Interviewer: Do you know any legends, or experienced any ghosts or aliens or things you didn’t know how to explain or whether they were true or not?

Informant: Well this definitely happened to me but I don’t know what it was. It was not conventional like I don’t know how to explain it.  We were out by Coyote Creek, south of where we lived and before they built it up.  And we were just kind of pulled over and I always used to look up.  It was really quiet and there were no really big buildings around. And I looked up and I was like “what is that light” and I just saw this light moving.  But it wasn’t moving in a straight line.  It was moving in really jagged and really weird angles and that’s when it caught my eye.  Like I couldn’t figure out what it was.  And that’s when I said to the person I was with, “look!” And I pointed and it was way up there and it started doing these jagged movements.  But the thing that was the coolest was that at one point it stopped and it broke up into three lights and split off into three different directions.  And I told the person I was with not to forget because in fifty years it might mean something

Interviewer: At the time did you know what it was or did someone tell you what they thought it was?

Informant: I didn’t know what it was but I thought maybe it was a UFO.

Interviewer: And did you tell anybody?

Informant: Just the person I was with and then you. But this was before I was into sci fi and I was only about 17 at the time.  But years later I remember a report on the news and the person recalled how they saw the same thing, a single objects moving in odd jagged angles that conventional planes couldn’t and then the splitting off of three different lights and then it just disappeared.

Background: Maria Juarez-Reyes is the mother of the interviewer and a firm believer in the supernatural or in sci fi as a genre. This was her first in person encounter with something she could not explain and it influenced her love of sci fi.  Culturally, aliens are not something that are traditionally believed in, but is greatly influenced by popular culture.

Context: This interview took place during a weekend at home with family.  The informant first experienced this episode when she was around 17 and with her boyfriend at the time.  They were on a date in San Jose, California and she recounts the experience more than once.

Analysis: This account is considered to be a legend based on the time the story takes place and the debate about whether it is actually true or if aliens actually exist. To those who believe, the story always has validity but varies according to belief. The performance also adds to the believe-ability and the informant also said to experience chills while telling the story which added to the truth of the account.  Maria Juarez-Reyes firmly believes that she saw something unexplainable that could have been aliens but it is unknown.