Barbara Romero Alba

Barbara Romero Alba (b. 1949, Nambé, New Mexico) grew up alongside her twin brother in Nambé, New Mexico, where they enjoyed exploring nature and building tree houses. She always loved observing the variation in landscapes, trees, and clouds. Upon retiring in 2005 from an administrative career in the Santa Fe public schools, Barbara decided to join her many artist friends in the pursuit of painting and colcha embroidery. Since 2010, Barbara's volunteer work at El Rancho de las Golondrinas and the Museum of Spanish Colonial Arts (MOSCA) has exposed her to carding, spinning, and dyeing with natural ingredients. She has also learned about New Mexico history, heritage, and culture, and deepened her knowledge of colcha embroidery under the tutelage of her friend and neighbor, Julia R. Gomez. Barbara belongs to Colchera Coloniales de Santa Fe, a group that meets monthly to embroider together. She has received ribbons at the New Mexico State Fair, the Fiber Arts Festival in Albuquerque, the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council Embroiderer's Guild of America, and the Northern New Mexico Spanish Colonial Colcha Embroiderers Biennial in Española, New Mexico. Her work has been exhibited at Martinez Hacienda in Taos, NM, and at venues including churches. In November 2019 Barbara traveled to Jingmen, Hubei, China, where her colcha embroidery was shown at the Belt & Road International Forum for Cultural Heritage Cooperation Exchange and Handcraft Fair, alongside the work of Julia Gomez. Twenty nations participated with Barbara and Julia as the sole representatives from the United States. Barbara enjoys teaching, demonstrating, and providing history lessons both privately and in public settings such as museums. She lives in Santa Fe, NM, wither her husband, Xavier, of 46 years. They are the proud parents of three grown children and seven grandchildren, several of whom Barbara has taught the art of colcha embroidery.

(photo by Rebecca Abrams, September, 2020)