 Her mother worked as a domestic, cleaning houses, while her father worked at the Gates Rubber factory.Romero was the first child in her family born in a hospital, the first child to speak English as her first language, and was the first child in her family to attend college.Romero attended an integrated parochial high school in an effort to avoid the highly segregated Denver public school system; in 1973, Keyes v. School District No.