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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).
Sandra Hale Schulman (opens in a new tab) is an arts writer, curator and film producer. Recipient of a Woody Guthrie Foundation grant, her documentary film on folksinger Peter La Farge is now on Amazon Prime Video. She is the Indigenous A&E columnist for Indian Country Today and has co-curated shows and given talks at the California Indian Museum, Queens Museum, Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, and is working as a consultant and author for Howl Happening Gallery and Archives in NYC. Her work has appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Native American Art Magazine, PBS, Variety, Rolling Stone, The New York Daily News, and Entertainment Weekly. She has authored four books, produced a tribute record, and a music video. She divides her time between Joshua Tree and Los Angeles.
The power of protest suffused the smoky air in Window Rock, Arizona. It was January 2007. Diné men wearing respirators held signs that read “Defend your right to clean air.” Diné women held American flags and faced off against police with hands on their pistols. A large painted sign of a smoke-belching power plant loomed ominously in the background, while a Diné woman looked pleadingly to the skies with a nuclear power logo superimposed over her gas mask.
