Considered one of the “most widely known and
influential politicians of New Mexico in the
territorial days,” Trinidad Romero, a successful
merchant and entrepreneur, served a single term as a
Territorial Delegate to Congress. His short time in the
House, like that of many other New Mexican Delegates
of the era, marked but a brief moment in a long career in
various territorial offices.1
Trinidad Romero was born June 15, 1835, in Santa
Fe, New Mexico, to Miguel Romero and Josefa Delgado.
Miguel had extensive experience in the American
occupation government. He was appointed alcalde (mayor)
of Santa Fe by General Stephen Kearny during the military
occupation period and was a founder of the Republican
Party in New Mexico. The second of 10 children, Romero
was educated by private tutors and also received some
formal schooling.2 He left Santa Fe at age 15 and moved
50 miles east to Las Vegas, New Mexico, where he
“engaged extensively in sheep and cattle raising … also
in the general merchandising business, which through
careful management, yielded him a large profit.”3
Romero assisted his father with freighting goods via ox
teams between St. Louis, Missouri, and Las Vegas, New
Mexico, in 1851. The business prospered since Las Vegas
lay astride the Santa Fe Trail, which connected Santa
Fe with Independence, Missouri. The family also took
advantage of the burgeoning railroad industry to form a
merchandise conglomerate. The senior Romero and three
of his sons, including Trinidad, founded the Romero
Mercantile Company in 1878, with Miguel serving as the
company’s first president. Trinidad succeeded his father
and later yielded the post to one of his brothers. The
business prospered, enabling the family to build branch
stores in other New Mexican towns. Romero married
Valeria Lopez, the daughter of a Las Vegas, New Mexico,
sheriff. The couple had eight children: Serapio; Bernardo;
Roman; Miguel; Epimenia; Trinidad, Jr.; Valeria; and
Margarita. The family’s wealth was considerable; Romero
was a prominent landowner in San Miguel County, and
his holdings included a 3,000-acre ranch and the sprawling
El Puertocito Grant, which he owned with his brother,
Eugenio, a prominent politician.4
Romero became politically active in the 1860s as a
result of his business activities. Elected to the territorial
house of representatives in 1863, he served for one term.5
He also served as probate judge of San Miguel County in
1869 and 1870. During the 1860s, Romero emerged as
one of the leaders of the Republican Party in San Miguel
County, which encompassed his political base in Las Vegas,
and which had experienced considerable growth. At the
time, San Miguel County was in the north-central portion
of the territory; later, portions of it were carved out to
form Guadalupe County in the south. Canyons and
highlands shaped the northwestern landscape of San
Miguel, which stretched from the Sangre de Cristo
Mountains and was drained by the Pecos River. The
655,000-acre Pablo Montoya Grant yawned across the
western part of the county, sustaining some of the largest
cattle-ranching operations in the territory. By 1880 the
Santa Fe Railroad had been built across the northwestern
section of San Miguel.6
In 1876 Romero ran for the Delegate’s seat in
the U.S. House for the 45th Congress (1877–1879)
when Stephen B. Elkins, a powerful attorney and the
incumbent Delegate, chose not to run for re-election.7
Elkins controlled New Mexico’s most potent political
machine, the Santa Fe Ring, a network of business, legal,
and political elites who dominated territorial affairs.
Romero received not only Elkins’s endorsement, but also
the unanimous nomination of the Republican territorial
convention.8 In a glowing editorial highlighting Romero’s
business acumen, a partisan supporter asked, “If you had
to choose one of these candidates with whom to entrust
your private business … would you not rather trust the
man who has guided his own business affairs with the most
discretion[?] Every voter would do so in his own business;
then why will you not act as wisely when you entrust
a man with your public business[?]”9 Romero defeated
Democrat Pedro Valdez, a two-term member of the
territorial assembly (and former speaker) with 56 percent
of the vote in a relatively clean election.10
When Romero claimed his seat in the U.S. House in
October 1877 at the opening of the 45th Congress, he was
given no committee assignments. (Territorial Delegates
had only recently been granted the privilege of serving on
standing committees, and no New Mexico Delegate would
serve on a committee until 1880.) Nevertheless, Romero
exercised his right to submit legislation, introducing eight
bills that reflected his preoccupation with constituent
services. The purposes of the bills ranged from seeking
pension relief for individuals to confirming land claims
in New Mexico. Romero also sought compensation for
former Delegate Francisco Perea’s battalion of militia that
fought against the Confederate Army from November
1861 to January 1862.11
Much of his legislative work was frustrated because
his party did not control the House. Romero’s rights and
privileges were curtailed by House Rules that favored the
Democratic majority, and his weakness was compounded
by the fact that he was a freshman. Moreover, his
legislative priorities ranked low because of his status as a
nonvoting Delegate. Frustrated at his inability to obtain
financial relief for farmers whose crops were damaged by a
grasshopper infestation in Rio Arriba and Taos Counties,
Romero apologized to a local judge in a public letter.
“Thrice have I attempted by introducing a resolution for
the purpose, but thrice my resolution has been defeated,”
he wrote. Since the House calendar, which prioritizes the
legislation the chamber will debate and vote upon, was
determined by the majority party, Romero’s bills were listed
at the bottom of the agenda or ignored altogether.12 “If
the House would have acted on the private calendar at its
due time, the bill … would have passed a long time since,”
Romero explained. “But unfortunately it was not done,
not on account of time, but on account of politics and
demagogueism which predominate in the present Congress
and seems to absorb the whole attention of its members.”
After promising to continue fighting for federal relief
money, Romero closed his public letter by offering “one
hundred head of sheep, as my private contribution for the
relief of those that are in most need.”13
Like many of his contemporaries who served as
Territorial Delegates—party placeholders who treated
their positions as stepping stones to new political or
business ventures in the territory—Romero declined to
seek re-election in the 46th Congress (1879–1881). He
returned to his business activities in the territory and
remained active in local politics, serving as a U.S. Marshal
from 1889 to 1893. Romero was one of only a handful of
nuevomexicanos to hold this position in the 19th century.
He also edited the Campaign Bulletin, a short-lived
newspaper that covered aspiring New Mexican Republican
politicians.14 By 1891, a historical survey of the territory
noted that although Romero had “lost two fortunes …
through his indomitable will and ambitious and energetic
spirit he … is to-day reputed to be one of the [most]
successful men of New Mexico.”15 On August 28, 1918,
Romero died in Las Vegas, New Mexico.16
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
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