Lon Chaney as the werewolf. Would The Chilludo look like him?
The Chilludo is another Patagonian hominid, which I mentioned briefly in a post (
Patagonian Bigfoot?). Today’s entry will deal with this strangely named being.
Origin of the name
Though the word “
chilludo” may seem to derive from the Spanish verb “
chillar” which means to scream, to yell, to screech, to squeal or to squeak, it actually comes from a local Argentine word: “Chilludo:
Said of people who have long straight and bristly hair or the body covered with this type of hair”.
The word is applied to sheep and goats that have long straight wool (Lincoln variety sheep are “chilludos” while Merino sheep are not).
Sightings
The only “old” source that I can find referring to it is in Gregorio Alvarez (1889-1986), who was Patagonia’s first native born to graduate as a Doctor in medicine in 1919. His book
El Tronco de Oro compiles his anecdotes and experience during his years as a country doctor who rode about on horseback taking care of the ill children in the Andean region of Neuquén province.
Trivia: a dinosaur discovered in that region in 1991 bears the name
Alvarezsaurus.
So, getting back to the Chilludo. Alvarez recorded it in the 1950s:
”The Chilludo” is the name of a giant that appeared for the first time at Colo Michi Co, a rugged place where the stones engraved by the ancient Pehunches can be found, and whose meaning is still a mystery. According to don Julio Della Cha, the first report of the apparition of The Chilludo was around 1950. A youth, upon seing it, lost his mind.
[...]
He is described like “a big man” covered with long hair (chillas), that runs and jumps about the mountain slopes and gullies; a kind of yeti or snowman like those seen in the Himalayas
He adds that in that same place, Colo Michi Co, a Hungarian miner named Bela Beico also went mad (Patagonian Cabin Fever?)
According to another source, this man, Della Cha, owned a ranch in the area, at Cancha Huinganco, close by, so the man existed.
The stones mentioned by Alvarez, engraved by the native Pehuenche Indians, can be seen online at the following site:
Colo Michi Co rock art, they date back to about 500 AD.
Sources
Gregorio Alvarez. (1981)
El tronco de oro: folklore del Neuquén. pp. 116.
Patagonian Monsters -
Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2012 by Austin Whittall ©
