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).

Alex La Pierre

Alex La Pierre (opens in a new tab) is a program director for Border Community Alliance (BCA), a nonprofit based in Tubac, Arizona. BCA’s mission is to bridge the border and foster community through education, collaboration, and cultural exchange. He previously worked for the National Park Service at Tumacácori National Historical Park, Pecos National Historical Park, and Fort Union National Monument in the fields of historic preservation and interpretation.

A bowl of red stew with chunks of meat and hominy, topped with fresh cilantro, with a spoon resting inside. [gen-ai]

Al-Andalus Abroad

By Alex La Pierre Photographs by Joy Godfrey In the early 2000s, a piece of pottery was uncovered during archaeological investigations at the Presidio San Agustín del Tucson, a Spanish Colonial and later Mexican adobe fortress founded in 1776 on the frontier edge of New Spain. Once used as table settings for meals, this sherd of polychrome majolica ware had been produced in the central Mexican state of Puebla and emulated an Iberian style of painted tin-glazed pottery originally from Al-Andalus, or Islamic Spain.