Daily Inspiration: Meet Odilia Romero

Today we’d like to introduce you to Odilia Romero. They and their team shared their story with us below:

Born in Zoogocho, Oaxaca, Odilia Romero is the co-founder and executive director of Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO). She is also an independent interpreter of Zapotec, Spanish, and English for indigenous communities in Los Angeles and throughout California. She has more than two decades of experience organizing indigenous migrant communities. Her organizing knowledge and experience are highly regarded, with multiple academic publications, awards, and lectures in universities across the United States. Ms.Romero has published on the challenges of organizing in indigenous communities, developing women’s leadership, and preparing a new generation of youth. Her work has also been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Vogue, Democracy Now!, Quien, El País, TED Talk, Forbes, and the Day Emmy award-winning series Pan Y Circo “Nadie es ilegal migrantes de ida y Vuelta” with Diego Luna.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Advocating for Indigenous people’s rights is a difficult task. Many migrants from the southern border are often grouped and labeled as ‘Latino’ or ‘Hispanic,’ which leads to the assumption that we all speak Spanish. This type of generalization erases the presence of indigenous migrant communities, causing language violence and injustice towards us. Our biggest challenge is to change this narrative and raise awareness about our existence as indigenous peoples.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have been working as a professional interpreter for several decades now, and I’m also an activist who fights for indigenous peoples’ and language rights. One of my proudest achievements is co-founding Comunidades Indigenous en Liderazgo (CIELO) with my daughter, Janet Martínez. Through CIELO, we get the opportunity to continue serving indigenous migrant communities and challenge the negative narrative often portrayed about indigenous people in the media. Through CIELO’s work, we can talk about the many contributions of the indigenous people to our culture and economy.

What’s next?
We’re focusing on creating spaces for wellness for the CIELO team because we deal with human rights violations at all times. Our work is always to deal with trauma. We have to deal with secondhand trauma in situations when working in hospitals, courts, and detention centers and repatriations of our relatives back home to join their ancestors.

We will continue to work on building bridges and alliances with local and federal institutions to provide solutions to the challenges and barriers that Indigenous people deal with every day.

We look forward to hosting the National Indigenous Interpreters conference in May. We will have more than 35 indigenous language professionals learn from each other.

We are excited to host our Indigenous literature conference in July at the LA Public Library on the weekend of July 27, 2024

And, of course, our annual fundraise Noches de Mezcal on September 28, 2024

In December 2024, we look towards celebrating the Indigenous Migrant Month in LA County, recently passed by the LA County Board of Supervisors. Indigenous Migrants Month in Los Angeles County. This proclamation was meant to recognize and appreciate the valuable contributions made by Indigenous migrant communities to the city’s economy, culture, and social fabric.

Contact Info:

• Website: mycielo.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mycielo_org/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/comunidades-indigenas-en-liderazgo-cielo/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MyCielola

Image Credits
Jon Endow