This article was published in the daily newspaper The Sacramento Bee, California, USA, on September 28, 1965.
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By Carlos Gutierrez
Special to The Bee
MEXICO CITY - It may have taken longer than in other countries but the futuristic public illness known around here as "plativolitis" from plativolo, flying saucer - is raging throughout Mexico, filling daily newspapers with fantastic tales.
Red, white, blue and even gray UFOs - OVNIs In Spanish - have been sighted these last few weeks over Mexico City, over Puebla, over Cuernavaca, and even in faraway places such as Puerto Vallarta and the flatlands of Sonora.
Not only have they been sighted by the dozens but assertedly, they have been photographed, chased around, analyzed, discussed, denied, even boarded by some devils who claim having trips in them to distant stars.
Not one day passes without hearing of a new appearance over the blue yonder.
And even nonbelievers have found themselves peeking - against their will of course - through the clouds fearing, or hoping maybe, to be counted among the seers.
One of the most recent and talked about cases is that which had one of these strange flying objects hovering above the city's international airport.
Control tower operators swore it shed red, white and blue light, sometimes adding a bit of yellow. They even instructed airplane captains flying in the area to watch them. None of them reported seeing anything unusual ... at that time.
In another now legendary case, three university students, pranksters, antisaucer believers claim, told newsmen they were forced one jolly morning to enter a flying saucer which landed near the campus.
Green little men, so the story went, took them on a pleasant ride through space and returned them to earth, not without warning them to be most discreet when talking about them.
Newspapers printed a photograph of what they said was an oval-shaped area where burned out grass "proved according to the students the saucer actually had landed there."
The afternoon tabloid El Grafico, which has taken the UFO matter most seriously, even published a map of Mexico showing how these mysterious visitors "always travel in the same direction, following a southeast to northwest route."
Traffic in downtown Mexico City practically was paralyzed a few days ago by what observatory officials claim was a mild earthquake but which, in the minds of many, was the result of some evil spell cast by an approaching UFO many swore they observed flying over the area at that time.
Cuernavaca, the tropical resort town, suffered three consecutive power blackouts in the space of one hour. Electric company officials were unable to account for the phenomenon. So the public voice quickly attributed it to... Yes...
A respected lawyer and member of the Mexican Astronomic Society, Eric Roel, submitted to newspapers what he said was a photograph of an OVNI he had taken in Tecala, south of Mexico City, with the assistance of a telescopic lens.
Faraway visitors have been located even atop the eternal snows of Popo and Izta, volcanoes east of the city.
The flying saucer craze has reached such proportions parents who traditionally have kept their children at home by telling them robachicos, child stealers, roam the area, now scare them with the tale of a "flying saucer I just saw outside the door."
Now ... As for that purple thing I can see through the window.
