Overview
Fabio Pedro Alles Zerpa (4 December 1928 – 7 August 2019) was a Uruguayan-born actor and journalist who became one of the best known UFO researchers in the Southern Cone. Born in Rosario, Uruguay, he moved to Argentina in 1951 and lived there for the rest of his life. Zerpa combined popular media activity with public lectures and research into anomalous phenomena, often described in the literature as work in parapsychology and ufology.
Career and public activities
Zerpa began presenting conferences on anomalous phenomena in the early 1960s and gained public attention through radio and print. In 1966 he launched the radio programme Más allá de la cuarta dimensión ("Beyond the Fourth Dimension"), which reached a broad Spanish-speaking audience and became a touchstone for many enthusiasts. From 2001 he directed the on-line magazine El Quinto Hombre ("The Fifth Man"), a periodical that collected reports, commentary and interviews on unidentified aerial phenomena and related subjects.
Roles, publications and projects
Zerpa worked in several overlapping roles: actor, journalist, researcher and lecturer. He published articles and booklets, organized meetings, and maintained a presence in mass media for decades. In December 2005 he received civic recognition when he was appointed cultural ambassador of the city of Colonia in Uruguay. He continued to speak publicly and to advise research groups until his death in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 7 August 2019 at the age of 90.
Reception and legacy
Zerpa was a polarizing figure: admired by many in the UFO and parapsychology communities for his commitment to fieldwork and oral testimony, and viewed skeptically by mainstream scientists who pointed to the limited empirical basis of many reports. Nonetheless, his longevity in the public eye and his role in popularizing anomalous-research topics in Spanish-speaking countries shaped several generations of investigators and enthusiasts. His archives, interviews and recorded programmes remain a resource for historians of popular science and contemporary folklore.
Notable facts and distinctions
- Born in Rosario, Uruguay; resident of Argentina from 1951 onward (Rosario).
- Launched the long-running radio programme Más allá de la cuarta dimensión in 1966.
- Directed the online magazine El Quinto Hombre beginning in 2001.
- Appointed cultural ambassador of Colonia, Uruguay, in December 2005.
For further reading and primary materials, seek recordings of his radio programmes, issues of his magazine and contemporary press coverage that document how his work intersected with Argentine and Uruguayan cultural life in the late 20th century.