Tom Romero: “My Roots Have Influenced My Commitment and Work in and for Water Justice”

By Dr. Tom Romero, Associate Professor of Law and Affiliated Faculty with the Department of History at the University of Denver. He is also the faculty director of the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for the Study of Inequality.  

My parents and our roots have shaped me into who I am today and profoundly influenced my career path and what drives my passion for water justice and interest in researching the relationship between race and water law. 

To truly understand where that passion and interest come from, I must start by talking about my background and upbringing.  

I am the only child of Tomás Romero and Susana Rodrigues.  

My maternal grandparents were from Mexico but left the country, fleeing the Mexican Revolution, and ultimately made their way to Colorado. They started as migrant agricultural laborers, saving enough money to purchase a family farm.  

My mom was born and raised on this farm in Olatha, Colorado, on the western slope of the state, one of the driest areas that feels and looks more to places like Phoenix, Arizona.  

Courtesy: University of Denver

These high desert plains are close to the Colorado River and part of the Colorado River Basin. That's where I spent my summers growing up, and I vividly remember learning how to swim in an irrigation ditch because we didn't have access to swimming pools. Water was, and is, a precious resource in this region, and these ditches are critical to irrigate the farms.  

My dad was born in Durango, Colorado. He was raised in a predominantly Mexican American community and his parents, tios and tias all lived on the town's river banks, now a park. This part of my family goes back generations and is connected to northern New Mexico. Like many Latine families in the region, they felt they didn't cross the border, but the border crossed them. 

My paternal grandfather who was born near the sugar beet fields of Ault, Colorado (in the northeastern part of the state),met my grandmother in Durango.  He and his family were based in Antonito and as a young man, followed railroad work north towards Denver and ultimately west towards Salt Lake City, where they settled. My grandfather worked as a janitor in the public school system, and my grandmother as a seamstress for a commercial firm that provided uniforms to workers. 

My parents met as part of the small and tightly knit community of Spanish-speaking Pentecostal Christians worshipping and connecting between Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.  My dad eventually served in the Vietnam War and my mother took a job in government human resources and equal employment in Denver.  After he was discharged, my dad was a machinist at the Denver Mint, where he remained for the rest of his career.  My parents would divorce and remarry.  My mom, married a man raised in El Paso and who eventually worked for the Equal Opportunity Commission.  My dad married a women, born in Juarez, who was a prison guard and ultimately a parole officer for sex-offenders.      

I like to share about both sides of my family because the backgrounds, journeys, jobs, and experiences of my parents, step-parents and grandparents have tremendously impacted my life, how I see the world around me, and the work I do today.   

I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, where I attended a public school system with a long segregation history. This experience as a young student, learning how to swim in irrigation ditches, having both of my parents work as civil servants, union organizers, and in the field of civil rights, gave me a real sense of a lot of issues of discrimination, disparity, and what it meant to be a Latine.  

On the paternal side of the family, I'm the first generation to graduate from college and get a professional degree. I have both a Ph.D. and a Juris Doctorate. Without my family, I would not be who I am today or accomplished what I have.  

These first-hand experiences growing up and my family's work ethic and resilience encouraged me to pursue a career path toward research and water justice. 

Historically, many underserved communities, including Latino communities, encounter water by having access to it and are reliant on the jobs created in the agriculture industry, which depend on water rights.  

Water planning, water access, water quality, and water rights can impact diverse communities and create inequities. With the Southwest's water crisis, water justice is a pressing issue more than ever. I hope my work, particularly my project, the Color of Water in Colorado project, helps to bring attention to the existing water inequalities and contribute to finding substantive solutions to these issues for the most vulnerable