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).

RoseMary Diaz (Santa Clara Pueblo)

RoseMary Diaz (Santa Clara Pueblo) (opens in a new tab) is a freelance writer based in Santa Fe. She studied literature and its respective arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), Naropa University, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

A large, jagged rock formation rises from a flat desert landscape under a purple and red star-filled night sky.

Symphonies in the Skies

By RoseMary Diaz Growing up in Santa Clara Pueblo, I listened to my grandmother tell the stories of our Tewa ancestors. From her I learned about how the Old Ones came from the north and built their homes in sandstone cliffs and atop high desert mesas of the Southwest; how they nurtured close relationships with the land and the animals and plants who also call it home; how they learned to read the weather and the seasons, hunt, and plant crops of beans, squash, and corn in a rainbow of sacred colors; how they shaped a rich legacy of language, song, and dance; and how they developed complex cosmocentric ceremonial and religious constructs that continue to define Tewa culture and belief today.

A baby wrapped in a traditional Native American cradleboard, with fabric and leather coverings, against a plain background. [gen-ai]

The Naming Ceremony

BY ROSEMARY DIAZ Through the thin layer of darkness that slowly moved away from the coming morning, I could see the silhouettes of the sisters as they walked down the narrow dirt road and toward our house. Starlight lingered in all directions, sparkling above the stillness of frost-covered trees as I held the child close on this fourth day of her life.