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).

Cameron Gay

Cameron Gay (opens in a new tab) is a professional photographer.

Thomas J. Barrow, Discrete Multivariate Analysis, 1981. Gelatin silver print photograms with automotive lacquers and epoxy enamel. 16 × 19 ¾ in. Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Gift of Frank and Patti Kolodny, 1990 (1990.1.1ab). © Thomas Barrow. Photograph by Cameron Gay.

Embroidering the Canon

By Emily Withnall When an eclectic scattering of artists across the United States began pushing the boundaries of what photography could be in the 1960s and ’70s, they did not collectively name themselves. Organizing their movement would have been the antithesis of what they were trying to do. Though it is impossible to fully capture the range of approaches each artist took in creating their work, they were each trying to challenge the idea that photography was a window into reality.

Will Shuster, Self Portrait, 1931. Oil on canvas. 30 × 24 in. Courtesy the family of Will Shuster, Santa Fe, and Zaplin Lampert Gallery, Santa Fe.

Bohemian Rhapsody

By Christian Waguespack A century ago, in 1920, serious health issues brought Pennsylvania-born artist William Howard Shuster (1893– 1969) to New Mexico, beginning forty-nine years of creativity, exploration, and community engagement. Though he received some fine-arts training in Philadelphia, it was not until he experienced the inspiration of Santa Fe that he decided to dedicate his life to art. Almost immediately, he famously joined four other young bohemians to become Los Cinco Pintores, and integrated himself into Santa Fe’s burgeoning Modernist art scene.

A statue of a friar stands on a rooftop overlooking an adobe village, with a cross, bouquet, and hammer nearby under a cloudy sky. [gen-ai]

Perceptions of Passion

BY CHRISTIAN WAGUESPACK Since the end of the nineteenth century, artists of European descent have been continuously drawn to New Mexico, captivated by everything that we still treasure as unique to our region: the stunning light, the rich multicultural tapestry, the dramatic natural vistas. But as often as they filled their canvases with Indigenous subjects, golden aspens, or sun-drenched mountains, they were equally fascinated with the Hispanic community that has called New Mexico home for centuries.

A group of tipis and people with horses in a grassy valley, bordered by trees, with tall mountains and a lake in the background. [gen-ai]

Illustrative Artists

BY CHRISTIAN WAGUESPACK America’s land is at the heart of our national visual character. In the attempt to construct an identity for the young country, early Anglo-American artists aligned with the idea that ours was a nation without history—an idea that dismissed the validity of Native American history—and looked at the land as a fertile source to construct a national character.