Spain: Incident at the Rogelio Farm (Possible CE-2, 1976)
By Manuel Ramirez, Red Nacional de Corresponsales
From the Collection of Ignacio Darnaude
"It was around four or five in the afternoon on a spring day. I was working, cutting grass at the farm, and my position afforded me a good look of the surroundings, as the house is higher than the rest of the property, being located on a small hill. I looked at the sky and was able to see an object that drew my attention. It was a sort of very large sphere, like the size of an average car, and it appeared to be surrounded by some sort of steam or smoke..."
After much hearsay and a bit of news appearing in the media, members of the Red Nacional de Corresponsales - a UFO research center - visited Alcalá de Guadaira, specifically the area known as "la Lapa" and its surroundings. Repeated questioning led them to get in touch with the ranger of the Rogelio Farm, located in the community.
A small property surrounded by orchards which allow for a dairy farm to be maintained. A flat surface with low vegetation, some eucalyptus trees and pines. Sedimentary rocks are found in the vicinity and chalky, compacted sand. At this location, a fifty-five-year old man, father to a numerous family - three boys and a girl - with no other livelihood than his work and without time to waste on far-fetched scientific notions, recalls how one spring day, while working, he saw an object that caught his eye.
"The object was some 200 meters over the ground and some 300 meters over me. I watched it for about five seconds. I wanted to call my wife and daughter, who were the two ones at home, to come out and see, but the minute they arrived, and I turned my head, the object had vanished. I ran to get a better vantage point, but no use. There wasn't a trace left."
There is no further information, no exact dates are provided, but there is something strange in the air. The investigation is ongoing, questions are asked here and there - some time having elapsed from the original sighting - but there is an item that begins to clarify things, bolstering the underlying storyline...
Leopoldina Becerra, at five thirty in the afternoon on 19 April 1976, went to purchase milk at the Rogelio Farm. She was accompanied by a cousin. Leopoldina, an uneducated woman, remembers the events...
"My cousin and I went to the Rogelio Farm to buy milk, as we often did. It would have been five thirty in the afternoon. We saw something odd in a bend on the road: something seemed to be on fire on top of a dung heap near the farm wall. At first we thought it might be the dung heap itself, because a lot of smoke seemed to come out of the ground, but it wasn't the case. We saw an egg-shaped object, dark in color, suspended in the air, about a meter from the ground. I alerted my cousin, a much more educated and learned person than myself, and she said that thing could be a UFO. The object was some fifty meters away from us. We broke into a run and were truly scared, thinking that the object would head our way at some point. As we ran, we fell and screamed, since the ground is very rough in that area. One of the ranger's children came out to help us. What happened, he asked. We pointed toward where the object was, telling the boy to look at the sky, that something strange had come out of the dung heap. When he looked, there was nothing to be seen, but I'm sure there was something there."
There is a close relationship between some statements and others. These are two other direct witnesses to the case, and a long time has elapsed from when the event took place to the investigation. Neither woman wants any publicity. "Because, you know, some people do not believe in these things, and in a village, well, you understand..." and they are completely uninterested in the UFO phenomenon, having never found themselves in a similar situation.
The members of the Red Nacional de Corresponsales managed to contact two more witnesses who appear to be connected, but this pair refuses to make any comment whatsoever, while the ranger at the Rogelio Farm and Leopoldina Becerra remember the event vividly. On that spring afternoon, specifically on 19 April 1976, an unidentified flying object landed in Alcalá. One witness saw it at an altitude of two hundred meters; another witness saw it fifty meters away, suspended a meter off the ground. It was an egg-shaped object that issued smoke, and was dark in color...
(Translation (c) 2015 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Ignacio Darnaude)
[NOTE: In his landmark The Mothman Prophecies (NY: Signet, 1975) John A. Keel mentions the persistent connection between unidentified objects and "dirty" places much like the dung heap on the Rogelio Farm. "In early times," wrote Keel, "fairies, demons and even human witches practicing their Black Sabbath rites, chose gravel pits, garbage dumps, cemeteries and crossroads for their appearances. Modern hairy monsters and UFOs select the same sites..." An aspect to be taken into consideration in this case? -- SC]