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).

Khristaan D. Villela

Khristaan D. Villela is the associate director at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and is a former executive director of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He holds an MA and a PhD in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin.

A large group of men in suits with ribbons on their lapels stand on stone steps outside a building, posing for a formal group photograph. [gen-ai]

An Adapted Excerpt from Chapter Three: “History and Architecture of the Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple”

BY KHRISTAAN VILLELA From its inception, the Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple was a touchstone in the debate over what architectural style was most appropriate for Santa Fe. A short article in the “Society” section of the Santa Fe New Mexican on November 16, 1912, the day before the grand opening of the Scottish Rite temple, noted that the Alhambra was a symbol of the beauty and romance of Old Spain.

Historic photo of the New Mexico State Building featuring adobe-style architecture, flat roofs, and rounded corners, with a sidewalk, streetlamp, and a person walking nearby. [gen-ai]

The Adobe Ambassador

The Curious Backstory of the New Mexico Museum of Art's Genesis. . . and Edifice BY KHRISTAAN D. VILLELA Next year will mark the centenary of the debut of the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, now called the New Mexico Museum of Art. [wonderplugin_slider id="60"]   (more…)