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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).
Marcus Xavier Chormicle (opens in a new tab) is a lens-based artist and independent curator from Las Cruces, and lineal descendant of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. His work focuses on family, memory, and the intersection of class, race, and history in the Southwest. In 2024, he was a New Mexico Arts artist-in-residence at Lincoln Historic Site where he expanded on his oryx project.
![Four people with backpacks stand on rocky terrain, looking and pointing toward the horizon under a cloudy sky with sparse desert vegetation. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Corrected-Oryx-Photos-89.jpg)
As the desert transitions from deep blacks to dim greys and blues, we creep through the mountain pass. We leave the city lights behind us and roll into the dark nothingness. Our headlights rip through the morning and carry us onto base. Beginning in 1969, oryx were introduced to the Chihuahuan Desert. Frank C. Hibben, a foreigner to the desert himself, brought these aliens onto the land.
