Fiestas de Santa Fé

The cry of “Viva la Fiesta” has been reverberating through the streets of Old Santa Fe every autumn for 299 years. The sound generates a curious blend of thanksgiving, revelry and pride in the hearts of Santa Feans who celebrate Fiesta annually to commemorate Don Diego De Vargas’ peaceful reoccupation of the City of Holy Faith in 1692.

The historic capital is one of the oldest in the United States. It was established by Don Juan de Oñate at San Gabriel in 1598 and moved over 30 miles south to the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains where Santa Fe was founded in 1610. In 1680 the Indians revolted, burned the city and drove out the Spanish colonists, who fled to Guadalupe del Paso, now Juarez, Mexico. They rescued from the burning church the 29-inch wood carved Marian statue, La Conquistadora, originally brought to Santa Fe in 1625 by the missionary, Fray Alonso de Benavides.

Twelve years later, the King of Spain appointed Don Diego De Vargas to join the exiles in Guadalupe del Paso and organize a campaign for the resettlement of Santa Fe. He accomplished this difficult and remarkable mission without bloodshed on September 4, 1692. In December of the next year, the Indians resisted when De Vargas returned from a trip to recruit more colonists, so he set up an encampment outside the city near the present site of the Rosario Chapel. The anxious colonist placed La Conquistadora on a makeshift altar and implored her to intercede for the successful re-entry into the town. Before the end of December 1693, De Vargas led his triumphant forces back into the City of the Holy Faith where La Conquistadora was likely enshrined temporarily in the Palace chapel. Crediting the Madonna’s intercession with his victory, De Vargas is said to have vowed restoration of her throne in the parish church built by Fray Benavides in 1692 and destroyed by the Indians in 1680. The General De Vargas died on April 4, 1704 without achieving this goal.
Eight years after the death of De Vargas, Lt. Governor Paez Hurtado who had been one of this Captains and a close friend, influenced city officials to draft a proclamation for an annual celebration commemorating the peaceful 1692 resettlement. The 1712 proclamation establishing the first Fiesta de Santa Fe, was signed by Governor Marquez de La Peñuela. The document specified a mass, vespers, and a sermon, thus setting the religious tone still characterizing modern fiestas. La Conquistadora is among the most venerated Marian figures in the world. She was crowned in 1954 by Cardinal Francis Spellman and again in 1960 by an apostolic representative of Pope John XXIII. Her golden crown is studded with precious stones, including a three-carat diamond. Her extensive wardrobe includes an exquisite lace mantilla from Sevilla Spain and an elaborate costume fashioned from ancient French vestments found in the old Cathedral museum. They appear to be of the secular and American periods of Bishop Lamy’s clergy. And so it is that La Conquistadora, a conqueror of hearts, and De Vargas, a conquistador of the new world, join forces to inspire our unique and enduring celebration, la Fiesta de Santa Fe, a time of prayer, rejoicing and hospitality for all.

For more information please visit:  www.santafefiesta.org

ZOZOBRA

Zozobra is a hideous but harmless fifty-foot bogeyman marionette. He is a toothless, empty-headed facade. He has no guts and doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. He never wins. He moans and groans, rolls his eyes and twists his head. His mouth gapes and chomps. His arms flail about in frustration. Every year we do him in. We string him up and burn him down in ablaze of fireworks. At last, he is gone, taking with him all our troubles for another whole year. Santa Fe celebrates another victory. Viva la Fiesta! - A.W. Denninger

Fiesta has been celebrated in Santa Fe since 1712 by proclamation of the then-governor of the province Jose Chacon Medina Salazar y Villaseor, the marquis of Penuela. It is the oldest civic celebration of its kind in North America. ZOZOBRA, which has gone up in flames every year since Will Shuster created it in 1924, became one of the symbols of the city, a potent reminder of the madcap celebrations of those times and one artist’s generous dedication to his adopted home.

The Zozobra event is staged each year by the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe as a fiery and exciting kick-off to the annual Fiestas de Santa Fe during the weekend following Labor Day.  Although the Fiestas celebration dates back to 1712, renowned Santa Fe artist Will Shuster added Zozobra in 1924. Kiwanis became officially involved in 1963. Shuster assigned all rights, title and interest in Zozobra on June 19th, 1964 to The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe, which retains exclusive copyright and Trademark to the figure. Thus Kiwanis continues the Zozobra tradition, and as a major fund raiser has become a great way for Santa Feans to participate in community service.

Each year The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe stages the burning of Will Shuster’s Zozobra, kicking off the annual Fiestas de Santa Fe on the weekend following Labor Day. Zozobra centers around the ritual burning in effigy of Old Man Gloom, or Zozobra, to dispel the hardships and travails of the past year. In 2001, Zozobra attracted over 32,000 spectators to view the conflagration ritual and fireworks show at dusk.

The Fiestas celebration began in 1712 to celebrate an expedition by Don Diego de Vargas, who reconquered the the territory of New Mexico. Zozobra became part of the Fiestas in 1926, and the Kiwanis club began sponsoring the burning in 1963 as its major fundraiser.

Local artist William Howard Shuster, Jr. – “Will” (1893-1969) conceived and created Zozobra in 1924 as the focus of a private fiesta at his home for artists and writers in the community. His inspiration for Zozobra came from the Holy Week celebrations of the Yaqui Indians of Mexico; an effigy of Judas, filled with firecrackers, was led around the village on a donkey and later burned. Shuster and E. Dana Johnson, a newspaper editor and friend of Shuster’s came up with the name Zozobra, which was defined as “anguish, anxiety, gloom” or in Spanish for “the gloomy one.”

The effigy is a giant animated wooden and cloth marionette that waves its arms and growls ominously at the approach of its fate. A major highlight of the pageant is the fire spirit dancer, dressed in a flowing red costume, who appears at the top of the stage to drive away the white-sheeted “glooms” from the base of the giant Zozobra. The fire dance was created by Jacques Cartier, a former New York ballet dancer and local dance teacher, who performed the role for 37 years. His dance student, James Lilienthal took over the fire spirit role in 1970 and has continued it for 32 years.

Shuster constructed the figure of Zozobra until 1964, when he gave his detailed model to the Kiwanis Club to continue the tradition. Over the years the effigy has grown larger, reaching a height of 49 feet in 2001. Zozobra is a well crafted framework of preplanned and pre-cut sticks, covered with chicken wire and yards of muslin. It is stuffed with bushels of shredded paper, which traditionally includes obsolete police reports, paid off mortgage papers, and even personal divorce papers.

 

The festival is so popular that children arrive in the park in the morning to watch Zozobra’s assembly. Spectators, who have paid a nominal fee to watch the event, continuously roar, “Burn him,” until Zozobra is destroyed. Since 1952, the show has raised over $300,000, which the Santa Fe Downtown Kiwanis Foundation has used to provide college scholarships, fund local youth projects and camp fees for physically challenged children.

Construction of the Zozobra figure and staging the event normally takes place within a three-week period. It is a labor intensive affair requiring over 3,500 volunteer hours. It involves a significant contribution of time, effort and energy from Kiwanis members, some of whom have been staging Zozobra for many years. Planning the event is a year round activity and is done in cooperation with the City of Santa Fe and the Santa Fe Fiesta Council.