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).
Jim Holbrook (opens in a new tab) became a photographer in 1973, when he enrolled in a summer course at the University of New Mexico. Later at UNM he studied under such luminaries as Beaumont Newhall, Van Deren Coke, Anne Noggle, and Betty Hahn.
![An older man in a suit holds a small guitar and gestures toward a microphone on stage, with other musicians in the background. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/corridos_2-400x225.jpg)
By Robert Martínez Growing up in a musical family in Albuquerque afforded me many unique cultural experiences. Watching The Brady Bunch and The Odd Couple on TV during the week—then taking weekend family trips to the high mountain village of Mora to visit my dad’s relatives—was a shock to the system. My relatives only spoke Spanish there, and I only knew English; I heard Spanish in the house only when our parents didn’t want us to understand what they were saying.
