‘Cousin’ of Zozobra to burn for governors
Tío Coco will make third-ever appearance in July at Fort Marcy park during conference
The secret couldn’t stay stuffed for long. The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe confirmed Wednesday that it is burning a 50-foot-tall Zozobra-like marionette known as Tío Coco at Fort Marcy Ballpark during the National Governors Association conference in July.
“I think this was the worst-held secret in Santa Fe,” said Ray Sandoval, a Kiwanis Club member and Zozobra event chairman.
Tío Coco bears a striking resemblance to Zozobra, stands just as tall and will go down in flames in the same spot as his “cousin,” Sandoval said. But he emphasized that Tío Coco is not Zozobra, which he said belongs to the people of Santa Fe.
“We feel very confident in the fact that the creator, [Will Shuster], made an exception to create Tío Coco for a special event in which Santa Fe was highlighted, and we see this as no different,” he said. “The only time Zozobra is burned is for the people of Santa Fe at Fiesta time to get rid of their gloom.”
Tío Coco, or Uncle Boogeyman, has appeared only twice before.
He made his debut nearly eight decades ago when Shuster created a 50-foot-tall Tío Coco for the Santa Fe opening of Santa Fe Trail, a film starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Ronald Reagan. The private burning also took place at Fort Marcy park — but in a snowstorm.
Tío Coco re-emerged in 2013, again for a private burning, for the Kiwanis International Southwest District’s midyear conference. But he was only half the size that year because of limited resources.
The burning of a Zozobra-like effigy for an audience that includes state governors and possibly foreign dignitaries has been under wraps for months.
Called “Noche de Fuego” on the NGA conference agenda, there was a heightened sense of secrecy surrounding the specifics of the event. The city went to great lengths to conceal it. When The New Mexican requested the event permit, significant sections were redacted. The city cited an exception to the state Inspection of Public Records Act for “tactical response plans or procedures … the publication of which could reveal specific vulnerabilities, risk assessments or tactical emergency security procedures that could be used to facilitate the planning or execution of a terrorist attack.”
But word of the event started to get out this week.
On Tuesday, former Zozobra organizer Ray Valdez called into Richard Eeds’ radio show to voice concern about the event.
“Will Shuster decreed and handed over his beloved burning pagan effigy to the city to burn specifically for Fiestas, to kick off Fiestas,” he said. “He gave it to the Kiwanis Club in 1964, stipulating in an agreement that they would burn it only during Zozobra.”
Sandoval said Valdez, who resigned in 2012 following stinging criticism about the event, “wants to create controversy.”
“We think that the historical precedent set by Zozobra’s creator himself, Will Shuster, for these kinds of special events allows us to do this,” Sandoval said.
Sandoval said the Kiwanis Club was honored to be asked to “represent this tradition to that kind of audience.”
“Out of all the culturally unique things that happen in our state, we were honored as the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe to be able to showcase this to elected governors … and dignitaries from around the world,” he said, adding that conference organizers agreed to buy 2,000 tickets to the burning of Zozobra on Aug. 31 to provide to low-income families in Santa Fe.
Sandoval said the club also considered the economic impact the conference will have on Santa Fe. He called it a “great economic shot in the arm.”
Tío Coco and the 2018 Zozobra are being built side by side in an undisclosed location. Zozobra is still a work in progress, Sandoval said.
“After this event is done, the public will be invited in to stuff him and continue to enjoy the access to Zozobra that they deserve as citizens of Santa Fe,” he said.
Valdez, who organized Zozobra for nearly two decades, told The New Mexican that the Kiwanis Club is “diminishing the impact of a beloved pagan effigy that Will Shuster gave to the people of this city to raise money for the children of this city.”
On top of that, Valdez said, the inconvenience to the people who live around Fort Marcy is problematic.
“They are disrupting the neighborhood twice in one year,” he said. “La gente, and the fans — they are going to be pissed.”
One resident who lives in the vicinity of Fort Marcy park wrote in an email to Sandoval that a second event was a bridge too far.
“Find another part of town to pick on and leave us alone,” Joanne Fischer wrote. “We will endure Zozobra but that is ENOUGH! … We refuse to be held hostage for another event in our park. If [President Donald] Trump comes to town it will be an armed camp.”
Sandoval said the Kiwanis Club is under contract only to stage the burning of Tío Coco. But as a courtesy, he said he alerted neighbors June 8 about an unspecified but upcoming event in the third week of July at Fort Marcy park.
“I wanted you to hear it from me first,” Sandoval wrote in the email, which lacked any details.
Sandoval declined to discuss the setup of the event or any other security-related matters. But he said the club, which has done a lot of neighborhood outreach in recent years, was able to share neighbors’ concerns with conference organizers.
“Even though [the neighbors] weren’t there, we were a surrogate because we’ve spent years listening to their concerns and actually taking care of their concerns,” he said. “We were very mindful of the neighborhood.”
Sandoval declined to say how much money the Kiwanis Club was being paid.
“The number of attendees is quite small, so we expect the interruption to the neighborhood to be minimal,” he said.
City Councilor Renee Villarreal, whose district encompasses the downtown area and Fort Marcy park, said recently she was concerned a Zozobra-type event would verge on cultural appropriation and betray the “local” intent of the annual celebration, attended by tens of thousands.
She said she supported the conference overall and was glad for whatever revenue could be expected from its spotlight and many attendees, but she wanted to be sure the city would be reimbursed for whatever public safety presence would be put toward keeping the Fort Marcy park event secure. Also troublesome, she said, was the potential that neighbors would be inconvenienced by the security presence.
“The event itself, the conference, I’m sure it’s going to be fine, a success,” Villarreal said. “But I want to make sure, from a city perspective, that our resources and public safety personnel are seen as valuable. They’re going to rely on us heavily.”
“The number of attendees is quite small, so we expect the interruption to the neighborhood to be minimal.” Ray Sandoval, Kiwanis Club member and Zozobra event chairman