New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs welcomes you to subscribe and support our state’s cultural treasures.
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).
Pico del Hierro-Villa is a Queer Fronterizx who received their master’s at the University of New Mexico in Chicanx Studies.
By Jacks McNamara What is love? What is holy? Inside ovals of radiance, two girls holding hands, nearly matching—white tank tops and jeans, narrow sliver of sun on their cheeks, their left arms. I want to know if they are lovers, sisters, or friends. Their bodies are frank and factual, their bodies are surely sexualized nearly everywhere they go, they are just at that age of turned-enough-toward-adulthood,turned-enough-toward-curves to no longer be entirely their own.
![A person with tattoos stands facing a scalloped-edged backdrop, seen from behind, wearing a polka-dot top and denim shorts in a dimly lit setting. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/TempoTiempo_HierroVilla-Espiritualidad-400x225.jpg)
By Emily Withnall In Frank Blazquez’s photograph Sleepy and his Daughter, Sleepy flashes the prison gang sign for Los Padillas. He is shirtless and covered in tattoos, his arms wrapped around his young daughter, who sits on his lap. His hands partially obscure the girl’s face and he looks directly at the viewer in a bid for acknowledgment. Los Padillas are also a family affiliation, and as Blazquez explains, many of Sleepy’s tattoos also demonstrate allegiance to family, as well as place and faith.
