Romero, Pauline

Anita “Pauline” Romero was born into Jemez Pueblo in September, 1962. She learned the basics of the traditional Jemez way of making pottery from her mother, Persingula R. Tosa, and grandmother, Lupe Romero, while she was still a teenager. She still uses some of the designs she learned from them on her pieces.

Pauline was making bowls and vases with the soft red Jemez slip early in her career as a potter. Then she’d either paint designs on them or use the sgraffito technique to scratch butterfly and feather designs into their surfaces. After that she moved into making melon bowls using red and buff slips.

Today, she seems to specialize in highly polished redware jars, bowls and wedding vases with red and buff slips plus the occasional carved or sgraffito design panel.

Pauline’s work has earned her First and Second Place awards at juried competitions like Santa Fe Indian Market, the Gallup InterTribal Ceremonial and the New Mexico State Fair.

Pauline taught both her daughters, Leonore Romero and Krista Romero, and their children (even their youngest) how to make pottery the traditional way. Pauline signs her pottery: Pauline Romero, Jemez.