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.

A man with short gray hair and glasses, wearing a collared shirt, looks at the camera against a black background.

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.

A woman with long dark hair wearing a coral shirt sits outdoors, resting her chin on her hand, with greenery and flowers in the background.

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.

A woman with straight brown hair wearing a dark turtleneck and long, beaded earrings poses against a plain white background.

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).

A person with short hair, glasses, and a goatee smiles in front of a stone wall, wearing a green shirt and a watermelon pin.

​StormMiguel Florez 

​StormMiguel Florez  (opens in a new tab) is a trans, queer Burqueño Chicane filmmaker, whose work includes The Whistle (2019, Producer/Director, PBS), MAJOR! (2015, editor/co-producer) and Vulveeta (2022, co-producer, editor, actor). Florez is dedicated to telling stories of trans and queer resilience and joy, with a passion for representing New Mexico queer history and community. While his home base is currently San Francisco, his heart and homeland are deeply rooted in New Mexico.

Photo credit: Annalise Ophelian

StormMiguel Florez. Photograph by Gordon Garcia. · Women reunite and reminisce about their community and being out in high school in the 1970s and 1980s. Production still from The Whistle, 2019. Courtesy of StormMiguel Florez. · Collage of Albuquerque lesbian youth in the 1980s. The Whistle, 2019. Courtesy of StormMiguel Florez. · Director of Photographgraphy, Annalise Ophelian; Director, StormMiguel Florez; Participant, Michelle Martinez. The Whistle, 2019. Photograph by Jai James. · i like girls. Production still from The Whistle, 2019. Courtesy of StormMiguel Florez.

The Sound of Community:

By Lazarus Letcher Early in his documentary The Whistle, StormMiguel Florez muses about his LGBTQIA+ friends who grew up in other parts of the country in the ’70s and ’80s who always say, “I didn’t know anybody like me.” Florez retorts, “Albuquerque was packed full of queers back then!” Later in the film, we see a woman holding a scrapbook. It shows the wear and tear of being well-loved over many years.