Aztec Revives Six Old Soreheads Tradition, Museum Leads Comeback
Aztec Museum and Pioneer Village has revived the town tradition known as the Six Old Aztec Soreheads, naming six local residents to serve as this year's Soreheads and launching the effort as a fundraiser and community booster. The revival reconnects a quirky late 1960s visitor attraction with current civic life, and culminates in an unveiling at the Aztec Sparkles parade on Dec. 13, 2025.
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The Aztec Museum and Pioneer Village is bringing back a familiar piece of local culture this winter, reviving the Six Old Aztec Soreheads program as a fundraiser and community booster. The museum announced six local residents chosen to serve as the new Soreheads, and the program will be publicly unveiled at the Aztec Sparkles parade on Dec. 13, 2025.
The Soreheads tradition traces to the late 1960s, when it began as a quirky town identity and a modest visitor attraction. Over the decades the signs and the tradition have come and gone, appearing at times and disappearing at others as community priorities and civic resources shifted. A recent column titled Mr. Know It All, published on Nov. 13, 2025, outlined the origin story and the program's intermittent history, and highlighted the museum's role in restoring it this year.
The six residents tapped to serve as Soreheads are Bonnie Adams, Dr. Jimmy Miller, Joan Monninger, Hoyle Osborne, Greta Quintana and Albert Velarde. The museum is using the revived program both to raise funds for its operations and to create a visible community event tied to the holiday parade. Organizers have scheduled an unsacking event, the traditional unveiling of the Soreheads signs, during the Aztec Sparkles parade on Dec. 13, 2025, as a way to draw local attendance and attention.
Museum leaders framed the comeback as an opportunity to reconnect residents and visitors with local history while also addressing practical needs for museum funding. The revival aims to bolster civic pride and to provide a low cost, high visibility way to support the museum's preservation work. The column coverage included brief reflections from the museum director on the program's return and its potential to serve both heritage and fundraising purposes.
For residents, the immediate impact will be the chance to see a familiar piece of Aztec folklore reappear in a public setting, and to participate in a community event that links local history to contemporary civic life. The fundraising angle means the program will have an explicit institutional purpose beyond nostalgia, with proceeds supporting the museum's activities. The choice of six named local figures also offers an avenue for personal recognition and community engagement, as neighbors come to see who represents the Soreheads this season.
The unsacking at the Aztec Sparkles parade will be the first public test of the revived tradition. Organizers and the museum can assess attendance, fundraising results and public reaction to determine whether the Soreheads will remain a recurring feature of Aztec civic life going forward.
