Strange Phenomena
by Scott Corrales

Perhaps monster lore has not reached the level of popularity in the Spanish speaking countries that it has achieved in the United States, but this does not mean that there have not been worthwhile (and still unsolved) cases in Spain and Latin America, along with an enviable folkloric tradition to accompany them.

In certain regions, the sightings of monsters are closely linked to the practice of Black Magic (the islands of the Caribbean, Brazil, southern Spain), while in others, they have occurred in the context of the UFO phenomenon. Said cases will be elaborated upon next.

On Saturday, 13 November 1983, Eusebio Sánchez, 56, was returning to his home in the Spanish village of Vegas de Coria, walking alongside his mule with a cargo of cabbage. As he approached the bridge of Cruz de Animas, he noticed a shadowy figure creeping behind him. Unsure if it was one of his fellow villagers, Sánchez waited for the figure to come within range: it was tall and entirely black, "tall and thin like a statue", with enormous arms. Ominously, the dark apparition asked him: "Don't you know me?" and proceeded to jump (a la Springheel Jack) across the bridge and into the night.

Vegas de Coria was in the grip of a supernatural phenomenon every bit as terrifying and disturbing to its residents as Springheel Jack's cavorting was to London or Mothman's to Point Pleasant. The tiny village in the Extremadura region of Spain was barely a speck on the map, and far from any major city. Journalist and crack UFO investigator J.J. Benítez drove to Vegas de Coria in order to investigate the phenomenon first hand. The end result was a superb document entitled La Quinta Columna (The Fifth Column), which appeared in 1990.

Sánchez was not the only witness to the dark figure's frightening maneuvers: Two days before, Nicolás Sánchez (no relation) was about to open the door to his house when he heard a moan issuing from the middle of the street. He turned to look and noticed that it was a small black "bundle", as he described it. His curiosity piqued, he walked over to it. It was 9:45 pm.

"[...] When I was four or five steps away from it, that "thing" began to grow, getting bigger. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of a figure some six feet tall or more, advancing toward me with a sound like the gnashing of teeth. I got goosebumps. I began walking backward a few meters, and the "giant" followed me. Jesus! I was so scared I couldn't speak. I wanted to call out to my parents, but it was impossible. I still don't know where I found the courage from, but I crouched and picked up two stones from the house wall, one in each hand, and I was willing to defend myself. I never got to raise my arms, though: just as I was about to hurl the stones, I shouted, "Take this, Satan!" and the creature stopped. It did an about face and headed up the road. Before it went out of sight, there was a large, lightning like flash, which made no sense, since the weather was good." (1)

All of this coinciding with a outbreak of UFO sightings and landings in well over a dozen locations throughout Spain, including a sensitive military installation on the straits of Gibraltar (2). Benítez went on to examine other UFO related monster sightings elsewhere in Spain, such as an electrifying sighting on the beaches of Conil, not far from the city of Cádiz, in October of 1989: a group of teenagers on the beach one early evening witnessed in terror the sudden appearance of two majestic, luminous figures after having observed the maneuvers of UFOs in the skies above them. The teenagers ran away in panic, regrouping some thirty meters away from the entities, which proceeded to transmute into a human male and female, dressed in street clothes. Through the aid of binoculars, the teens were able to observe the transformation and render accurate descriptions later on. The mystery couple walked away from the beach and toward the town's streets, mingling with the populace.

Things weren't over yet: a small white patch of what appeared to be fog was heading for the shore at a high rate of speed. From the cloud emerged a monstrous figure, nine feet tall, with a white, pear shaped head and clad in a black "jumpsuit". It stared at the frightened teenagers and then began walking in a westward direction. Lázaro and Pedro two of the five teens ran after it, stopping short when it turned around to look at them with eyes "like two black eggs." The stare was enough to cause them to beat a retreat, as the giant became lost in the darkness. All the while, the brightly hued UFOs continued to execute their aerial maneuvers. (3). It would seem as if the sudden appearance of the nine foot tall giant was somehow geared toward keeping the five witnesses from following what would have been an understandable course of action following the creatures that turned into humans by reinforcing their fear.

On the other side of the Atlantic, monsters also have been seen in Puerto Rico, well known for its heavy UFO activity. While witchcraft is practiced under many guises on the island, not all the sightings are connected to the dark arts but to the nocturnal activity of UFOs: unusual birds, ranging from pterodactyl like creatures to small, fanged predatory avians have been reported since the 1970's, when the UFO activity began in earnest. A more recent report (1988) from the Laguna Cartagena area, stated that the witness saw two humanoids "in what appeared to be uniforms" guiding a large, hairy simian being. The trio "disappeared into the ground." Reports in a local tabloid, El Vocero, point to the depredations of a "mandrill" among the livestock of many farms on different parts of the island, an explanation sanctioned by the authorities as the reason for the strange mutilations. It is more than likely that the real culprit is a "big hairy monster", as opposed to an itinerant mandrill.

Mexican investigator Dr. Rafael A. Lara suggests in a recent issue of Terra Incognita that all these monsters, ranging from the BHMs to Nessie and the UFO monsters seen by the adolescents at Conil are little more than "distortions of space time (which is to say, the past projected to the present or the future to the present)." He shares the same as other researchers in that these creatures could well be "rationalizations of the evil dwelling within our unconscious." The big hairy monsters have been identified by some Mexican researchers with the humans that were turned into apes, according the Aztec tradition in another "age of the sun", which ended with enormous winds destroying life on earth.
This tradition is part of La leyenda del quinto sol (the legend of the fifth sun). Curiously enough, our "sun" or age happens to be known as sol de movimiento, the sun of movement, indicating that the end of this age will come about via tremendous earthquakes. Could the global seismic activity of the early nineties be trying to tell us something?

Another outbreak of UFO related monsters that went largely unnoticed occurred in the Dominican Republic. The locality of Barahona a small town in the Caribbean nation's sugarcane producing region was beset by two terrifying entities that were allegedly responsible for the large number of mutilations of farm and domestic animals. In December of 1978, a creature resembling a large black dog (similar to the "Black Shuck" of Great Britain) repeatedly mutilated small animals like dogs, cats, chickens, and rabbits under cover of darkness and with chilling finesse: it made its way into chicken coops and pens by somehow opening the gates without destroying them (4). Local residents believed that the otherworldly creature had some sort of "intelligence" that allowed it to elude their best efforts at catching it (the same observation has been made by monster hunters worldwide).

In a matter of months, the murderous phantom dog was joined by an even more fearsome manifestation: a cadaverous being resembling a human female. Those who managed to see it closely noted that its face "appeared to be covered with cotton" (ectoplasm?). The entity was also blamed for a number of mutilations.

Barahona is almost on the border of voodoo ridden Haiti, and it is,in fact, an area that has received much negative publicity in recent years on account of the suffering experienced by Haitian sugar cane cutters at the hands of Dominican taskmasters. The locals were much more willing to believe that the entities were the product of some sorcerous lore than UFOs, even though the entire island happened to be in the grip of a small "flap" for a number of weeks that preceded and followed the mutilations.

While Barahona was victimized by its two monsters, UFO occupants were being seen in a suburb of Santo Domingo. Five women sitting on the porch one evening watched as a brilliant object in the night sky fired two beams behind a nearby hill before disappearing. The women believed that it was some sort of airplane until they noticed two lights advancing toward them from the darkness. The lights turned out to be three conical humanoids with what appeared to be lanterns fastened to their chests.

Frightened at the sight of the beings, the women began to scream for help, drawing the attention of other neighbors. In retaliation, the three creatures began to make loud noises "similar to the rapid opening and shutting of a metal door". By the time the nearest neighbor had responded to their call for help, the beings had disappeared (5).
In the same suburban area, a watchman was confronted by robed, cat eyed entity. With a prayer on his lips, the watchman swung his heavy machete at the thing, which tried to duck the blow and proceeded to vanish instantly. Startled by the unexpected outcome, the watchman proceeded to inspect the dark, wooded surroundings all by himself: of such stuff are heroes made.

ENDNOTES
(1) Benitez, J. J. La Quinta Columna. Barcelona: Planeta, 1990.
(2) Rota Naval Base, Cádiz.
(3) Benítez, p.273 74.
(4) Personal correspondence with R.A. Lara Palmeros.
(5) Objio, Leonte. "?Llegaron Los Humanoides!". Mexico: Destino, 11/78.