Sculptress and artist who devoted her life to creating up until her time of passing 27 February 2020. A Belizean Patriot, her great legacy lives on through her sculptures which are on permanent display throughout the country of Belize. Vilma Romero was born in Belize City in 1938. She attended Holy Redeemer and St. Catherine’s Academy where she studied art under Sister Mary Bridgette.
At age 18 Vilma married and moved to Corozal Town. In 1966 Vilma began to explore her artistic instincts in various media – watercolors, oil painting, wood carving, metal and stone sculpture. This while finding a balance amidst contradictory tensions – the bearing, rearing, feeding and education of her children, running a household, human relationships – the normal female occupations that in general run counter to creative life. The eternal female problem of how to remain whole in the midst of the distractions of life. At the same time Vilma was supplementing her husband Adolfo’s income by making concrete garden ornaments and flower pots. Gardening was a side passion of hers. It was around this time that she began to develop and forge an indigenous art form of her own.
In 1997 while visiting the Belisle Art Gallery for the 12th Annual Women in Art Exhibition, a Belizean couple now resident in the U.K. for many years and on holiday perusing the Baron Bliss Institute with their son a newly graduated Master Artist in Printmaking recognized the work of their family member Vilma Romero – a Christ Head Sculpture. Surprised to have met her sister’s work, Connie Braithwaite, the U.K. resident told a local newspaper that Vilma was always working in her art. Vilma’s work is in a permanent collection in Scotland (where she once studied art).
The sibling related that Vilma sought solitude in the heat of the day when everyone else was resting. She sought solitude in order to find again the true essence of herself without the intrusion of a call for “Mother”, “Wife” and other duties. In her garden studio she sought a place of refuge and wholeness in an act of creation with the hope of having her hope accepted. Single-mindedness, concentration and absorption was for Vilma the process of her self-development.
In September 1991 ‘The Ethnic Group” was unveiled in Belize City at the entrance from the Northern Highway. It was hailed as a Welcome To Belize and part of a Beautify the City Campaign. It consisted of life-sized figures. Four men represented the Maya, Creole, Mestizo and Garifuna, the tallest sculpture – a woman – represented the East Indian ethnic group. A majority of city folk thought the sculptures came from Mexico, but it was Vilma’s work. After some time and after being partially demolished by errant motorists The Ethnic Group was retired.
Was the Belizean art lover’s society ready for a true appreciation of the value of the here and now and the individual? Perhaps not until there was a challenge where one would have a new sense of dignity with regard to the individuality of Vilma’s work. In the here and now we must honor Vilma’s courage, her brave soul that dared and defied, that was persistent in the face of all the treats and temptations to surrender one’s individuality to the mass – whether it is standardization of thought, action or art.
Appreciating Vilma’s art is considering that validity is more than what you may or not like. It is on another plane. Judged by other standards, it relates to the actual moment in time and place. And what is actual is actual for one time and one place.
Vilma’s work is all over Belize even though most Belizeans are not aware of this.
Have you looked at the larger-than-life-size monument of Isiah Mortar in south side Belize City?
The bust of Antonio Soberanis in Belize City’s Central Park overlooking the Belize Supreme Court?
The bust of Santiago Ricalde in the Corozal Town Central Park?
The sculpture of T.V. Ramos in Dangriga?
The life-size statue of a Belizean soldier at Independence Plaza in Orange Walk Town?
Or the Bookworm sculpture at the Leo Bradley library? These are creations from Vilma’s hands.
Vilma Romero was constantly developing her art. She had also produced several works of religious art.
A cancer survivor, she lent her support to several organizations including the Belize Red Cross and St. Francis Xavier Parish. She opened her studio to the primary and secondary school art classes in Corozal Town in the hope of fostering the development of art among young people.
In more recent years Vilma was recognized by the National Institute of Culture and History as Female artist of the year in 2010. She participated, exhibited and inspired her fellow female artists at the annual Arte Con Voz de Mujer Exhibits at the Corozal House of Culture from 2012- 2019 . She supported and participated in the initial editions of Corozal Town’s Art in the Park. In 2019 she was one of the “Live Artists” at the Corozal Graffiti Festival where she created a relief sculpture. During the same year she was honoured with a solo exhibit at the Corozal House of Culture with over 35 pieces of various genres of art on display.
She is considered the Mother of Art in Belize. Vilma Romero passed in 2020. Some of her works are in Belize’s National Art Collection held by NICH. Most of her works of art are conserved in her son’s Manolo Romero Art Collection.