At 101, Zozobra gets a steampunk makeover

As New Mexicans prepare for the 101st Burning of Zozobra, Old Man Gloom is getting a steampunk makeover.

“Steampunk is a really cool theme, because it’s very much turn of the century — that Victorian era with Jules Verne-inspired gears and clocks and steam and goggles and all those cool things,” Ray Sandoval, Zozobra event chair, said. “And we thought, what great symmetry to have Zozobra’s own turn of the century line up with a theme that’s a turn of the century, as well.”

Created by the artist Will Shuster in 1924, Zozobra attracts tens of thousands of annual visitors, plus over a million more who watch live on television and online.

Participants write down their “glooms” on scraps of paper, which are stuffed inside the 50-foot marionette and burned away in the evening’s fire. Others burn objects from their past that have caused them heartache, anxiety or despair.

“One woman gave us a bra, because she survived breast cancer,” Sandoval said. “We had a hospital gown from someone who had stage-four cancer and then went into remission. We’ve had a guitar. We’ve had countless wedding dresses, divorce papers, old love letters, police reports, arrest warrants, old mortgages. You name it, we’ve gotten rid of it.”

Sandoval became chair of the festival in 2013 and instituted the Decades Project the following year.

“In the 10 years leading up to the 100th anniversary, we dressed Zozobra in (the style of) that decade. So, in 2014, it was a 1920s theme, and we gave him a handlebar mustache,” Sandoval said. “Then we did the ’30s, the ’40s, the ’50s, and so on.”

“There wasn’t a theme for the 100th, because we wanted the 100th to kind of live on its own,” he continued. “But after that, we really needed to make a decision as to whether we were going to continue themes or go back to the traditional. So, we reached out to our community.”

Opinions, he said, were split across generational lines.

“Most folks who were 40 and older were very much like, no, return to the tradition,” Sandoval said. “Then, everyone who was younger was like, this is what keeps it fresh and new. And they liked trying to figure out what Zozobra was going to wear, and what the theme was and how they could participate in it.”

The organizers decided to continue with the themes.

“One of the best points of proof that the themes actually worked is that in 2013, when I took over, we announced a kids’ art contest, and we received about 80 entries. And Zozobra looks cute, because he’s in markers and crayon, but it was all the yellow or orange hair and the black bowtie with the two buttons. They were all the same,” Sandoval said. “And I will tell you that this year, when we did the contest, we had over 600 entries, and Zozobra was in skinny jeans. Zozobra had a backpack. Zozobra was playing Nintendo Switch. Zozobra had Crocs. And what that said to me was that we really allowed people to imagine Zozobra in these different ways, and it’s become more relatable to young folks, which is critical.”

Sandoval said 2025’s steampunk Zozobra will be adorned with clocks and gears.

“And he’s going to have a robotic hand, so his fingers will move for the first time,” he said.

In addition to the steampunk theme, this year’s festival will include live music by the EZ Band, who perform nostalgic pop songs in the Mexican ranchera style. When a friend first suggested them, Sandoval was not immediately sold on the idea.

“My first thought, to be quite honest, was like, 1980s pop hits in ranchera style? Oh, that’s a great trainwreck,” he said. “But when I heard them doing The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven,’ and they switched between Spanish and English verses — and it was accordion, it was violin, it was northern New Mexico — I was shocked at how seamlessly they made this new art form by marrying these two very different genres. And I thought, ‘Oh my God, my friend was right.’”

Given how meaningful the festival is to some participants, who use it as an opportunity to mark major life transitions, the organizers are careful to balance their desire to keep the event fresh and fun with the need to maintain continuity.

“It’s threading that needle,” Sandoval said. “One of the things that we don’t touch is the actual ritual itself. We have the instructions from Zozobra’s creator, Will Shuster.”

The myth of Zozobra, which is reenacted every year, involves the monster’s attempt to turn Santa Fe into a land of darkness and gloom, and to turn the city’s children into his minions, the Gloomies, before the Fire Spirit burns him, restoring happiness to the land.

“What I love about the mythology is the idea that we create Zozobra ourselves with our misdeeds and the gloom that we create in our lives or in other people’s lives. And it materializes in the 50-foot specter that is Zozobra,” Sandoval said. “What is the only antidote to that? The same human beings who created Zozobra with our negative feelings create his nemesis, the Fire Spirit, with our good feelings.”

“So, come in the spirit of the event, which is really to let go of gloom,” he said.

Visitors coming from Albuquerque can take advantage of a special Rail Runner service.

“A free shuttle is going to pick you up (from the train station) and take you to the venue,” Sandoval said. “And we’re going to bring you back. We hold the Rail Runner until everybody gets back on, so it makes it easy.”

At 101, Zozobra gets a steampunk makeover