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| Albuquerque Journal, N.M.McClatchy-Tribune Regional News May 12--The newest member of the N.M. Tourism Hall of Fame is a bogeyman. The Tourism Association of New Mexico recently inducted Will Shuster's Zozobra into the hall at the 2008 Governor's Conference on Tourism, held in Roswell. The honor came as a result of a nomination by the Santa Fe Convention and Visitors Bureau. The enormous doom and gloom puppet Zozobra was created in 1924 by William Howard Shuster, Jr., a Santa Fe artist inspired by the Holy Week celebrations of the Yaqui Indians of Mexico, which featured an effigy of Judas that was filled with firecrackers, led around the village on a donkey, and then burned. The name Zozobra was coined by Shuster and E. Dana Johnson, a newspaper editor and friend of the artist. They defined the moniker as meaning " the gloomy one" in Spanish. The centerpiece of Santa Fe's annual Fiesta celebration, Zozobra is ceremonially burned each September in a giant bonfire during a special event that has been staged by the Santa Fe Kiwanis Club since 1963. Zozobra has also become an international symbol for Santa Fe, drawing visitors from around the world to the City Different for more than 80 years, the Tourism Department said in a news release. Since 1952, the burning of Zozobra has raised more than $279,525 in higher education scholarships for Santa Fe high school students and other youth programs, such as one that provides camp fees for physically challenged children. ----- To see more of the Albuquerque Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.abqjournal.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Albuquerque Journal, N.M. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |
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