Contributors

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

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

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

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).

Minesh Bacrania

Minesh Bacrania (opens in a new tab) has established himself as an editorial and documentary portrait photographer with a deep connection to New Mexico and the Southwest after a decade-long career as an experimental nuclear physicist. He lives with his son in the mountains outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Thomas E. Chávez in the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library.

The History Whisperer

BY CAMILLE FLORES WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY MINESH BACRANIA Renowned historian Thomas E. Chávez is a grateful, if reluctant, cultural champion. When he learned last year that he’d been nominated to receive the highest civil award that Spain bestows on a foreigner, and that he was to be inducted into the Orden de Isabel la Católica at the rank of commander for his exceptional contributions to US–Spanish cultural relations, he demurred, and decided to withdraw his name from consideration.