BIOGRAPHY

Carmella Padilla

Carmella Padilla, who contributes her Santa Fe Stories to SFAOL.COM, is a native Santa Fean. A prominent freelance writer, she has written extensively about Hispanic art and culture in Northern New Mexico. Her work has been published in newspapers and magazines nationwide, including the Wall Street Journal, the Dallas Morning News and Latina, Hispanic, Vista, Travel Holiday, El Palacio and New Mexico magazines.

She was editor of the Spanish Market Magazinefrom 1992 to 1999, and was a columnist for the weekly Santa Fe Reporterfrom 1993 to 1998. In 1996 her writing was honored with the Mayor's Award for Excellence in the Literary Arts by the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission.

Padilla's first book, The Chile Chronicles: Tales of a New Mexico Harvest, was published in 1997 by the Museum of New Mexico Press. In 1999 the book was awarded the Historical Society of New Mexico's Ralph Emerson Twitchell Award for a significant contribution to the field of history. Passages of the book are featured on SFAOL.COM.

She is a co-author of Spanish New Mexico: The Spanish Colonial Arts Society Collection, published by the Museum of New Press in 1996. Her latest book, Low 'n' Slow: Lowriding in New Mexico, was issued by the Museum of New Mexico Press in 1999.

Padilla has been actively involved with the Spanish Market and the promotion of traditional and contemporary Hispanic art and artists in New Mexico. She served as a member of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society's board of directors from 1991 to 1997. She currently is writing the text for the Spanish Colonial Arts Society Museum's inaugural exhibition, which is expected to open in Santa Fe in late 2002 or early 2003.

Articles by Carmella Padilla