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For over a century, El Palacio has been a forum for voices exploring New Mexico’s art, archaeology, history, and landscape. Explore the writers, photographers, historians, and scientists whose perspectives have defined the magazine’s pages—past and present.
Arthur Sze is the current U.S. Poet Laureate. Sze is a poet, translator, and editor. He is the author of twelve books, including Into the Hush, Sight Lines, and others. Sze’s poems have been translated into fifteen languages, and he is the recipient of the National Book Award among many other honors. He lives in Santa Fe.
Deborah Jackson Taffa is a citizen of the Quechan Nation and Laguna Pueblo. Her memoir Whiskey Tender was a 2024 National Book Award Finalist and was longlisted for the 2025 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Taffa serves as the director of the MFA in creative writing program at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Cara Romero is an award-winning contemporary fine art photographer. An enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Romero’s expansive oeuvre has been informed by formal training in film, digital, fine art, and commercial photography. She maintains a studio in Santa Fe, regularly participates in Native American art fairs, and was featured in PBS’ Craft in America (2019).
Charles M. Carrillo (opens in a new tab) is an artist, author, and archaeologist known particularly for creating art using Spanish colonial techniques that reflect 18th century Spanish New Mexico. Carrillo has blended craft, conservation, and innovation throughout his career as a santero — a carver and painter of images of saints. Carrillo holds a doctorate in anthropology / archaeology from the University of New Mexico, but his true commitment to tradition has led him to work as an artist and advocate within the religious community of northern New Mexico.
![A group of people stands and kneels near a roadside memorial with large crosses in a snowy, rural area bordered by trees and a wire fence. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/HP.2014.14.1131_hero-400x225.jpg)
BY CHARLIE M. CARRILLO & FELIPE R. MIRABAL The mystery of the Hermanos or Penitentes that belong to the Cofradía de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno has baffled and fascinated scholars, journalists, Protestant missionaries, and the local Catholic clergy for decades. The story of the Hermanos Penitentes begins in the Santa Cruz Valley in Northern New Mexico at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
