This past weekend started off the annual Fiestas here in Santa Fe, with the burning of Zozobra! It's a unique local tradition, with a fascinating history I loved using in Death Comes to Santa Fe, and I love how it signals the beginning of autumn. Here's some info from the book:
Fiesta has its origins in 1692, when the Spanish who were driven out by the Pueblo Revolt twelve years before, returned, led by Don Diego de Vargas. In 1712, the Spanish governor of the province proclaimed a religious commemoration of those events, where there were Masses, processions, and family dinners. This didn’t change for many years, and in fact had much lapsed by the 1760s.
In 1912, the Chamber of Commerce thought Fiesta ready for a revival—as a commercial scheme. They organized events that often didn’t have much to do with New Mexico, and charged entry fees which shut out many locals and was meant to draw more tourists to the new state. In the 1920s, a group of artists, led by Will Shuster, protested this and organized their own “El Pasatiempo,” complete with many of the events we have now—parades, dances, and especially Zozobra! (There are still traditional events, as well, such a Novenas and Masses, and the procession of La Conquistadora, a wooden figure of The Virgin Mary brought to Santa Fe in 1692 and now housed in the Cathedral).
Will Shuster was one of the great characters of Santa Fe in the twentieth century! Born in Pennsylvania in 1893, he came to New Mexico with his wife in 1920 for his health (he was gassed in World War I) and to pursue his dreams of being an artist. His natural gregariousness and creativity made him a leader, especially among a group who lived near him called Los Cinco Pintores (or “five little nuts in five mud huts,” as some wags called them!). He was constantly throwing parties, organizing events, getting into scrapes. One of his most enduring parties is Zozobra, or “Old Man Gloom.” Made of wool, wire, and cotton cloth, he now reaches 50 feet high and his burning is attended by around 70,000 people, who crowd into a park to contribute their “glooms” (anxieties or bad events, written on slips of paper to be packed in and around the giant marionette). In 1924, Zozobra was only about 6 feet high, a puppet in Shuster’s garden to amuse his artist friends. As far as I know, there were no body parts found in the ashes that year! By 1926, he realized it was a popular thing and moved to a park for others to see. On Shuster’s death in 1969, he left the rights to Zozobra’s party to the Kiwanis Club, and it’s run every year as a charitable fundraiser (and gloom-burner).
The White sisters, Elizabeth and Martha, were also real figures in 1920s Santa Fe! The college-educated daughters of a wealthy Pennsylvania newspaper magnate, they were on a cross-country trip to California after the War (where Elizabeth served as a nurse), and decided to stay in Santa Fe, where they built their large compound “El Delirio” (named after their favorite bar in Seville, Spain!). Elizabeth lived a long, energetic life as a patron of the arts, breeder of Irish wolfhounds (she liked to march them in the Fiesta parades!), and Native American rights activist. Their home is now the School of Advanced Research, and has a wonderful library where I’ve done much research! They were the first home in town to have a tennis court and swimming pool, and the party to inagurate the pool was a real event! (Complete with poem by Witter Bynner, another of the great characters of Santa Fe!)
A few sources I’ve found very helpful are:
--Joseph Dispenza and Louise Turner, Will Shuster: A Santa Fe Legend (1989)
--Edna Robertson, Los Cinco Pintores (1975)
--Jennifer Owings Dewey, Zozobra: The Story of Old Man Gloom
--Gregor Stark and E. Catherine Rayne, El Delirio: The Santa Fe World of Elizabeth White (1998)
--Stacia Lewandowski, Light, Landscape, and the Creative Quest: Early Artists of Santa Fe (2011)
--Van Deren Coke, Taos and Santa Fe: The Artists’ Environment 1882-1942 (1963)
--Edna Robertson, Artists of the Canyons and Caminos (2006, reprint)
