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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).
Loretta Hall (opens in a new tab) is a freelance author whose nonfiction themes include space exploration, human experience, ecological architecture, and multiculturalism. She is the author of four space-related books including Out of this World: New Mexico’s Contributions to Space Travel and Miguel & Michelle Visit Spaceport America. Loretta is a member of the National Federation of Press Women, New Mexico Press Women, SouthWest Writers, and the Historical Society of New Mexico’s Speakers Bureau.
![A rocket launches vertically as a group of people with cameras and equipment observe from the ground, surrounded by smoke and a partly cloudy sky. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/156109main_image_feature_644_ys_full-400x225.jpg)
By Loretta Hall New Mexico’s sky has always been captivating. Not only beautiful to look at, it was historically useful for predicting the changes of seasons for agricultural planning. A thousand years ago or so, observatories were built by the Jornada Mogollon people in the southeastern part of the state and the Ancestral Puebloans in the northwest. Rocks were aligned to track the movement of certain stars, the sun, and the moon.
