The chupacabra is loosely translated to mean "goat sucker." Its legend is that it sucks the blood from farm animals. Recent research suggests that the legend of the chupacabra may derive from coyotes with severe parasitic infections.
After leaving the migrant workers' camp at the beginning of the episode, Scully can be heard muttering "Maria, Maria, I just met a woman named Maria." This is a reference to the song "Maria" from the Broadway musical "West Side Story."
This aired the same day as The Springfield Files (1997), which featured Mulder and Scully with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson providing the voices.
Guest stars Raymond Cruz and Simi Mehta, who play cousins in the episode, were actually dating at the time.
The title can be translated as "the world turns," a reference to the long-running US soap opera As the World Turns (1956) and the soap-operatic nature of the story-line.