Summer 2026 – El Palacio

When Atomic Testimony Becomes Art

“Dear Journalist,” the letter starts. “You have been tasked with investigating recent deaths linked to alleged creature sightings in the Tularosa Basin area. It is speculated that these deaths have been occurring in Southern New Mexico ever since ‘the sun rose twice’ last year.” These are the initial instructions for a 3D point-and-click video game called El Sol. I am instructed to embark on a journey to photograph “creatures” to help explain these mysterious deaths.

By Myrriah Gómez

Categories: New Mexican history

The Loss of the Commons

In April 2022, the largest and most destructive wildfire in New Mexico history, known as the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, erupted in the Santa Fe National Forest.The wildfire originated from two U.S. Forest Service prescribed burns that escaped control in the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District. The combined fire spread down the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains into nearby communities in Mora and San Miguel Counties.

By Dr. Oliver Horn

Categories: Uncategorized

Remembering as Resistance

My mother was adopted through the Indian Adoption Project, a federal program that ran from 1958 to 1967 and was designed to assimilate Native children by placing them with white families. Unexpectedly, she was adopted by my Navajo and Choctaw grandparents. Both had their separate experiences of assimilation as children through the Indian Boarding School policy. In 1964, their work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs moved our family from the Navajo Nation to Los Angeles under the Indian Relocation Act.

By Shayla Blatchford

Categories: Framework

Reckoning with 1776

It is known today as New Mexico, a place where time is recognized as “immemorial.” Here, the footprints of people in motion, likely left 23,000 years ago, remain impressed upon the land. We honor breath and recognize the living presence of people whose complex identities have formed across generations. We speak and listen to a multitude of languages, stories, and prayers.

By Dr. Estevan Rael-Gálvez

Categories: New Mexican cultures, New Mexican history, Southwestern history, Uncategorized