Argentina: As Seen On the X-Files

Source: luisburgosovni.blogspot.ar
Date: November 15, 2017

Argentina: As Seen on the X-Files

The Only Argentinean Photo Featured on The X-Files
By Luis Burgos (FAO-ICOU)

In 1971, Americo Lumelli, grandfather of our friend and colleague Luciano Mazzoni, opened the "El OVNI" bar in Venado Tuerto (Santa Fe), whose name made it an obligatory port of call for our entire team. It didn't take long to become famous in the national UFO circuit and even more so because Americo formed part of the CIC group (Centro de Investigaciones Cosmobiofisicas) in that community. The bar remained in business until his death in 1998. You can imagine all the subjects that were discussed there on the subject that has concerned us in 27 years of public research.

But far away and many years later, another bar with a similar name caught the attention of Argentinean researchers. In fact, the second episode of the first season of THE X-FILES featured a scene within a bar shows a UFO photo taken in Argentina - the ONLY one that appeared in the groundbreaking TV series: a shot of the Punta Cuevas saucer.

Punta Cuevas is a rocky formation with a thin strip of beach washed by the blue waters of Golfo Nuevo and located only a few kilometers from the downtown area of the lovely city of Puerto Madryn, the gateway to the Valdes Peninsula in Chubut Province. It is known as the "the landing site", as the vessel "Mimosa" arrived there in 1865 bearing 153 Welsh settlers who founded the regional communities. In fact, the Museo del Desembarco, located above the local caves, displays everything regarding this event and flies the white and blue flag, but with a red dragon in its middle - a device that flew over those shores at the time.

In late 1975, a resident of Trelew who chose to remain anonymous submitted a photo - allegedly taken in the Punta Cuevas sector - to Cuarta Dimension magazine. According to the account furnished by R.E.S. (the person's initials), he witnessed the maneuvers of a metallic object for over a minute at 15:20 hours on 18 February 1975. The object reflected the sun's light and headed eastward to the sea without making a noise. The camera employed was a Practika Pentacon using Kodak slide color film, being the second image in a series of six. At the time, the photo was analyzed by Lic. Guillermo Roncoroni, a member of Fabio Zerpa's team, and classified as QUESTIONABLE due to the lack of information provided.

In the second chapter of the first season of THE X-FILES ("Deep Throat"), the plot takes place in a bar located near the enigmatic Ellens AFB in Idaho. Mulder and Scully try to find the location from which locals are reporting triangular UFOs. What better place to do so than "The Flying Saucer" bar, owned by a woman who had not only had experiences of her own, but also fed the expectations of anyone interested in saucer affairs. Behind the bar, and only for a few seconds, we catch a glimpse of several UFO photographs...and the PUNTA CUEVAS one is among them. Strange but true. Evidently, some producer secured material from different parts of the world and came across the image from Chubut.

Taking advantage of our extensive Patagonian sojourn during the 10th Federal ICOU Event in El Bolsón, held on October 27-28, 2017, we set out with the FAO delegation that accompanied us to revisit classic case locations as we traveled, as well as to secure testimony from the Patagonian witnesses themselves. All of this, and our typical nocturnal skywatches as well. All expectations were met, to our great fortune, and such was the case with Punta Cuevas, where we manage to stand - 42 years after the original incident - at the place where the only Argentinean photo shown on the X-FILES was taken.



The local geography has clearly changed over time, but the typical vegetation of the hillocks remains. Standing in the same are, we were able to reconstruct how the incident must have taken place on that summer afternoon. The witness was at the beach, surely taking photos of the caves. When the UFO appeared, practically over his/her head, coming in from the West and heading out to sea, he or she began pressing the shutter, resulting in only the hillock and the blue sky appearing, without any other point of reference. While the photo does not say much in of itself, the fact that it appeared on the TV series will keep it alive forever, at least as a remarkable ufological curiosity from Argentina. It would have truly been extraordinary, however, if Américo had featured the Punta Cuevas photo behind his bar in Venado Tuerto!

[Translation (c) 2017, S. Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology]