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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).
Scott Ortman is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder and an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His research focuses on collaborative archaeology with contemporary Native peoples and complex systems approaches to human societies.
![Adobe-style building with wooden accents, two flags (USA and New Mexico) on the roof, blue sky, and landscaping in front. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/moa_entrance-400x225.jpg)
BY SCOTT ORTMAN This is a question I worry about constantly. We live in a world with many challenges, from climate change to inequality to discrimination to political conflict. In this world it is reasonable to ask what people who spend their lives studying the detritus of long-lost societies have to contribute to understanding or even solving these problems. (more…)
