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.

Woman with long dark hair and sunglasses wearing a textured rust-colored top and a green stone necklace, standing against a plain light 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).

Dr. Oliver Horn

Dr. Oliver Horn is the regional manager at Fort Stanton Historic Site and Lincoln Historic Site, part of the New Mexico Historic Sites division of New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. Prior to being hired, Horn and his wife, Dr. Robynne Mellor, worked as consultants with the state’s Historic Preservation Division and helped draft its ten-year preservation plan. Horn also worked on the team that developed the 950-page Fort Stanton Historic Site Cultural Landscape Report, which serves as a roadmap for the site’s preservation.

A hillside forest of scorched, leafless trees stands beneath a layer of mist, showing signs of recent wildfire damage.

The Loss of the Commons: A Historic Context for the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire

In April 2022, the largest and most destructive wildfire in New Mexico history, known as the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, erupted in the Santa Fe National Forest.The wildfire originated from two U.S. Forest Service prescribed burns that escaped control in the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District. The combined fire spread down the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains into nearby communities in Mora and San Miguel Counties.

Aerial view of the Fort Stanton parade ground with the Visitor Center/ Museum on the left and the Barracks/Dining Hall on the right in the foreground. Both structures, which were originally barracks, and the parade ground date to 1855. The Sierra Blanca Mountains can be seen in the distance and are a part of the Mescalero Reservation. Photo by Tira Howard.

Historic Site Conversations: 

New Mexico Historic Sites hired Dr. Oliver Horn as the new regional site manager to oversee the operations of Fort Stanton and Lincoln Historic Sites. Recently, Olivers at down with Historic Sites’ historic preservation and interpretation specialist, Dr. C. L. Kieffer, for a conversation about their shared passion for history, preservation, and interpretation at Fort Stanton—the largest historic site in the state. C. L.

Territory Senator, Holm Bursum, Socorro, New Mexico, ca. 1900-1910. Courtesy Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), neg. no. 077073.

The Cause of Every American Artist

In May 1921, New Mexico Senator Holm O. Bursum introduced a bill to Congress that would incite a power struggle over politics and culture in New Mexico. Crafted behind closed doors and without any consultation with the Pueblo people, the legislation proposed allowing non-Pueblo people to claim reservation land if they could prove ten years of residency. Ostensibly designed to settle competing claims over land grants, the bill in effect threatened to strip the Pueblo of their land rights and transfer vast sums of their territory to mostly Anglo ranching and mining interests.