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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).
Bruce Bernstein is director the Continuous Pathways Foundation and tribal historic preservation officer, Pojoaque Pueblo. As assistant director for collections and research at the National Museum of the American Indian, he supervised the opening and operation of the Museum’s Cultural Resources Center. Bernstein has also served as chief curator and director of Santa Fe’s Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and Laboratory of Anthropology, and as executive director of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts. He holds a doctorate in anthropology from the University of New Mexico and has published broadly on Native arts and museums as well as curated numerous exhibitions. His most recent book is Santa Fe Indian Market: A History of Native Arts and the Marketplace, published by the Museum of New Mexico Press.
![A round, reddish-brown ceramic pot with a wide rim, decorated with bold black geometric and curved patterns. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Tonita-Roybal-Black-red-jar3b-copy-400x225.jpg)
BY BRUCE BERNSTEIN, ERIK FENDER, AND RUSSELL SANCHEZ This past summer, at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, a years-long collaborative project culminated with the opening of San Ildefonso Pottery 1600–1930: Voices of the Clay. The exhibition is curated by two San Idlefonso potters and a Native arts scholar and is the first-ever exhibition on San Ildefonso pottery at a museum.
The first issue of El Palacio was published in November 1913 as a monthly eight-page broadsheet. Paul Walter served as editor, writing the entirety of the first El Palacio in his clear prose and objective tone. Included are stories of archaeological excavations in the Southwest and Guatemala as well as reporting about the completion of the Palace of the Governors building renovation and the Museum’s participation in the upcoming Panama-California Exposition at San Diego.
