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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).
Don J. Usner (opens in a new tab) was born in 1957 in Embudo, New Mexico. He has written and provided photos for several books, including Sabino’s Map: Life in Chimayó’s Old Plaza, Benigna’s Chimayó: Cuentos from the Old Plaza, Valles Caldera: A Vision for New Mexico’s National Preserve, and Chasing Dichos through Chimayó. Don is also the photo editor consultant for the annual New Mexico Treasures Engagement Calendar published by the Museum of New Mexico Press.
Read six selected Sze poems published in this issue here. At age twenty-one, Arthur Sze hitchhiked from El Paso to Santa Fe in a single day. Knowing no one, and accompanied only by his boundless curiosity, he arrived seeking a place to build a life as a poet. Fifty-three years later, he hasn’t left. And his plans for becoming a poet clearly came to fruition.
![Tattooed man with a shaved head sits in the driver’s seat of a classic convertible car, holding the steering wheel and looking toward the camera. [gen-ai]](https://elpalacio.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Machine-Dreams_6-scaled-1-400x225.jpg)
A LOW, SLOW JOURNEY FROM PACHUCO TO PRICELESS BY DON J. USNER It all began for Johnny Martinez when he went with his family to work in the fields of Southern California in the late 1950s. [wonderplugin_slider id="58"] (more…)
Some called him the rico (rich man), others the patrón (the boss), the cacique (head man), or the jefe político (political boss). Whatever the appellation, Victor de Jesús Ortega was a strong—some might say domineering—leader in Chimayó. But his influence went far beyond the confines of the small plaza where he was born and raised. Through sheer force of character—and a particular gift for oratory and politicking—he earned positions in regional government, including justice of the peace, probate judge, and county commissioner.
