Contributors

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

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

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

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).

Nicolasa Chávez

Nicolasa Chávez (opens in a new tab) is the curator of Latin American & Nuevomexicano Collections at the Museum of International Folk Art. She is a respected historian, curator, and performance artist and previously served as the Deputy State Historian of New Mexico. Her past exhibitions at the museum include New World Cuisine: The Histories of Chocolate, Mate y Más, The Red that Colored the World, Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico, and Música Buena: Hispano Folk Music of New Mexico.

A group of people in colorful attire sit on horseback in a row on a grassy field with trees and dramatic clouds in the background. [gen-ai]

Proud Pageantry

By Nicolasa Chávez Prior to their arrival in the Americas, the Spanish people were already mestizo (mixed), and they brought varied age-old traditions with them to these lands. One such tradition is the reenactment and pageant known as Moros y Cristianos, which represents years of cohabitation, conflict, and cultural assimilation in Medieval Spain. Between 711 and 1492 ACE, the Arab and Berber cultures of Northern Africa ruled and controlled most of the Iberian Peninsula.

A person in a costume and hat holds a lantern and a scroll, crouching beside a campfire at night. [gen-ai]

¡No Pueden Pasar!

BY NICOLASA CHÁVEZ New Mexico is a magical place during the holiday season. Farolitos (little lanterns made of a candle in sand in a paper bag), luminarias (bonfires), biscochitos, and tamales abound, and locals and tourists alike enjoy centuries-old traditions unique to our state. Some of the most beloved are dramatizations, often accompanied by music, of the Nativity. Each ceremony has its own regional adaptation unique to the setting in which it is celebrated, but the central messages remain the same.

Electric guitar with custom artwork depicting a winged woman in a purple dress and a red devil-like figure on the body near the bridge and pickups. [gen-ai]

¡Buenas Melodías!

BY NICOLASA CHÁVEZ Música Buena: Hispano Folk Music of New Mexico, at the Museum of International Folk Art from October 6, 2019, to March 7, 2021, tells the history of New Mexican Hispano folk music (and related dramatic interpretations) that developed over four hundred years, from the Colonial era to the present day. Master musician and instrument maker Cipriano Vigil, recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Smithsonian Institution, serves as guest curator; his book New Mexican Folk Music: Treasures of a People (University of New Mexico Press, 2014) was a catalyst for the exhibition.

A painted wooden figure of a mythical creature with a red face, long horn, sharp teeth, and elaborate jewelry, from traditional Indonesian art. [gen-ai]

Presents Rich with Provenance

BY NICOLASA CHÁVEZ The Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) regularly displays recently acquired items alongside items from its immense permanent collection, but visitors rarely get to experience an entire display dedicated only to recent acquisitions donated by individual collectors, groups, galleries, and artists. That changed last June, when MOIFA opened Recent Acquisitions: The Gift of Folk Art in its popular downstairs gallery, Lloyd’s Treasure Chest.

A man in a white shirt with red polka dots stands in the foreground, while two women in colorful outfits dance in the background. [gen-ai]

Miguel Romero

In New Mexico the flamenco tradition is now several generations strong. Even though there have been many contributors to the development and growth of flamenco in our state, dancer Vicente Romero (1937–95) is widely credited with creating the vibrant flamenco scene in northern New Mexico that still thrives today.

Adobe-style building with wooden accents, two flags (USA and New Mexico) on the roof, blue sky, and landscaping in front. [gen-ai]

The Spirit of Flamenco

BY NICOLASA CHÁVEZ Why has this way of life, so natural in Spain, become such a fixture in New Mexico? Why do New Mexicans feel such resonance with flamenco dance, music, and emotions, and why do they feel a common bond with its country of origin? For those who have traveled and studied in Spain, who then come to the

A person dressed in traditional attire and hat leaps energetically in mid-air while holding a stick, against a plain background. [gen-ai]

Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico

BY NICOLASA CHÁVEZ Passionate, fiery, sensual, meditative. These are a few of the words that come to mind when contemplating the art of flamenco. Close to 150 items related to the form and its history are on display in Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico, which opened at the Museum of International Folk Art in November. [wonderplugin_slider id="88"]   (more…)