Spain: A Giant Humanoid in Sangonera (Murcia)
By Luis Jimenez Marhuenda
Contactos Extraterrestres, Vol. 2 No.7 (1979)
[The late Luis Jiménez Marhuenda was a distinguished radio personality, having begun his career in broadcasting in Equatorial Guinea (Africa). He went on to become a beloved figure in Spain's UFO and paranormal circles, and INEXPLICATA is pleased and honored to share one of his articles with our readers - SC]
"Look! Can you see that light? How weird!"
"Probably a car"
"A car on a mountaintop? With that kind of headlight?"
"Hail it with the motorcycle headlight!"
And so it was, half seriously, half in jest, that Antonio Guirao and his cousin Jose Carrillo, along with their friends Ginés and Jesús, held a sort of dialogue by means of luminous signals with a strange luminous object that had landed on the top of a summit in Sierra de Carrasco in the vicinity of Sangonera la Verde.
The boys had gone out that night to hunt for turtledove nests on two motorcycles. They stopped at Fuente del Perro at around midnight when at the top of a small hill (known as "el Cabezo Colorao") the sighted the strange luminous object.
Antonio pointed his motorcycle's headlight toward the summit and lit it up. Immediately, a powerful beam of light responded. Thus began an exchange of beams of light that lasted some three quarters of an hour.
The Game Ends in Panic
Antonio is 16. His cousin José is 14. To both of them, it was just a fun and exciting game. Their companions, Ginés and Jesús, also played a gleeful part. It was a warm evening in early July 1979 - an excellent night for an adventure - and that exchange of luminous signals was something uncanny for the boys, who were only vaguely aware of what the UFO phenomenon meant. But the adventure had only just started.
Excited by the strange luminous object, "about the size of a car", as they described it later, located at the summit of a wooded hill, and exchanging lights with it, made them forget everything else. Until the sound of crackling brush nearby alerted them to the presence of an intruder. They scanned the darkness for a few moments until the saw the outline of a tall figure standing over two and a half meters tall, clearly visible in the moonlight. Some dogs that accompanied them started barking in fear.
Frightened, the boys got onto their motorbikes and fled the scene. Their panic was such that when one of the motorcycles experienced a blowout, the passenger had to mount the other bike, which strained toward the town. The rider of the damaged bike chose to remain with his vehicle, well aware that he was damaging it further with every kilometer. With his tire shredded, he arrived in the town, and the time was around one o'clock in the morning.
Several local residents, seeing the boys' agitated state, decided to head out to the location in a couple of cars. Others chose to remain behind. One of them, Fernando Martinez, stated: "I decided to stay here. As soon as the cars departed, those of us who were present were able to see how that thing took off over the hill and after making a turn, shot off in the direction of Cartagena."
The cars and their occupants returned in disappointment. They hadn't been able to see a thing. However, there was now a series of witnesses who could attest to an extraordinary event. As of that moment, the matter became the province of researchers.
A True UFO Nest
Messrs. Jesús Sancho, Antonio Abaladejo and Dr. Martinez Brey traveled from Murcia to Sangonera to study the case "in situ" and speak to the witnesses. There is an extensive report on their visits to the site which we summarize below:
"The possible landing, with the physical presence of occupants, took place in the farm known as Torre Guil within the municipal boundaries of Sangonera. Mr. Pedro Uriza was kind enough to make a Land Rover available to us, driven by Felix, the company driver, who was also a witness to the boys' state of excitement and the damage experienced by the motorbike. We were thus able to reach the location. Mr. Prudencio Jimenez, a shepherd, lives in the vicinity. He too was a witness, years before, of another UFO sighting, precisely in the same area where the events played out.
"Expanding on this strange repetition of the events, I had the chance to speak to a worker at the farm, whose name I do not know. He formally assured me that in the wake of the event involving the youngsters, he has been able to see, in the company of fellow workers and always between 11:00 pm and midnight, how mysterious and powerful lights emerged from that location. After sudden maneuvers, and nearly directly above the witnesses, these objects proceeded to vanish abruptly without traces. In all cases, dogs displayed signs of nervousness and excitement."
Humanoid and Mechanical Prints Are Found
"Some strange prints can be found at the sighting location. The first were found on the access road to the hilltop. It was a print in the shape of a very large foot, with striated markings. The print had a length of 38 centimeters, equivalent to a commercially available shoe in the largest size manufactured, size 47 (13.5 in US measurements). Given the hardness of the soil, a print of this sort cannot be made with a view toward fakery. A meticulous outline, nearly worthy of a sculptor, would be required, using T-squares and triangles to mark the striations. Calculations made by a physics professor in at the Murcia high school estimates that in order to leave a print in this kind of soil, a weight of around 200 kilograms (440 lbs.) would be required.
"Shortly after, once we found ourselves at the place where the UFO was seen, another kind of ground impression was apparent: circular marks some 30 centimeters in diameter. Three of these were found, not equidistant between each other. We attribute these to the "pads" of the UFO. Given the landscape's irregular nature, it is clear that the prints could not be equidistant, since the point of support had to take into account a center of gravity. As an added detail, we must stress that these circular marks had a sort of central cleft measuring some 10 cm. long, suggesting an anti-skid mechanism. Subsequent analysis yielded no results about the provenance of these marks.
"As an added detail, we must make note once more of the panic displayed by the dogs belonging to the shepherd, Prudencio Jimenez. When the vehicles reached his house with the goal of confirming the boys' experience, the witnesses agreed that the animals, of a quite hostile disposition, were cowering under the cars in fear. It also emerged in subsequent interviews that Antonio, one of the youngsters, was able to see the enormous figure clearly. He was scared, but asked his cousin José to wait a little to see "what this guy has to say." But José did not have the slightest inclination to do so, and insisted that the leave at full speed."
The Researchers' Mindset
This concludes the report by the researchers. An extensive dialogue with them does nothing other than confirm a symptom that deserves study in of itself: the mindset of the researchers. Faced with a case that has plausible signs of being genuine, three separate objective stances can be seen to emerge, although all of them agree on the essential points: credibility of the witnesses, ascertainment of facts and the presence of ground imprints at the location.
Jesus Sancho, an old radio man, today a representative for a major liquor firm in the Murcia are, is an expert civil pilot and has a broad knowledge of the UFO subject. To him, the evidence found constitutes total proof. He speaks to the witnesses and draws out their human dimension. This is what he finds most convincing.
Antonio Abaladejo, an attorney, observes, studies and weighs possibilities as if trying to remain on the needle of the scale...the scales of the law which he deals with on a daily basis.
Doctor Martinez Rey considers that the diagnosis requires study. He agrees with his colleagues on the honesty of the witnesses and that "something indeed happened" there, but reserves his opinion with regard to the ground marks.
I know for a fact that these are three highly intelligent and absolutely honest people in their research, but as occurs with any researcher of the UFO phenomenon, they are unable to be absolutely objective about a case to the point of abstracting themselves from their own professional subjective outlook. This must be mentioned when dealing with the UFO phenomenon and must serve as a counterpoint when trying to engage in a general study of the entire phenomenon. It is evident that the UFO phenomenon will always have a subjective feature that it will never shake off. Each case studied shall be made publicly known not only as a function of the witnesses, but of its researchers as well, whose own focus is an inseparable feature.
A Credible Account
The Sangonera case has the kind of witnesses that I find fully credible: simple, humble country folk. They described the UFO as being shaped like "chapina" (seashell). It did not occur to them to liken it to a "flying saucer" or disk shaped objects. This is something new and unknown to them. The excitement of the moment could lead them to exaggerate, but never to lie, and much less to fantasize.
When a young man of humble origin, already working as a lemon harvester at the tender age of 16, allows his motorbike - his most treasured belonging - to be damaged by refusing to stop and fix a flat, leads us to consider the level of fright he must have experienced. The description of the strange being could have hardly emerged from a flight of fancy by the young men:
"It was wearing a sort of plastic raincoat, with a zipper and buttons, stripes on the chest. It was black or dark. And a sort of facemask or helmet on its head."
The extraterrestrial taxonomy is highly varied, and the prototype described by Antonio Guirao fits into some known cases. As to the repetition of cases in the same spot, we know that UFOs are repeaters. They are looking for something. There are iron mines in the vicinity of Sangonera, and they can also be found in Gallarta, where J.J. Benitez found a considerable number of prints in a slag pit. None of this is conclusive, of course. They have also been seen entering and leaving the sea.
Frustrated Communications
This case has left me with an odd impression. When the youngsters were frightened at the sight of a giant being in the darkness, it seems that they all took off running, jumped on their motorbikes and took off. But there's a significant aspect that I cannot overlook. Antonio Guirao says that he called to his cousin to ask him to wait, "to see what this guy has to say." This "guy" was the alleged alien. Was the boy boasting about not having felt the same level of fear as his cohorts? The way he said it does not suggest it. It sounds more like the creature seemed to be friendly, as the young man would confirm later on.
We cannot forget that prior to seeing the creature, the boys had been signaling the UFO, which answered in turn. What would have happened if Antonio had stayed behind? Can we not think that perhaps someone, a fellow Earthman, would have had sufficient presence of mind to hold back to see what the putative alien had to say? And if this is the case, what was dialogue between them?
It could be argued that such a case would end in abduction. But I do not think so. There is always a sort of paralysis in abductions, a mental blockage or submission to the will of the alien, a circumstance that did not arise here. If Antonio had stayed behind, he would have done so at his own will, out of sheer curiosity.
It is possible that someone has made it to this point. If so, it is likely that they may never want to discuss it. For this reason we remain bewildered, wondering what it is "they" are thinking.
Perhaps Antonio Guirao, the 16-year-old farmhand was on the verge of finding out. What can we think about these circumstances? To answer this question, I shall avail myself of the words of Jesus Sancho in his report: "The UFO allowed itself to be seen, and even signaled back, responding to the luminous signals made by the boys. Since they weren't going away - the moon was very bright - a ufonaut departed the craft to visit the kids. But this was too much for their nerves."
[Translation (c) 2016 Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology]