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).
Nancy Owen Lewis (1945-2022) was a scholar and writer. She was an anthropologist and professor and dedicated member of the Society for Applied Anthropology. Nancy was the Director of Programs at the School for Advanced Research for thirteen years. She co-authored (with Kay Leigh Harper) A Peculiar Alchemy: A Centennial History of the School for American Research (2007), which was named “Best Book in History” at the 2008 New Mexico Book Awards. This was followed by Chasing the Cure in New Mexico: Tuberculosis and the Quest for Health (2016), which won the award for 2016 Best Book in New Mexico History and the 2017 Southwest Book Award.
![Five men in suits sit and stand in an art gallery, conversing. Several framed paintings and sculptures are displayed on the walls and furniture. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Featured-400x225.jpg)
“The people in this part of the country have about as much use for an artist as their burros have for a fiddler’s midsummer night’s dream,” complained Carlos Vierra in a letter sent to his sister on August 15, 1904. Vierra, who had studied art at Mark Hopkins Institute in San Francisco, came to New Mexico not to paint, but to heal from a deadly disease.
