Fernando Romero


Fernando Romero was a journalist from San Diego who died on Feb. 6, 2019. Born and raised in Tijuana he started out as a journeyman musician who performed inside the same south-of-the-border rock scene that produced Carlos Santana. After coming to the United States and marrying wife Denise he played with some amazing musicians and even shared the Playboy Jazz Festival stage at San Diego Stadium. But he decided that journalism was where it's at and, at the age of 30 went to college and, a few years later, graduated from San Diego State University.

After training at the Los Angeles Times' San Diego Edition Romero took a job as a pioneering border reporter for the San Diego Tribune. He covered Tijuana, Baja and the whole of Mexico when needed, penning narrative features and breaking news stories. He eventually ended up at the Los Angeles Times again, this time as a section managing editor. After bouncing around as an editor at other publications Romero retired and dedicated his time to his memoir, The Colors of Eden.

Read his obituary here.

Read a tribute to Romero by John M. Glionna here.

Contact Romero's family here.

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Carlos Chocolate: A Love Story

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By Denise Romero
Introduction by Dennis Romero: In 1969 my mother Denise, a hairdresser from the San Diego community of Pacific Beach, was kicked out of her parents' home after showing up pregnant by a Mexican man she met in Tijuana, my father Fernando. Here's part of their love story.


Stuck in this funky little apartment in Tijuana, Mexico. One bedroom, no carpet, no heat, no air conditioning, not even a fan. The floors were once  black and white tile squares on them had been washed too many times with harsh soap and water. The tile was in pieces, chips and veins. The wood under it buckled like a broken down wash board.  Each room had a naked lightbulb on the ceiling. It took standing on a kitchen chair to change the lightbulb. The light bulbs  would hum, glitter and pop when they went out, way too often.

The bulb in the living room hung down about three feet from the ceiling on a black frayed cord with tiny shiny silver threads showing here and there. An aged, once white, att…
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The Colors of Eden

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The Colors of Eden by Fernando Romero is the story of a 10-year-old boy’s odyssey from his broken home in Tijuana to an aunt’s brutal beatings in Mexico City to a trek of discovery of a 1950s Mexico unknown to him—one of heroic people and merciless thugs, of loving women and broken dreams, of pain, longings and loneliness.

Former San Diego State University journalism professor Dave Feldman calls it "a deeply moving book, one in which we learn a great deal about Mexico."

"Its message of survival, of a boy who clings tightly to his humanity through an odyssey of pain and abandonment only to find his way to the light, deserves to be read widely," writes journalist Terry Wells.

Nine out of ten reviews on Amazon are five stars. Read them here. Contact the author here.
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