Romero, Leo

Leo Romero was born on September 25, 1950 in the house of his grandparents, Samuel and Adelaida Romero of Chacón, New Mexico. Chacón is a remote northern New Mexican village at the upper end of the Mora valley, seven miles north of Holman, New Mexico. Romero never knew his father and was given his maternal family name. At an early age, he moved with his mother, Ortensia, two brothers and a sister down the valley to Las Vegas, New Mexico where he attended public schools through high school.

In 1969, at the University of New Mexico, noted Native American poet Simon Ortiz encouraged Romero in some of his early writing. His first published poem appeared in a 1971 publication of New Mexico Magazine . The student literary magazine Thunderbird also printed many of his poems. He graduated in 1973 with a B.A. in English and in 1974 began work on a master's program in creative writing at New Mexico State University where he twice served as poetry editor of the magazine Puerto del Sol . Romero earned an M.A. in English in 1981.

In 1978 the Maguey Press of Tucson, Arizona published a chap book with Romero's first collection of poems, During the Growing Season . In 1980 Tonatiuh-Quinto Sol of Berkeley, California published a collection of poems entitled Celso as a special issue of the Grito del Sol series, and in 1981 Ahsahta Press, of Boise State University, published Romero's Agua Negra collection, which won the 1982 Pushcart Prize "Best of the Small Presses" competition. In 1985 Arte Publico Press in Houston, Texas published Celso, the definitive collection of Celso poems and in 1990 Ahsahta Press published Romero's book, Going Home Away Indian .

Romero's steadily growing reputation has brought him many fellowships and honors. His poetry has brought the "magic" of his regional culture to a national audience, not by merely describing its traditions, but rather by evoking the complex and lyrical orality which lies so close to its collective soul. His latest work is the 1995 publication of Rita and Los Angeles, a fictional account of the social life and customs of New Mexico and California, published by Bilingual Press, Tucson, Arizona.

As of 2005, Leo Romero owns and operates Leo's Books in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Source: Lomeli, Francisco A. and Carl R. Shirley, eds. Chicano Writers: Second Series . Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1992.

From the guide to the Leo Romero Papers, 1981-2004, (University of New Mexico. Center for Southwest Research.)