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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).
Mark MacKenzie is a former chief conservator and director of the Conservation Unit of the Museum Resources Division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
![A wooden vessel with a flared rim, decorated with geometric patterns in red, black, and cream colors. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Seeing-Red_1-400x225.jpg)
Finding Cochineal BY MARK MACKENZIE Enter the Museum of International Folk Art exhibition The Red That Colored the World and you see red everywhere: in paintings, clothes, saddle blankets, altar cloths, and furniture. But as you drink in these glorious hues—pigeon blood, ruby, coral—how do you know that you are seeing cochineal, the red dye extracted from the female cochineal bug?
