Abstract

COMASTRI, Hernán. UFOs and Interplanetary Travel in Argentina during the First Peronismo. Rev. Pilquen. secc. cienc. soc. [online]. 2018, vol.21, n.2, pp.41-53. ISSN 1851-3123.

The present study seeks to rebuild how the popular culture of peronist Argentina adopted the new phenomenon of the Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) in 1947, year of its emergence. With this aim, news coverages of the first sightings will be analyzed, along with the discussions that took place abroad in the first place and, almost inmediately after, in the country. An early adoption by the Argentinean popular culture reveals its integration to global mass culture's circuits and a rapid adaptation and appropriation of its most recent innovations. This appropriation was processed by the popular masses through long-term practices (for instance: spiritism) but also through their interest to face the scientific and technical challenge of explaining and even designing an "Argentinean flying saucer". These initiatives could be revisited thanks to their testimonies in the correspondence between the peronist government and the citizenship, that took place between 1951 and 1955.

Keywords : UFO.