Coyote Tales No. 1,

2017, printed 2020

In the series Coyote Tales, Romero stages scenes featuring the mythological character Coyote, a trickster shared by many Indigenous North American cultures. The Coyote is a coming-of-age figure who learns lessons through exploration and trial and error, testing the boundaries of the “adult” world. In Coyote Tales No. 1, Romero posed Native young adults from her community in downtown Española, New Mexico, an epicenter of lowrider car culture as well as Indigenous youth culture in the region. The young adults exchange gazes that suggest the powerful temptations of peer pressure and group identity. Coyote Draws the Strings portrays Coyote as a puppeteer whose influence converts his peers into marionettes that dance to his command. Romero employs dramatic lighting and digital techniques—composites and editing—to invoke the presence of the supernatural realm in everyday life and to give each scene a sense of heightened narrative drama.