Some of New Mexico's most prominent artists are passing traditional Nuevo Mexicano art forms like colcha embroidery, retablos and bultos, tinwork, and straw applique down to the next generation. These artists include Jean Anaya Moya, Vanessa Zamora, Vincente Telles, Arthur Lopez, Eric Romero, Vanessa Alvarado, Rhonda Crispin, and Cleo Romero.

Elena Baca, education program manager at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (Albuquerque), and Jana Gottshalk, curator and director at the Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum (Santa Fe), create spaces where these traditions stay alive and where kids can explore and express themselves freely.

Discover more:

National Hispanic Cultural Center Learning programming

National Hispanic Cultural Center Museum

Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum ongoing programming

Nuevo Mexicano Heritage Arts Museum

Wonders on Wheels

Read more in El Palacio:

"Art and Activism at Highlands University," by Myrriah Gόmez, in Winter 2025 issue of El Palacio magazine

Learn more:

Traditional Spanish Market

Contemporary Hispanic Market

We'd love to hear from you! Let us know what you loved about the episode, share a personal story it made you think of, or ask us a question at elpalacio@dca.nm.gov. You can write a regular email or record a short voice memo and attach it for us to listen to.

Visit newmexicoculture.org for info about our museums, historic sites, virtual tours, and more.

Our favorite way to fully experience everything they have to offer is with the New Mexico CulturePass. Reserve yours online!

If you love New Mexico, you'll love El Palacio Magazine! Subscribe to El Palacio today.

Encounter Culture, a production of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, is produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios.

Hosted by Emily Withnall, editor at El Palacio Magazine
Executive Producer: Daniel Zillmann
Technical Director & Post-Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz
Recording Engineer: Collin Ungerleider and Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
Editor & Production Manager: Alex Riegler
Associate Producer & Editor: Monica Braine (Assiniboine/Lakota)
Theme Music: D'Santi Nava
Instagram: @newmexicanculture and @elpalaciomagazine

Accordions are woven into New Mexico's soundscape—at fiestas, on plazas, and in the musical storytelling traditions that travel across generations. In this episode of Encounter Culture, host Emily Withnall talks with Tony Tomei and Antonio Maestas, a master-and-apprentice duo who completed the New Mexico Arts Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program in 2024, focusing on accordion restoration and traditional New Mexico tunings.

Tony and Antonio fell in love with the accordion in different decades and play different styles. Tony first encountered the accordion as a child in the 1950s, growing up in an ethnically diverse community where the instrument was central to social life.  "And that was before the Beatles came in the sixties and basically wreaked havoc with the accordion and everybody switched over to the guitars," Tony laughs.

Discover more:

New Mexico Arts Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program

 New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs on YouTube

Hear more on Encounter Culture:

The American Mystique of the Cowboy Boot with Deana McGuffin and Jes Márquez

Learn more:

Hohner

Albuquerque Accordion Club

We'd love to hear from you! Let us know what you loved about the episode, share a personal story it made you think of, or ask us a question at elpalacio@dca.nm.gov. You can write a regular email or record a short voice memo and attach it for us to listen to.

Visit newmexicoculture.org for info about our museums, historic sites, virtual tours, and more.

Our favorite way to fully experience everything they have to offer is with the New Mexico CulturePass. Reserve yours online!

If you love New Mexico, you'll love El Palacio Magazine! Subscribe to El Palacio today.

Encounter Culture, a production of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, is produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios.

Hosted by Emily Withnall, editor at El Palacio Magazine
Executive Producer: Daniel Zillmann
Technical Director & Post-Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz
Recording Engineer: Collin Ungerleider and Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
Editor & Production Manager: Alex Riegler
Associate Producer & Editor: Monica Braine (Assiniboine/Lakota)
Theme Music: D'Santi Nava

Instagram: @newmexicanculture and @elpalaciomagazine

In this episode of Encounter Culture, community-led archaeology takes center stage as an alternative to extractive excavation practices of the past and a best practice rooted in respect and deeper historical understanding.

At the Cañón de Carnué land grant in New Mexico, New Mexico State University has partnered with land grant heirs, as Dr. Kelly Jenks, a historical archaeologist with NMSU, discusses efforts to uncover the layered history of a community first established in 1763, revealing how Indigenous, Genízaro, and colonial peoples together shaped the region's frontier past.

Discover more:

Archaeology in Cañón de Carnué, New Mexico State University

Cañón de Carnué land grant history

New Mexico land grant history

United States v. Sandoval Supreme Court decision stripping land grant rights

Present-day land grant actions

San Miguel del Vado land grant recovery efforts

Nación Genízara: Ethnogenesis, Place, and Identity in New Mexico, edited by Moises Gonzales and Enrique R. Lamadrid

Hear more on Encounter Culture:

A History of Genízaro Identity in the Heart of New Mexico with Dr. Gregorio Gonzales, Encounter Culture season 6

Don't miss the upcoming issues of El Palacio - SUBSCRIBE NOW!

***

We'd love to hear from you! Let us know what you loved about the episode, share a personal story it made you think of, or ask us a question at elpalacio@dca.nm.gov. OR leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

Visit newmexicoculture.org for info about our museums, historic sites, virtual tours, and more.

Our favorite way to fully experience everything they have to offer is with the New Mexico CulturePass. Reserve yours online!

***

Encounter Culture is a production of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios.

Hosted by Emily Withnall, editor at El Palacio Magazine
Executive Producer: Daniel Zillmann
Technical Director & Post-Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz
Recording Engineers: Collin Ungerleider & Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
Editor & Production Manager: Alex Riegler
Associate Producer & Editor: Monica Braine (Assiniboine/Lakota)
Theme Music: D'Santi Nava

Instagram: @newmexicanculture and @elpalaciomagazine

New Mexico has a new Poet Laureate! Although Manuel González is well known in the slam poetry circles in Albuquerque—where he also served as the city's poet laureate from 2016 to 2018—he is now stepping into a larger role with big visions about how to engage the entire state in the unique connection and expression inherent to poetry.

Throughout his career, González has made it his mission to reach the most marginalized people in New Mexico, and now he plans to leverage his role as Poet Laureate heal hearts in as many communities as possible.

Discover more:

Manuel González Xicanopoet

New Mexico Arts

Manny and the Casanovas

Al Hurricane

Native American Community Academy

Hear more on Encounter Culture:

From Goatheads to Grand Canyons: A Love Letter to the Landscape with New Mexico State Poet Laureate, Lauren Camp, Season 6

Curanderismo, Poetry, and How to Heal a Broken Heart with Tommy Archuleta, Santa Fe Poet Laureate, Season 7

Read more in El Palacio:

Art and Activism at Highlands University, by Myrriah Gόmez, Winter 2025

Don't miss the upcoming issues of El Palacio - SUBSCRIBE NOW!

***

We'd love to hear from you! Let us know what you loved about the episode, share a personal story it made you think of, or ask us a question at elpalacio@dca.nm.gov.

OR leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

Visit newmexicoculture.org for info about our museums, historic sites, virtual tours, and more.

Our favorite way to fully experience everything they have to offer is with the New Mexico CulturePass. Reserve yours online!

***

Encounter Culture is a production of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios.

Hosted by Emily Withnall, editor at El Palacio Magazine
Executive Producer: Daniel Zillmann
Technical Director & Post-Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz
Recording Engineers: Collin Ungerleider & Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios
Editor & Production Manager: Alex Riegler
Associate Producer & Editor: Monica Braine (Assiniboine/Lakota)
Theme Music: D'Santi Nava

Instagram: @newmexicanculture and @elpalaciomagazine

New Mexico is the fifth largest state, making access to art, history, and culture at museums or historic site difficult for many. The Wonder on Wheels mobile museum traverses the state to bring art and history directly to small towns, villages, and Pueblos, ensuring everyone can participate in the rich cultural conversations so central to New Mexican identity.

The exhibition inside the thirty-eight-foot RV changes annually and this year, the eight New Mexico State Historic Sites tell the state's story across centuries, from 1150 to the early twentieth century. The staff pack rich history into a small space, supported by oral narratives and dialogue.

Plan your visit:

Wonders on Wheels

Wonders on Wheels Facebook Group

New Mexico Historic Sites

Hear more on Encounter Culture:

Listen, and Speak the Truth: Collaborating Through Conversation on the Bosque Redondo Memorial with Manuelito Wheeler and Aaron Roth, Encounter Culture, Season 2

Listen to the Land: Art at Bosque Redondo with Dakota Mace, Daisy Trudell-Mills, and Kéyah Keenan Henry, Encounter Culture, Season 6

Everything Past is Present at Los Luceros Historic Site with Rebecca Ward and Carly Stewart, Encounter Culture, Season 3

The Land is Everything: Voting Rights vs Tribal Sovereignty with Dr. Maurice Crandall, Encounter Culture, Season 4

Read more in El Palacio:

"The Man in the Sala," El Palacio Summer 2023

"Cathay Williams: In Search of Liberation with the Buffalo Soldiers," El Palacio Summer 2025

Don't miss the upcoming issues of El Palacio - SUBSCRIBE NOW!

***

We'd love to hear from you! Let us know what you loved about the episode, share a personal story it made you think of, or ask us a question at elpalacio@dca.nm.gov.

OR leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

Visit newmexicoculture.org for info about our museums, historic sites, virtual tours, and more.

Our favorite way to fully experience everything they have to offer is with the New Mexico CulturePass. Reserve yours online!

***

Encounter Culture is a production of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios.

Hosted by Emily Withnall, editor at El Palacio Magazine
Executive Producer: Daniel Zillmann
Technical Director & Post-Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz
Recording Engineers: Collin Ungerleider & Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios
Editor & Production Manager: Alex Riegler
Associate Producer & Editor: Monica Braine (Assiniboine/Lakota)
Theme Music: D'Santi Nava

Instagram: @newmexicanculture and @elpalaciomagazine