'Dream messages'
Lummis will burn this year in Milan

Spectators watch while flames consume the El Malpais man during a celebration in Milan. This was the seventh burning of the El Malpais man, held in conjunction with the 2005 Festival de Colores. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent/Independent File Photo]

By Mike Marino
Cibola County Bureau

Flames spread up the arms and back of the El Malpais on Thursday during the seventh annual burning held for the first time in Milan. The burning of the El Malpais was part of the 2005 Festival de Colores. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent File Photo]

MILAN — Lummis, the Malpais Man, has been burned in effigy at the annual Fiesta de Colores since 1995 and this year's Lummis will be one of the largest yet to be put to the torch.

The burning starts at 8 on tonight at the William Kerns Memorial Park in Milan.

"The first Malpais man was made of a lot ofcardboard and took only 10 minutes to completely burn," Robert Gallegos of the Cibola Arts Council said. "Last year the Malpais man was made of more substantial materials and took over 40 minutes to be completely consumed by flames. This year the skin of the effigy is made of one-half inch plywood, and will also include a 'guest head' by a guest artist because the face and head of Malpais Man changes every year."

The artist who will design the head for this year will be local artist Laura Dezzeg who usually specializes in ceramics but this year will make the paper mache head for Lummis. Earlier in the week, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade pupils from Milan Elementary turned out to help decorate the Lummis body with paints to put their marks on the Malpais Man for the fourth year in a row.

Vivian Brumbelow, who is sponsor of the student council at Milan, arrived with her army of student artists. The students last year where honor roll students and this year the selection process was a little different.

"This year the students chosen were voted in the classrooms and each classroom is allowed to have four students chosen to participate. We wore our grungy clothes and we are ready to get dirty, and have fun," Brumbelow said.

Malpais Man came out in a shroud of mystery in the past. Somewhere in time Malpais Man emerged as the guardian of El Malpais. According to Gallegos, "He protects against things like gravediggers, pottery hunters, poachers, and those type of people. He is burned because obviously someone who lives out at El Malpais cannot leave that island of lava without sticking out like a sore thumb, so once a year we grant Lummis a wish. That wish is to leave the boundaries of El Malpais. Now to do that we have to transform him back to those elements of his birth, fire, smoke and lava so we burn him. When we burn him we gather dream messages from citizens in the community where everyone writes down what their dreams or aspirations might be on a piece of paper, we through them in the effigy and their dreams then go up in flames and hopefully we be fulfilled."

Once Malpais Man is completed he should be 20-feet tall and the head alone should weigh around 200 pounds. The effigy will then be filled with wood and ready for the torch. Luis Castillo of the Milan Parks and Recreation Department said,"The fire marshall is actually in charge of the burn. Whenever he says we burn, then we burn. But if he says no burn, then of course we don't. Sometimes if it's real windy, then we can't burn but we haven't been cancelled out yet."

Gus the Frog and Shirley the Snake will also be in attendance.

"Last year, Shirley was a new companion, we never saw her before but now she and Gus keep Lummis company whereever he goes. They will not be burned however and will return again next year," Castillo said.

There has been a lot of community involvement and volunteers are always welcome to help out with construction and the artful aspects of the Malpais Man. This year's Lummis will weigh about a ton and a half and they will have to use a flatboy to move it to the location of the burning at the park.