The Mysterious Spanish Humanoid Invasion of 1968

One curious aspect of the UFO phenomenon is how many sightings seem to come in waves, with many witnesses coming forward in the same area within a short span of time, for whatever reasons. This is true not only for UFOs, but also for their supposed occupants, and paranormal researcher and author Albert S Rosales has uncovered one such wave of encounters from 1968 in Spain and has kindly passed along a selection of bizarre reports from that year. Here we will look at a country that at the time seemed to be besieged by an array of humanoid sightings and high strangeness. 

Quite a few of these reports from 1968 seem to have happened right in people’s own homes, the safety of their own rooms not enough to protect them from the strange. One such case involves a man named Ventura Munoz, from Colmenarejo, Madrid, Spain. One night he was drifting off to sleep when he was pulled from its clutches by a “deep voice” calling out to him. As he sat in the gloom looking about for the source of this intrusive voice, a large, dark humanoid shape materialized from the murk before him, with eyes that were “an intense red, very persuasive and perversive.” This mysterious figure apparently offered Munoz anything he desired, but the man refused and began praying. As soon as the praying began, the strange entity simply melted away into the darkness, never to be seen again. What was going on here?

That same year an 8-year-old witness in Malaga, Spain, woke up to quite the strange sight, indeed. There, standing in her bedroom, were three curious small humanoid figures, described as having large heads and rough skin. These entities apparently took her to a craft outside and within it performed an examination on her, during this process implanting some sort of device in her body. There is no word on what happened to her after this, and her case remains a conundrum.

Another 8-year-old known only as “Julia G” was in her bedroom in Huelva, Spain, when she woke to see "a dark-skinned woman that was at the same time extremely luminous” looming over her at the foot of her bed. This enigmatic woman was dressed in a white robe and was rather creepily just standing there smiling at the witness. The scared little girl allegedly hid under her covers, after which she felt something grasp at her several times. When she dared to look again, the figure was gone. 

In the summer of that year, a Trinidadian named Gomez Sanchez was at her home in Capuchinos, Malaga, Spain, doing chores along with a young neighbor when they had an experience they would never forget on the indoor patio of the home. As she went about her chores, her attention was suddenly captured by a thin figure with long hair and less than a meter in height, with a disproportionately large head resembling that of a “newborn.” The sight sent her running and screaming as the entity jumped up to run along the rooftop while letting out “a loud howling scream.” A neighbor by the name of Jose Santana Cordoba heard the ruckus and went to the rooftop armed with a large club, where he saw the creature himself but was unable to catch up to it before it disappeared. Dubious police were called in to investigate but found no evidence of such an entity. 

One morning in November of 1968, a 6-year-old witness was playing at his house in Barrio del Carmen, Valencia Spain, when he saw perched upon an outside terrace a “strange, winged creature” that looked like it was looking around for something. The witness purportedly approached this bizarre creature out of sheer curiosity, and as he drew closer he could see that the wings were leathery and bat-like and that the thing was devoid of feathers. When he got closer, the creature whirled around to face him, and the witness could see that it had “a semi-human face, and its body was human like also and it was perched on a pair of feet that ended in claws.” This beastly thing then lifted off on its wings and flew off out of sight. 

1968 also brought plenty of these sorts of encounters that occurred outdoors. In January of that year, an unnamed witness was at a boarding school in El Escorial, Madrid, Spain and he decided one afternoon to climb a nearby hill with a friend. After reaching the top of the hill, they spied a “solid, dull looking cigar-shaped object,” and although no humanoids were actually sighted, the timing of the incident is interesting. Rosales’ report reads:

They looked at it for a few seconds before they could comment on it and decided it was not a cloud since the edges were crisp and there were some obvious 3 dimensionalities to it. The object was huge since they actually had to move their heads from left to right to see it end to end. Within 15 to 20 seconds the object seemed to shrink in size, tilt and vanish. To their estimation the whole incident lasted not more than 30 seconds. They ran down to the school to report what they saw, and a group of the other children were very excited when they saw the witnesses. To their surprise their excitement was due to the fact that both had been missing for over 2 hours and had missed lunch and the head count. Fortunately for them the Franciscan monk in charge of the school was very sympathetic and offered to call the local US air base (Torrejon) to ask about the phenomenon. The base reported that there had been no scheduled test flights that day but were very interested in a personal report. Both witnesses declined.

The fact that this happened towards the very beginning of the whole humanoid wave is intriguing, indeed. The very next month there was an odd sighting when a huge, hairy creature looking very much like Bigfoot was seen drinking from a pond at El Escorial, Madrid, Spain. The hairy biped was apparently seen by other witnesses in the area at around the same time. In spring of that year, a 14-year-old witness was working on his father’s farm when he saw something odd in the wooded area nearby. The report reads:

The 14-year-old witness was working on his father’s land located in a wooded area when around 11:30 a.m. he saw emerging out of the tree line located next to the Vencherque River at about 200 meters away two shiny metallic ‘objects or figures resembling “metallic robots”, silvery in color and about 2.5 meters in height, which were walking towards the witness with their arms straight down on their sides and without moving their legs.  Both entities seemed to move in unison and had square heads and thorax and on each of their hands they were carrying some sort of metallic ‘briefcase’. When they were about 60 meters from the witness he ran home and notified his parents of what he had seen. Immediately the adults searched the area but failed to find anything.

That same spring, a woman in Monte Ulia, near San Sebastian, Basque Country, Spain, saw a bright light descend towards a peach tree in her yard. When the light touched down it disgorged two very tall men, wearing white diving suits and what appeared to be ‘wings’ on their backs. They apparently spoke to the witness in Spanish, saying they were looking “for passage.” The woman lost consciousness and the next morning when she examined the area she found it to be scorched, the tree burnt to a crisp. 

Also that spring, four young girls were out collecting flowers in Palmar de Troya, Andalucia, Spain, when witness Ana Garcia Gonzalez saw movement behind a nearby bush. When the girls approached, they saw a human-like figure. When they drew closer they could see that it was a beautiful, ethereal-looking woman with a “round and pink face, large black eyes and wearing a brown mantle.” At the time, the story hit the media, and flocks of people gathered in the area convinced that the girls had seen the Holy Virgin Mother.

That same month, in March of that year, an unnamed witness was taking a walk next to a deserted, ruined castle at San Vicente De Sonsierra, La Rioja, Spain on a very quiet night and had sat down on one of the patio areas almost falling asleep. At around midnight, he snapped out of his sleepy stupor to see standing just 10 meters away three huge humanoid figures with very wide shoulders that were completely covered in black hoods that reached all the way to the ground, and each one carrying what appeared to be a scythe. These enigmatic intruders apparently just stood there staring at the witness, and all three had “large round red eyes that seemed to blink unison as they looked at the witness.” The witness allegedly fled in terror and hid in a nearby grapevine field until morning. 

In the summer of that year, a young man visited an area of Palmar De Troya, Utrera, Andalucia, Spain with his family in the hopes of seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary that had been frequently seen in the vicinity. They joined a group of other people there for the same reason, and Rosales’ report continues:

At sundown, the group waited for something to happen, looking around in all directions. After what seemed to be quite a long time the witness spoke to one of the men present who seemed to be very well informed of the situation and happenings. This man pointed to a nearby wooded hill where the “Virgin” had been seen recently. The man then walked towards the hill and entered the woods, quickly disappearing from the view of the others present. Meanwhile, as the young man watched the man disappear behind some trees, he saw what appeared to be some type of “humanoid” figure, which had suddenly appeared, completely immobile and silent. The strange figure resembled a thick “bowling pin” it didn’t seem to have any depth and was facing towards the group. It lacked any arms or legs or any discernible facial features. It was the height of a man, and it was uniformly shiny, even though it did not illuminate its surroundings. It supports itself on the ground by its bottom base. 

Surprised by what he was seeing the young man was unable to move. He yelled at his family asking them if they had seen the strange figure. Apparently, his family and the others had not seen a thing. The others thought he had seen the man who had walked into the woods earlier. Still staring at the strange figure and watched as it disappeared and then reappear again within the wooded area, finally disappearing from sight for good. Perplexed by what he had seen the young man immediately returned with his family to Sevilla. As they drove back on the highway the whole family observed flying above the fields on the side of the road, it looked like a glowing cloud. Even though it seemed to be moving at the same speed of the automobile and going in the same direction it eventually fell back and was lost from sight.

What was going on here? That same summer, in August, a witness by the name of Pedro Pablo Barrios was driving between Betanzos and Villalba, Spain, when he suddenly saw a very luminous object shaped like “two plates glued together” and with an “antenna” rise into the sky near his vehicle. The strange craft rotated and he could see that it had two bright lights on each end and a sort of “H” shaped device with three hanging leg-like protrusions on its belly. The report says:

The craft chases Barrios approaching very close on two occasions. Finally, Barrios stopped and parked on the side of the road to see the object more clearly. A few seconds later the object rose up into the air and vanished. According to the witness during the “chase” he saw several pedestrians on the road who apparently also saw the object and had to “lay flat on the ground” to avoid being struck by the low flying craft.

Although there were no humanoids sighted on this occasion, the timing is once again interesting. In that same August, a rancher by the name of Jose Pio Mayo was bringing back the cattle to the town of Belagua, Navarra, Spain, accompanied by his dogs when he suddenly saw what appeared to be two approaching shadowy figures that seemed to be hovering over the ground in a wingless object that looked sort of like a canoe. The report continues:

Jose watched awestruck as the object and figures approached within 10 meters of his location. According to Jose the occupants of the ‘boat’ saw him and then made a sharp right turn and quickly disappearing into the brush. The whole time his two dogs cowered between his legs. The two figures appeared to have been sitting inside the ‘flying canoe’, side by side. The canoe-like object was about 4-meters long. At no time did the occupants communicate or acknowledge the presence of the witness. The object flew at very low speed the whole time. That night Jose was unable to sleep and the next morning returned to the site to check but did not find anything out of the ordinary. However, his dogs refused to accompany him. One of the dogs had to be put down several days later as it developed a strange malady all over its body, something resembling tumors.

The following week, a local man by the name of Juan Gascon del Toro was returning on his bicycle from hunting on some local pastureland in Aldaya Valencia Spain, and as he turned a corner, he saw about 100 meters away an object which had apparently landed on a field. This object was described as being football-shaped and standing on four metallic legs. What was even stranger than this was what was lurking nearby. The report reads:

Next to the object were some figures which the witness first thought were children. However, as he kept approaching the object and arriving to within 40 meters from it, he stopped and looked directly at the craft. The craft was about 8 meters in diameter and about 3.20 meters in height, its base was about 60cms from the ground and had landed on three leg-like protrusion the same color as the object. On the top of the craft, he could see what resembled a metallic (iron) antenna connected to a shiny protrusion on the top of the craft. He could see a door, about 1.50 x 0.50 m, on which stood two apparently occupants of the craft, standing on a protruding four rung “ladder” (again the same color of the craft). The humanoids were approximately 1.45 m in height, were wearing helmets with dark visors, similar to diver’s and from the area of their mouth protruded a sort of segmented ‘rubber hose’ which connected to their chests, brown in color. On the chests they wore a wide belt. They were dressed in white diving suits; the belt seemed a little ‘dimmer’ than the rest of the suit. They also wore small white boots. The humanoids were completely indifferent to the witness and just observed him without any apparent reaction. Del Toro then boarded his bicycle and took a side route losing sight of the landed craft. The encounter lasted about 1 minute. He heard no sounds during the encounter.

The following month, on September 24, 1968, a local shepherd in Puerto Serrano, Cadiz, Spain, saw a “round luminous object” in a nearby field emitting bright beams of light. As he approached, he apparently heard voices calling his name, but the craft suddenly rose up into the sky and disappeared at great speed. Interestingly, on that very same day a woman in Cedeira La Coruna Spain, saw a bright light and two tall figures walking towards her on a rural road, each one of them with "lights of changing color were visible on their faces.” There would later be found a burned area around 2 meters in diameter wrenched into the grass at the site. 

In November of that year, businessman Francisco Donis was driving near Castillo De Alarcon, Cuenca, Spain on his way to Malaga when he received a telepathic message instructing him to go to a certain isolated location. He felt overwhelmingly compelled to go there, and when he reached the designated spot he was surprised to see a disc-shaped object hovering above 3 meters from the road next to the road. The report says of what happened next:

As he watched an opening became visible on the craft and a retractable ladder descended to the ground, on which a human-like figure descended and approached Donis with arms outstretched in an obvious sign of peace. Speaking in perfect Spanish the stranger informed Donis that his name was “Francisco Atienza” and that he was a descendant of extraterrestrials. The stranger was totally human in appearance and wore a one-piece gray diver’s suit. A long conversation ensued between “Atienza” and Donis, which took place inside the witness car. Atienza told Donis that he came from a planet called “Urin”, whose original inhabitants were short, large headed humanoids. However there existed on “Urin” a human colony, which lived under huge glass domes, since the atmosphere of “Urin” was toxic to humans. He further explained that life under these conditions had caused a massive sterilization among the human colony, which had more female members than males.

That same month, just two days later, witness Manuel Trejo was returning home in his car near Zafra, Extremadura, Spain, when suddenly the engine of the car began to falter as his headlights flickered and dimmed. Moments later, he claims that an “invisible shock wave” struck his vehicle hard enough to cause his vehicle to careen from side to side. He managed to keep control of his car, and after rounding a bend he saw standing in the road a humanoid figure wearing a tight-fitting diver’s outfit completely covered in tiny red, green, and blue lights, “like a Christmas tree.” These lights became ever more bright and brilliant as the witness drew closer, but he continued on, passing the figure and letting the strange humanoid fade into the distance. This report would be followed by a wave of UFO sightings in the same area, including a number of which that involved people seeing blurred figures through opaque windows on the craft.

Reports like these would continue all through December of that year until suddenly dropping off, leaving us to wonder about many things. What was it about this place and this year that attracted so much strangeness? One thing that is interesting to note is the wide range of descriptions of these entities. What could this mean? Were these aliens, or perhaps was this a rift opened between realities, with interdimensional interlopers coming through some veil between dimensions to bleed over into ours? Or maybe it was just delusions and overactive imaginations? Whatever the case may be, 1968 was surely a bizarre year in Spain.