In January 1965, at Estación Torrent, located in the General Alvear Department of the Province of Corrientes (Argentina) a possible incident involving humanoid beings took place, which would have significant media impact and in the literature on the UFO phenomenon.Subsequent investigation by Roberto Banchs permits establishing a major discrepancy between the experiences of the eyewitnesses and their information on the event. In order to contribute elements that contribute toward an explanation of this difference, what we propose to do here is examine the possible similarity between these humanoids and the mythic models that persist in the social mindset of Corrientes, and their influence in the construction of the encounter narrative.. There are several versions of the events at Torrent, two of which are found in Antonio Ribera’s book America y los Ovnis (1974) from which we take, for illustrative purposes, the one presented originally in the bulletin of the Comisión Observadora de Objetos Voladores No Identificados (CODOVNI) in Buenos Aires, whose correspondent in Corrientes – Rialto Flores – had spoken with Carlos Souriou, brother to one of the protagonists:(Ribera, 1974: 85-87).. In an article published with the title “Torrent, Cts: Estuvieron los Marcianos “ (Torrent, Corrientes: The Martians Were Here), Roberto Banchs (2012) presents the results of an investigation done in 1992, which took him to scene of the events, and to interview Luis Hector Soriou, witness in the case, and Carlos Soriou, alleged source of the information provided by Flores. There emerges a contrast between the information promoted about the matter and the eyewitness accounts: “The Torrent Incident also cautions us about the careless handling of information and the way in which rumors are spread. It is precisely from having seen some lights and shapes at a distance, and the remarks made about them in a distant rural community, gleaned by a local newspaper, without fact-checking or ascertaining the events. Having astonished their readership, the tendrils of this misinformation would spread throughout the world (…). The information recorded by the witnesses is so poor that we can barely support what was described: shapes and uncertain lights in the distance, in the dense thicket surround a lagoon. Inside the house, frightened people informed by the fact – at the time – that flying saucers turned up everywhere.” (Banchs, 2012).A social construct of reality in the Torrent Case. The results of Banch’s investigation lead us to wonder if the discrepancy between the information conveyed and the eyewitness accounts obtained make it necessary – as a function of reality being a social construct – to heed the mythological theory of the cosmos (Berger and Luckmann, 2011: 216) that could serve as the matrix for the Torrent Case.According to Julio Cesar Espinola and Luis G. Acosta Rivellini: “The society of Corrientes Province had (and still displays) all of the signs of a traditional society at the level of social stratification, the preservation of strong historical traditions and the traits of a culture with unmistakable, unique characteristics.” (Espinola-Acosta Rivellini, 1993: 190). It is possible that we may be facing a process that is characteristic of traditional societies, one through which – according to Mircea Eliade – the popular memory is hardly able to remember recent events and genuine figures, reduces events into categories and individuals into archetypes, so that “the historical figure is assimilated to his or her mythical model (the hero, etc.) while the event is included in the category of mythical events (struggle with the monster, enmity between brothers, etc.).” (Eliade, 1985:46).Of course, the concept of assimilation in Eliade’s terms remains troublesome, since other factors were present in the Torrent Case, such as the incidence of the secularization process that characterizes the transition of a traditional society to a modern one (Germani, 1979:89-168) and the emergence of typical elements of modern life in a rural setting (Recasens Siches, 1958:442-450) and the ensuing resistance and conflict (Germani, 1979:144-149). A certain awareness of the UFO phenomenon is evident in the case (Ribera, 1974: 84).. The mythological background of Corrientes, according to Alfredo Vara, follows a process of syncretism between the old animist traditions of the Guaraní peoples and Christian beliefs, one “with strong underlying animist components and a multitude of Medieval Christian beliefs, closely tied to daily life and nature,” which result in “an anonymous, collective spiritual structure that turned into the popular peasant religiosity of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries in a considerable portion of the River Plate Basin.” (Vara, 1985: 28).We must be mindful of this background when analyzing the possible assimilation of the humanoids, identified as “Martians” (Ribera, 1974:84) in constructing the narrative of the case, in what can be understood as a masking of a mythical figure, mythical models that persist in the social mindset of Corrientes (Castoriadis, 2007) that informs that background.For this reason, we will point out the following among the isomorphism that can be established between humanoids and mythical figures such as the Pombero, the Yasy Yateré, the Curupí, and the Pora. In doing this we will employ the trichotomies of classes of signs proposed by Charles S. Peirce, as used by Martha Blanche in her irreplaceable book Estructuras del Miedo – Narrativas Folkloricas Guanariticas (Structures of Fear – Guarani Folkloric Narratives, 1982:44):1.l – The manner in which the mythical figure is perceived: Torrent Case (CT): Humanoids initially perceived as “short bundles”, meter and a half tall “midgets” who subsequently expand to 2.50 meters more or less, their hands were not like “ours, seemed made of hair or something like it.” Folk Mythology (FM): The Pombero is generally small and hairy, but is sometimes described as tall, and at times perceived as a bundle (Blache, 1982:51). The Yasí Yateré is a small being (Blache, 1982:64); the Curupí is a tiny being (Blache, 1982:76); The Pora is described as a bundle (Blache, 1982;85)2.– How it acts: Torrents Case (CT): In the presence of the humanoids, the arm of the farmhand who tries to accost them with a machete is paralyzed; the rifle fired against them jams; they are associated with a light that “lights everything through wooden walls”; they chase and try to catch one of the witnesses. Folk Mythology (FM): The Pombero may display an aggressive behavior (Blache, 1982: 53); The Yasy Yateré can implement destructive or annihilating force (Blache, 1982: 66), the aggressive conduct of the Pora is motivated because the recipient opens fire against it and among the responses to this, the Pora may pursue him and instill fear (Blache, 1982: 86).3.– How the interviewee assesses it: CT: The humanoids cause fear, are called “critters” by the farmhands, their hands “are not like ours”. FM: The Pombero presents human shapes and characteristics but is sometimes shown as an animal, described as a hairy being (Blache, 1982: 56); The Yasy Yateré can be very bad (Blache, 1982: 69).. In the CT, the events occurred at night. “They saw some shapes in the darkness”. This is precisely the actuating factor that contributes to perceiving the Pombero, also known as the Caraí Phujaré = Lord of Night (Blache, 1982: 51 and 52). In the dark: “shapes become confused and indefinite (…) has connotations of quiet and loneliness and provokes associations with hours and places that meet these characteristics, such as the wilderness, siesta, streams or tree hollows. The night is mystery, the right time for hearing strange noises (…) it is very odd to see the Pombero by day.” (Blache, 1982:52-53). The night is also the supporting moment for seeing the Pora (Blache, 1982: 85). Even when siesta time is an actuating factor in the case of the Yasy Yateré, it is a Guaraní term that means “fragment of the moon” (Blache, 1982: 63).It is no less interesting that the protagonists were on their way back from a tatú hunt, and this is because it remands us to the tutelary role of the wild and its fauna with certain characteristics, such as the Caá Pora, which can appear as a woman or a man (Perkins Hidalgo, 1987: 18). Juan B. Ambrosetti writes: “In Goyaz (…) the Indians also have a legend about the Caá-Pora. When the find a swarm of wild pigs and exterminate them, the Caá Pora appears, riding on the very last pig, and upon seeing it, the slayers are rendered idiots for the rest of their lives, so they take great care against killing off the wild pigs, and always leave a few alive. This is a very wise legend, as it tries to put a halt to the complete destruction of an animal.” (Ambrosetti, 1947:46).From the foregoing it emerges that in an initial approach to the subject, it becomes possible to establish in the Torrent Case (CT) a relative isomorphism at each of the analyzed levels between the humanoids identified as “Martians” and the mythical figures, probably shielded behind them, which subsist as models. Despite the problematic nature of the assimilation, the interest that this holds for the empirical investigation of a case, and the knowledge of the symbolic universe that lends it legitimacy, is significant. (Berger and Luckmann, 2011: 229).is an Attorney and Professor of Law. He is interested in Symbolic Thought and in the context of its social loss and its consequences. He is likewise devoted to the study of the persistence of mythological thought and its relationship with the UFO phenomenon. He manages theblog - http://ovnisencorrientes.blogspot.com.ar/ - which presents articles and information on the phenomenon and its manifestations in that Province. He also runs theand is also a member of the Acadèmie d'Ufologie in France.Currently, he is compiling a catalogue of cases recorded in the Province of Corrientes between 1947 and 2001](Translation © 2013, Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology)