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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).
Laurie Webster is an anthropologist who specializes in the textiles and other perishable material culture of the American Southwest. She lives in Mancos, Colorado.
![Woven sandal made from plant fibers, showing frayed edges and a checkerboard scale for size reference. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/FeaturedFootprints_Fig10-400x225.jpg)
BY LAURIE WEBSTER Visit the storage facility of any Southwestern anthropology museum, and you’ll see drawer after drawer of pre-Hispanic woven sandals—a few in pristine condition, but most worn out from use. Their sheer quantities are astonishing because early Southwesterners didn’t actually need footwear. Human feet develop thick calluses to protect them from sharp objects and hot and cold temperatures, and for most of human history, people went around barefoot.
