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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).
Michael Bletzer is an archaeologist with Four Corners Research and a research associate with Jornada Research Institute. He has worked on archaeological projects in Europe, Central America, and the Southwestern United States. Since 2000 his research has focused on the Piro area of south-central New Mexico.
![Archaeological excavation showing large stones and a label identifying the site as San Miguel Church, southeast corner, dated August 9, 2013. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/House-for-Fray-Alonso_2-400x225.jpg)
The Search for Pilabó Pueblo and the First Piro Mission, Nuestra Señora del Socorro BY MICHAEL BLETZER One spring day in 1626, Fray Alonso de Benavides, head of all Franciscan missionaries in New Mexico, stood in the plaza of a pueblo at the foot of a small mountain range just west of the Rio Grande. [wonderplugin_slider id="101"] (more…)
