{"id":45666,"date":"2024-08-30T13:50:30","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T20:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=45666"},"modified":"2024-08-30T13:50:33","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T20:50:33","slug":"burn-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/burn-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Burn It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Subscribe to NMiF Enews<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Feeling some gloom in your life? Of course you are, but what to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a New Mexican, you burn it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the concept behind Zozobra, a 50-foot marionette meant to represent the troubles, hardships and other obstacles of the past year. Into this monster we pour that which has been done to us, what we\u2019ve done to others and all the rest we want to leave behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, we light a match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Event chair Ray Sandoval says on this week\u2019s episode of New Mexico in Focus that folks have described this ritual torching as their New Years \u2014 and that many of them have hewed more closely to resolutions proclaimed in late August than those uttered on Dec. 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The burning of Zozobra turns 100 this year. For me, there is some symmetry: I turned 50 five days before Sandoval sent the effigy packing in a conflagration of relief and release. I have lived half as long as our sorrows have died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To celebrate, I took a few days off work. That meant I missed NMiF Senior Producer Lou DiVizio\u2019s interview with Sandoval. I caught up to the conversation when I returned to NMPBS and was delighted in the watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much ink and many pixels have been spent on Zozobra during the past century, and I\u2019m not here to try and make sense of why this event has endured. Instead, I want to direct you to a story Sandoval told at the end of his interview. Lou had asked if any burnt \u201cglooms\u201d had stood out over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandoval was introduced to a woman who was holding what he thought was a blue blanket. He quickly realized it was a hospital gown, then learned that year earlier, the woman had been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. She told Sandoval of a conversation she\u2019d had with her physician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The doctor was trying to emphasize the point of how serious her condition was,\u201d Sandoval told Lou. \u201cHe pointed to her hospital gown and said, \u2018You need to take this seriously; this is the last article of clothing you\u2019ll ever wear. And she said that it actually had the opposite effect on her, that she was going to survive and that she actually went into remission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What business did she have at Zozobra?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe wanted to know if I would put the hospital gown into Zozobra,\u201d Sandoval continued. \u201cAnd I remember looking up at her and saying, \u2018No.\u2019 She looked at me kind of shocked, and I said, \u2018You need to do this.\u2019 And so we walked over to Zozobra together, and she placed it inside Zozobra. I remember later that evening as I ignited our monster, I was standing back and I was watching it, and I actually saw the hospital gown burn. And it was definitely an emotional thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a New Mexican, you burn it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Jeff Proctor, Executive Producer<\/p>\n\n\n\n