The Barroso Case, Brazil (1976)

By Scott Corrales
Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic UFOlogy
UFO Digest Latin America Correspondent

[Our friend and colleague Paulo Poian informed us today a motion picture project based on one of Brazil's most stunning cases of alleged UFO encounter after-effects. An electrifying read! -- SC]

Brazil: The Barroso Case (1976)
By Elias Bruno

Francisco Barroso’s father claims having been abducted at Quixadá (CE). The case was studied by UFO researchers and was the basis for the film “Area Q” shot in that city.

The Barroso case took place on 3 April 1976 in Quixadá, and displays the terrible aspects that can be concealed behind a UFO event. Following an encounter with a UFO that fired some sort of beam at him, experiencer Luis Barroso Fernandes, underwent a strange mental deterioration at the same time that his skin became gradually rejuvenated. Toward the end of his days, he was barely able to utter three words: “mama”, “dada” and “fear”. After being examinated by over a dozen specialists in various medical fields, his case remains a mystery, and a warning about the hazards that may lie behind contact with UFOs.

The everyday routine of businessman Francisco Leonardo Barroso, the son of the farmer allegedly attacked by aliens in the sertao of Ceará in the 1970s, remains unchanged after having starred in the movie “Area Q”, inspired by untold contact experiences in the region. The businessman stated that his father, who died 19 years ago, taught his brothers how to defend themselves and avoid being taken away by unidentified flying objects (UFOs). “To avoid this, you’ve got to go for the roots of a tree. You’ve got to get under the roots of the tree, and the device they use (the Ets) will lose contact”, he explains. Barroso says this father was left with reddened skin and mental retardation after having been spirited away by a UFO.

According to the son, farmer Luis Fernandez Barroso had a very close encounter with extraterrestrials in the 1970s. “Once a week, he went to the farm to look after the herd and enjoyed going out in the small hours of the morning, about 0200 hours. One day, while driving a wagon, he says he came into contact with something that looked like an airplane – only it descended, came down near him, and fired a powerful, nearly blinding beam of light at him,” he says. “Not only do I believe this, I’ve seen it for myself,” remarks Barroso when asked about the belief in UFO manifestation near the city of Quixadá.

Proprietor of a general store in the busy municipal downtown area, he works at the store until noon and then heads for the farm in the rural area where his father’s alleged abduction took place. Francisco Leonardo is the only one of Barroso’s sons who still lives in Quixadá. His mother also passed away; one of his siblings lives in Paiuí and another in a municipality of Ceará’s sertao.

Aftereffects of an Alleged Abduction

After the contact experience, the businessman claims having seen his father undergo physical and psychological changes. His skin was red, “as though burned”, and his mental faculties were diminished after the alleged alien contact, forcing the children to assume the reins of the family business. The case was brought to the attention of ufologists in several countries, such as Portugal, Italy and Spain. They came to the farm to study Barroso’s symptoms and listen to his stories. “My father also went to many hospitals in Fortaleza, and they said that his mind was like that of a child,” says Francisco Leonardo. His father died on the farm in 1993, and according to the son, the appearance of his skin did not match his age. “It was as though it had grown over again,” he says.

Barrosos son almost underwent the same experience when he was driving along the same road to the farm. “I was on a motorbike and saw an object emitting a very bright light. I turned away to keep from being blinded by the light and I slowed down. I remembered two of my father’s pieces of advice: “Don’t be scared and don’t be nervous”, he said. After that, these apparitions would become commonplace in the businessman’s life, saying that it wasn’t a problem “after one gets used to it.”

“I have no ill will against the extraterrestrials, as there were other similar cases to that of my father’s. It was an accident. It could happen to me, to you, or to anyone else,” he says. The businessman has still not seen the movie, but is pleased to know that this father served as its inspiration. “My father was among the first to undergo such an experience. To see that story in the film is admirable, as he really went down in history.”

An Unsolved Case

Ufologist Reginaldo de Athayde (co-editor of Revista UFO) followed the Barroso Case from the moment that the farmer was abducted until his death. “For 17 years, I’d go to Quixadá once a month with other researchers to visit Barroso,” he says. The contact experience was documented in the book “ET’s, Santos e Demonios na Terra do Sol” (Ets, Saints and Demons in the Land of the Sun – Biblioteca UFO, 2000), in which Athayde also discusses other cases involving alien contact in the inland municipalities of Ceará.

The ufologist also told G1 that efforts were made to pursue research into the case following Barroso’s death, but the farmer’s children did not consent to an autopsy. “We believe that this case will never be solved, but we did what we could during the 17-year follow-up.”

“Area Q”

Filmmaker Halder Gomes, of Ceará, was responsible for scouting the locations of “Area Q”, to be shot in Arizona, USA and in the municipality of Quixadá. “In March 2009, I suggested to director Gerson Sanginitto that we approach this ufological subject in another way, based on the stories and anecdotes that I heard while growing up,” says Gomes, who was born in the municipality of Senador Pompeu, also in the Ceará sertao. His birthplace is only a few kilometers from Quixadá, a city surrounded by abundant rock formations known as monoliths, and which are used as a setting for the film.

Halder Gomes, who is also the film’s executive producer, says that the research work dug up cases involving not only Luis Fernandes Barroso, but also stories involving lights seen by the dwellers of this region of Ceará. “We created an entirely fictional story, but some characters could be associated [with real ones], as was done with the Barroso Case, which is rather well-known. The stories of author Raquel de Queiroz, a resident of Quixadá, were used in defining the colors issued by the UFOs,” he explained.

The film tells the story of an American journalist who is hired to research cases of unidentified flying object sightings in Quixadá, a city that became internationally known due to its alien abduction stories, such as the Barroso Incdent. The movie was released on 13 April in fourteen capital cities, and with some scenes filmed in Los Angeles. It was directed by Gerson Sanginitto. The cast includes U.S. actor Isaiah Washington and Brazilian talent Murilo Rosa, Tania Khalil, Ricardo Conti and Karla Karenina.

(Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Paulo Poian, Revista UFO)

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