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EDINBURG — For 8-year-old Gloria Martinez, extraterrestrial life is not a far-fetched idea.
“They’re green and they have black eyes and they look really cool,” Gloria said Friday, wearing a bright green alien mask and silver tinfoil hat to protect from mind control.
Her mom, Melissa Martinez, 37, agreed with her daughter adding that she believes it’s impossible for humans to be the only life in the universe.
“I love aliens, I have a tattoo of them,” Melissa said with a laugh.
For Melissa, it’s never been a question of the existence of aliens but rather a question of when it would be confirmed.
“I’ve known they were real for years. There’s no way we’re the only ones,” Melissa said with a definitive tone. “Now they’re confirming it, and I’m like ‘I told you.’”
Melissa was referring to a panel hearing this summer where a whistleblower claimed the U.S. government is covering up evidence of alien life.
This was the hot topic on the lips of attendees at the city of Edinburg’s 12th annual UFO Festival on Friday, in which people across the Rio Grande Valley gathered at the Edinburg City Hall Courtyard to take part in wacky UFO activities.
Walking through the courtyard one could see attendees in their favorite UFO attire such as T-shirts, sweaters, headbands, and even face paint displaying little green men.
Some attendees even brought their pets dressed as extraterrestrials; in fact, one dog walked around with its fur dyed pink and silver.
The festival brought visitors from far and wide.
Before moving to the Valley, 43-year-old Laura Garza lived in Dilley, Texas — a place she recalled having alien sightings and activity reports.
Living in Dilley wasn’t the only thing that confirmed Garza’s belief in aliens but also due to the media attention surrounding the government whistleblower’s claims during the recent hearings this summer.
“Now we know but yet it’s like what do we do with that? What can we do?” Garza said.
Although she believes in the existence of aliens she doesn’t believe they look like green people with giant black eyes.
“They can look just like me and you for all I know,” Garza said.
Garza isn’t alone in her theory. Many attendees were on the same page during Friday’s event.
“I think they might be blending in,” Damaris Cantu said suspiciously. “I think they may be among us; I think that is something worth being skeptical about.”
The 29-year-old Edinburg resident explained that she was excited to attend this year’s UFO Fest after reading about the recent congressional hearings.
“I think it’s something that has been validated after so long,” Cantu said. “I feel like they’ve been around for a while.”
The event extended into Saturday with the city’s UFO conference, which was scheduled through 5 p.m. at the Region One Education Service Center in Edinburg, where experts on unidentified flying objects were expected to talk all things aliens, including the whistleblower. The speakers included Noe Torres, Mike Bara, Stanley Milford, Jonathan Dover, Marc D’Antonio and David Childress.
Tickets for the conference can be purchased online at edinburgufo.com.
To see more, view Monitor photojournalist Delcia Lopez’s full photo gallery here:
