Elaine Romero is a Latina playwright, who grew up close to the border in San Juan Capistrano, California and has lived in Tucson, Arizona for many years.
In fact, her mother didn't discover her daughter's interest in writing until she found and read Romero's diary while cleaning the house.
At age fifteen, she went to a PEN conference with a short story about the death of her uncle, who died during active duty.
At nineteen years old, Romero realised that instead of teaching what other authors had written, she wanted to explore what she was capable of writing.
Her thesis was a novella, titled Dead Birds Don’t Sing, which was the beginning of her fascination with the potential of nuclear war.
Knowing she wanted to be a playwright, Romero began her master's program at University of California, Davis immediately after graduating.
Romero is part of Latinx Theatre Commons, and runs a contest for Latine playwrights to support up-and-coming artists.
She accredits her prolificness to being able to trick herself into learning the truth of the play rather than imposing her intellect on the story.
With the help of a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Arizona Theatre Company was able to commission Romero to write the last play of her trilogy, Title IX, as well as give the playwright the opportunity to lead a project called Voices of a New America.
Romero's grandfather fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima and her uncle was lost in the Vietnam War when she was five years old.
[3] Romero decided to write a pentalogy of war plays, which are Graveyard of Empires, A Work of Art, Revóluciones/Revolutions, When Reason Sleeps, and Martínez in Taos.
[6] In both plays, Romero focuses on how war emotionally traumatizes those who do service for the United States as well as family members.
[6] In 2021, the Arizona Theatre Company organised a virtual festival to celebrate Romero's work, called RomeroFest.