Virginia T. Romero, Taos Pueblo bowl

Virginia Romero was born on ancestral land in 1896. She was raised and trained in the traditional ways of her tribe until she was taken away from her family by an educational system before she was a teenager. She attended Santa Fe Indian School in the early 1900s as part of a country-wide assimilation program. The boarding schools were meant to mainstream Indian children into American culture. This educational program was heartbreaking, but did provide her with linguistic and housekeeping skills that she would use as interpreter for the tribal government and as a homemaker.

She began her pottery career in 1919, initially drawing from her experience watching her mother make utilitarian pottery. She used micaceous clay, which helped her never lose a pot in the firing. She first sold bean pots and water jars to locals and tourists, eventually making more decorative pieces such as wedding vases and rimmed bowls. She was the first to make miniature hornos (outdoor oven) to honor the outdoor oven that baked bread and fired her pots.

Her awards include the Santa Fe Indian Market, the annual intertribal ceremonial exhibition in Gallup, the 1960 Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Association certificate of merit, and recognition from the Millicent Rogers Museum. Her work is housed in museums such as The Los Angeles County Museum, the Southwest Museum of the American Indian (the Autry National Center in Los Angeles), the School of American Research and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, and the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos. She continued living traditionally at Taos Pueblo, teaching her techniques to children at the Oo-ooh-nah Children’s Art Center. She continued to make pots up to her 100th birthday in 1995.

http://taos.org/women/profiles-legends?/item/87/Virginia-T-Romero