Revered by hundreds of thousands of readers in dozens of
countries, Robert E. Howard, a native of Peaster, Texas (near Dallas) made a
name for himself as the creator of Conan the Barbarian and other fantasy
heroes. Aside from his compelling descriptions of kingdoms in an imaginary
terrestrial antiquity, populated by bold warriors, lovely women and sinister
wizards, Howard made room for monsters - not dragons, but terrifying simian
presences. The giant apes were found throughout the lands of mythical Hyboria,
feared destroyers of armed warriors. In Conan the Conqueror, published in 1950,
he writes: "It was a gray ape, one of the grisly man-eaters from the
forests that wave on the mountainous eastern shores of the Sea of Vilayet. Half
mythical and altogether horrible, these apes were the goblins of Hyborian
legendry, and were in reality ogres of the natural world, cannibals and
murderers of the nighted forests." Similar fearsome descriptions abound
throughout his work. Had the author perhaps seen the inspiration for his
creations in the woods of East Texas?
Further consideration of the matter will have to wait, as
our journey takes us to the
Spanish-speaking islands of the Caribbean in search of other ‘goblins of the
nighted forests’
In Search of the Cuban “Yeti”
A curious incident allegedly took place in the Caribbean
island nation of Cuba, reportedly involving the presence of a “Type II” Bigfoot
creature captured by the armed forces of that country after a search involving
columns of soldiers and an elaborate ruse to capture it in a cave on Cerro El
Labra in the location of San Ambrosio, Province of Pinar del Rio.
The event occurred sometime in the year 1987 and was
reported by young recruit known only as “Mario”, who described how news of the
pursuit of the strange entity made its way to the battalion in which he served.
The entity had been caught in the Sierra de los Oréganos, a densely forested
area, and taken to a military hospital to treat the injuries suffered during
the capture. In an interview with the late researcher Virgilio Sanchez Ocejo,
“Mario” said the strange capitve was remanded to the Medical Sciences
Laboratory at his base.
“This fact,” said the young recruit, “caused a commotion, as
it was said the captive was an animal. I did not see it up close because we
were not allowed to approach it.”
The restriction notwithstanding, Mario was able to get
enough of a look to provide the following report. “It looked more like a man
than an ape, although it was taller than a normal person. It was naked and hair
all over its body. It also had a broad nose and the skin on its face had pores
and small black spots. Its hands were very long. I wasn’t able to see its feet,
but it issued guttural sounds. A technician took photos and it was given a name
taken from a book, but I cannot remember it. They said it would be employed for
research purposes. That is all I know.”
Researcher Ocejo adds: “Unconfirmed rumors were later
circulated that the Bigfoot had been sent to Havana aboard a military truck.”
This intriguing bit of information is followed by a
lengthier report concerning another creature (referred to as ‘el yeti’, given
that the nomenclature used for the abominable snowman has been extended to its
cousin the Americas in Spanish sources) also in Sierra de los Oréganos.
A Cuban academic by the name of Manuel Iturralde, a renowned
speleologist and geologist, mentioned in his book Aventuras en el Mundo de las
Tinieblas (Adventures in the Realm of Shadows) published by Editorial
Cientifico-Tecnica in Havana, 2001, that the quest for exploring larger cave
systems in Cuba led him to join the Marianao-based Grupo de Exploraciones
Cientificas, which had ventured into vast caverns containing river systems in
the village of Sumidero, nestled in the Pica Pica Valley (Pinar del Rio).
Iturralde goes on to say that his expedition in the year
1962, consisting of eighteen men and two women, ventured to the remote island
valley and accessed the Pio Domingo cave, an immense opening on the side of a
local hillside. Their guide, local explorer Perfecto Hernández, told them that
“el Yeti” had been prowling the vicinity in the dark, giving his son a fright.
This creature had never been seen in the area before; it was described as
strong and hairy, light brown in color, going about on two legs and all-fours.
Colorful local accounts followed: how a man had been attacked by the creature
and lost one of his arms in the process, how others had seen it tear a pig
apart without any difficulty. Dogs would whine if they could feel its presence,
and Perfecto’s son had gone to investigate the commotion. The youngster had
been so overwhelmed by fear that he was left mute. Later he was unable to utter
a single word about his experience. On a subsequent instance, another local was
able to run the intruder off with gunshots, and it tore its way through
branches and vines as it fled the torrent of rounds.
But the Caribbean odyssey becomes even more compelling.
Iturralde writes: “In a separate instance, twenty men gathered together in
order to surround the Yeti and capture it. After an extensive search, they
reached a cave known as Los Soterráneos. It seemed that some of these creatures
lived within, and they fled upon smelling human beings. Inside, they were able
to ascertain the presence of large, new Yeti prints as well as an abundance of
droppings. The footprints allowed us to ascertain that the animal had large
claws that dug deep into the mud.”
Iturralde would have his own experience one evening in the
valley, as the temperature dropped to a very un-tropical thirty three degrees.
His slumber was interrupted by a sharp howl that sent a chill through his body
as everyone else in the camp woke up to the eerie, echoing sound. “The possibility exists that the strange creatures
had formed part of the menagerie of a prominent zoologist from Pinar del Rio,
whose specimens from other countries had escaped.”
Cuba is known worldwide for its spectacular cave systems,
and the Santo Tomás and Cueva del Indio sites welcome visitors year round.
Fossils from the Holocene Era are found in abundance, as well as pictograms
from the island’s ancient inhabitants. The presence of the diminutive figure
known as “Guije” in Cuban folklore hints at a possibility that non-human
entities also shared space with primitive humans, competing for resources until
finally driven away by Homo Sapiens. During a visit to Cuba in 1803, Alexander
Von Humboldt toured the area and was impressed by the similarity between the
Jura Mountains and the Cuban formations - both of a karstic nature, like the
'mogotes' of Puerto Rico. The 'Guines caliche' enabled the formation of these
vast cave systems.
Although mentioned in passing earlier, further discussion is
warranted about the diminutive figures known as Guijes, a staple of Cuban
folklore, standing three to four feet tall, black-skinned and hairy, and gifted
with amazing strength. They were also associated with ponds and pools of still
water, and its presence was considered an ill omen. One is tempted to associate
it with the ‘aquatic apes’ or ‘merbeings’ mentioned by Loren Coleman and
Patrick Huyghe's The Field Guide To Bigfoot, Yet and Other Mystery Primates
Worldwide.
The legends of the town of Sagua la Grande, compiled by
Gómez de Avellaneda, include this colorful description of the Guije’s behavior:
“It is said that in that place near Barrio de Guatá, where the river is at its
deepest, there is a pool which popular fantasy has assigned as the dwelling
place of a monster that devours anyone who dares bathe in its waters, leaving
no trace but a splash of blood on the surface. And what might this monster look
like? To those who have seen it, it is a mixture of man and ape, with powerful
claws and sharp teeth.” The mention of bathers who are apparently slain in the
water is reminiscent of accounts from Oklahoma Salyer Lake, involving swimmers
and boaters apparently taken by an aquatic Bigfoot.
Hairy Monsters in Puerto Rico
“And you expect people to believe that?”
That was the reaction of a fellow paranormal researcher to
my monograph on the elusive Chupacabras (The Chupacabras Diaries) but not about
the paranormal predator itself. His reluctance had to do with an incident that
took place in December 1995 involving a reported sighting with a Type I Bigfoot
in the island’s southwestern corner. Winged bloodsucking monsters were one
thing, but a Caribbean Sasquatch was asking the reader to suspend disbelief a
little too much. Regardless, this was the information presented in the
monograph:
“Human nature is curious. Many of us prefer to carry out
certain tasks at different times from others; therefore, no one should be
surprised by the urge to wash a car at 2:50 a.m., which is exactly what Osvaldo
Rosado was doing on December 23 -- just hours after our visits to the Gómez and
Sánchez residences.
“Rosado, a resident of the city of Guánica, where the
Chupacabras had already made its presence felt earlier in the month, had
allegedly finished hosing down his vehicle and getting ready to disconnect the
hose when as strange hairy creature approached him from behind and gave him a
bear hug so strong that wounds appeared on the victim's abdomen. Rendered
speechless by panic, Rosado was finally able to scream and struggle with the
entity until he managed to break the deadly embrace. Turning to face his
assailant, he was doubly shocked to find that it was a simian creature, much
taller than his own six-foot height. The shaggy embracer turned tail and ran
away from Rosado's backyard. Neighbors responded to his screams, and eventually
took the badly shaken victim to a hospital in Yauco to have his wounds treated.
“Conflicting stories circulated for a while. One newspaper
blamed the incident on the Chupacabras, but the victim claimed never having
spoken to the reporter who wrote the story. The creature in no way matched the
descriptions given of the Goatsucker, and was certainly not winged--Rosado
believed that the assailant must have been at least two feet taller than
himself.”
Four days later, a local researcher phoned a radio program
to provide an update on the "Bigfoot attack": As fate would have it,
the creature that attacked Osvaldo Rosado had been seen by people in the
vicinity of Guánica, offering corroboration for the intruder's girth and
height. To compound matters further, the researcher added that hairy creatures
of lesser stature had been reported in the vicinity of the Laguna Cartagena
aerostat facility, the base of a drug-interdiction balloon that was a source of
popular discussion at the time.
Two years later, in a series of conversations with Willie
Durand Urbina of the Puerto Rican Research Group, the long history of hairy
hominid sightings on the island emerged.
Reports had been featured in the island press as far back as 1979
regarding creature sightings in the heart of the island – the municipalities of
Cayey and Aibonito being named most frequently. The entities were bent on
destroying plantain and banana groves; witnesses described them as humanoids
with long, drooping arms and large red eyes, making guttural noises likened to
‘a mute person trying to talk’. The locals did not take to the predation
kindly, and firearms were deployed freely but to no effect. On their part, the
creatures did not take kindly to being peppered with lethal ammunition – a case
was mentioned in which a hairy creature vented its fury against a home, banging
against the concrete walls and steel jalousies covering the windows, leaving
them badly dented.
According to Durand, these improbable creatures retreated
for a few years and re-emerged in the mid-80s when a young man was attacked by
what he described as “a large hairy monster” that pounced on him in the dark.
Much like in the 70s, the destruction of banana and plantain cultivars was a
common factor, but the entities were not interested in eating the fruit –
rather, they tore plants apart to eat the their hearts. This gave rise to the
moniker “Comecogollos” (eater of plant hearts) to describe these hirsute
intruders.
These initial sightings had been circumscribed to the
central and southwestern parts of the island, but were now being reported
elsewhere. A family visiting the
Caribbean National Forest had an encounter with a five-foot tall hairy entity
at Coca Falls, one of the most visited tourist spots in the area. The creature
was caught in the act of rummaging through the vegetation, and was reportedly
as startled to see the humans as they were shocked by its presence. The
encounter ended peacefully as the humans retreated to their vehicle and dashed
off at high speed to notify the park rangers of their experience.
There was an unexpected sequel to this event, according to
researcher Durand. Prompted by this and
other reports of ‘simians’ in the rainforest, a brash young martial arts expert
had driven to the site with two of his friends to seek out the hominids and beat
the living hell out of them. As the
popular adage suggests, ‘be careful what you wish for’ – the humans were soon
confronted by four hominids with glowing eyes. One of the creatures seized the would-be
‘karate kid’ and bashed him into a tree, ripping off his shirt in the process.
His friends deserted him as the night degenerated into a frenzy of panic, to
the extent that one of the monster hunters cut himself badly with his own
machete. Heroics, one may conclude, are best left to the silver screen.
The situation involving the man-apes went on into the early
1990s, to judge by newspaper clippings thoughtfully provided by Mr. Duran. One
such news item, dated July 26, 1991, bore the headline “Alarm Spreads Over the
Comecogollos”, reporting that aggrieved members of the population were
demanding decisive action from the Department of Natural Resources to go after
one or more of these intrusive species.
The manimals had caused significant damage to local growers, who were
further confused that more luscious tropical fruit was being ignored by the
prowlers. A subsequent news item featured an interview with Manuel Rivera from
the Lagunas district of the city of Aguada on the island’s western coastline.
“We have been affected by this animal for 90 days now,” fumed
Mr. Rivera. “This animal has knocked down our plantain trees and killed one of
our dogs. It has also killed goats, as I’ve been told by customers who come to
my store.”
The planter went on to say that the nights were filled with
‘strange noises’ and suspected the mystery killer could be ‘a sort of
mandrill’. An unnamed local woman told
reporters: “We have many children here and there is concern that something bad
may happen. This animal seems to have gone wild. It destroys everything in its
path.”
Conclusion
We have to assume that all the information presented above
is valid, or as Merv Griffith once said “we’ve got nothing here.” Assuming the presence of Type I and II
Bigfoot, manimals, apemen, merbeings or any other handle we wish to apply to
them, we must wonder how they got there, or if they were always part of the
scenery.
The Caribbean was one of the last regions of the Americas to
be settled, with separate waves of migration between eight and five thousand
years ago, more than likely from the Yucatan Peninsula to Cuba. The thought of
these early settlers bringing their pet Guijes along for the ride would make
for a great comedy routine, but how did these entities – we are assuming them
to be physical for this discussion, any reference to a paranormal origin has
been set aside – get there?
Perhaps there is more truth to the possibility of
populations having been brought in from elsewhere, as in the case of the
nameless naturalist Iturralde mentions in the 1962 expedition to the Pica Pica
valley. Could this person have brought creatures from Florida (i.e. swamp apes)
or Louisiana (the ubiquitous boogers) and then let them loose? The fact that specimens were still being
captured as recently as the 80s would lead us to believe that breeding populations
endured since that time, hidden in the mazes of caves throughout Cuba.
But what about Puerto Rico? This becomes a thornier issue
and brings us into the realm of military/political and even UFO conspiracy.
In the early 20th century the U.S. military was
allowed to operate freely on the island, using it for experimentation purposes.
Agent White (the arboricide Picloram) was tested in the Caribbean National Rain
forest 1963, as well as radioactive experiments by the Atomic Energy Commission
(AEC) as part of Project Plowshare that rendered part of the forest
inaccessible in 1961. Similar tests in Bosque de Tabonuco (Dacryodes excelsa) date
as far back as the 1940s.
In the 1930s, a scientist named Cornelius Rhoads visited
the island to conduct research on pernicious anemia, but reportedly injected
his patients with cancer cells with a view to treating them with radiation.
Although an article in the New York Times (Feb.15 1932) says Rhoads was
exonerated of all charges, belief in his unethical testing persists.
Given this pattern of unrestricted experimentation, one
could be tempted to envision a scenario in which creatures were brought from
Stateside locations – whether the Pacific Northwest or the Southern States –
and let loose on the island to see how they would react in a controlled
environment. As reports diminished in the media, we can only assume that the
beings were rounded up and disposed of, or news outlets were discouraged from
reporting on them. As of 2020 there have been no outbreaks of creature attacks
and depredations similar to the 1980-1991 period, to the best of anyone’s
knowledge.
