “Chupacabras: The Myth of the Bad Immigrant”
Scott Corrales: Night of the Chupacabras
The 1996 "Chupacabra Homepage"
Asher Elbein: Chasing the Chupacabra, A Lonestar Legend
Benjamin Radford: Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore
Joe Bandy: Bordering the Future: Resisting Neoliberalism in the Borderlands