HOLY WEEK – A look at Holy Week celebrations in the southwestern United States, around Taos, New Mexico. The high desert of northern New Mexico, with Taos as its unofficial capital, is a confluence of cultures and eras. Native American, Spanish, Mexican and American cultures co-exist and show themselves in both modern and old ways. Holy Week in this area is celebrated in a very public manner within the safety of the region, beyond the notice of much of the rest of the United States. The rites and customs are very much of the place and cultures found there.

Girls, dressed for the role of Veronica, fix each other’s veils between Good Friday religious ceremonies at the Morada de Talpa in Talpa, New Mexico March 29, 2013. A morada is an unsanctified chapel where the Hermanos, a centuries old lay Catholic group of men in northern New Mexico, worship.