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).

DezBaa´

DezBaa´ (opens in a new tab) is a Diné multi-hyphenate artist: an essayist, screenwriter, actor, filmmaker; mind-body healing facilitator; and single parent. She is a “Norteña,” born in Santa Fe and raised in Northern New Mexico. DezBaa´ is a graduate of Northern New Mexico College, Amherst College, and the Institute of American Indian Arts, with a certificate and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Massage Therapy, Geology, Screenwriting and Creative Nonfiction, respectively. She’s still figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up.

Landscape photograph with a clear blue sky, a foreground of high desert native plants and a mesa at the horizon.

Returning Home

Santa Ana Pueblo / Tamaya Santa Ana Pueblo calls itself Tamaya and its people, the Tamayame, speak Keres. To the rest of the world, however, it is known as Santa Ana Pueblo because it is the official government title for the sovereign nation. Santa Ana currently encompasses 79,000 acres of land northwest of Albuquerque and borders Bernalillo to the south. For the most part, the Tamayame have been able to maintain being on their homelands in the Rio Grande Valley since their arrival in the region in the 1200s.