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Odilia Romero is an Indigenous Zapotec originating from the Zoogocho community of Oaxaca, Mexico. She is the co-founder and executive director of Comunidades Indigenas en Liderazgo (CIELO), an nonprofit organization that provides resources to Indigenous migrant communities in Los Angeles. Born from the San Bartolome Zoogocho Oaxaca community and upon arriving in the United States at the age of 10 years old, she faced an extreme language barrier. Influencing her to become a Zapotec interpreter and an activist understanding the need for Indigenous language interpreters to help other struggling Indigenous migrants. She is an Indigenous leader who has helped create Indigenous Organizations.

Early Life:
In the 1980s, upon arriving in Los Angeles from Oaxaca, Mexico Odilia faced a significant language barrier. She quickly began falling behind in school due to the lack of resources in her mother tongue, while also experiencing discrimination. With feelings of isolation and no longer able to keep up with her academics, she dropped out of school during the 10th grade. Stating that the language barrier made it "impossible to catch up. " Until this day she has difficulty reading but thanks to apps like Speechify and audiobooks, she was able to learn the English language. A struggle often faced by many other Indigenous migrant children, who also face the difficulties of the language barriers and their limitations with success of a higher education, an ongoing matter Odilia focuses on.

Comunidades Indigenas en Liderazgo (CIELO):
In 2016 two Zapotec women, Odilia Romero and Janet Martinez founded Comunidades Indigenas en Liderazgo (CIELO). CIELO is an Indigenous women- led nonprofit organization in Los Angeles. CIELO addresses issues such as racism towards Indigenous people, especially within the Latinx community and advocates for basic human rights for Indigenous communities. As well as they provide resources to Indigenous migrant communities. According to Janet Martinez CIELO also started because:

"CIELO comes from a response to really ignoring those populations and not having anything geared towards them — not within the city, not within the school systems."

CIELO and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD):
CIELO works with the Los Angeles Police Department by conducting a cultural awareness training for police officers, to help create a conversation by educating them on nuances of Indigenous communities in Los Angeles. Although it's an extremely controversial program due to the work with police, this is extremely important for Indigenous communities. As police officers have been given a card saying, "Do you speak Zapotec? Do you speak Mixtec? Do you speak Chinantec?" in various Indigenous languages is an accomplishment whether they use it or not.

COVID-19:
Overfilled hospitals and high death tolls were a reported in Los Angeles County during COVID-19. Hitting the hardest to the Latinx and Indigenous communities in Los Angeles, many of them are working-class essential workers. In addition to the language barrier and the lack of access to care, the Los Angeles Indigenous communities face the impact of COVID-19.

CIELO and COVID-19:
CIELO created an Undocu-Indigenous fund to help address the challenges Indigenous communities faced during the pandemic by providing them resources for their well-being. From around the time the pandemic began, January 2021 to February 2022 CIELO was able to raise 2.4 million dollars in COVID relief fund. Recently CIELO published a book called, Diža’ No’ole, Palabra de Mujer, A Woman’s Word, it documents stories of living in Los Angeles as an undocumented Indigenous women from Mexico and Guatemala during the pandemic.

Frente Indigena de Organizaciones Binacionales (FIOB):
Romero is a member of the Frente Indigena de Organizaciones Binacionales(FIOB), an organization based in Los Angeles. Serving two terms as Binational Women's Issues Coordinator for FIOB, for more than a decade as an activist. She began working with FIOB due to the discrimination and racism she and her family experienced. FIOB is a political organization that works with Indigenous migrants and non-migrants in Mexico and the United States. Through collaborative research with activist of FIOB, workshops that deal with gender, generation, and ethnic diversity with FIOB leaders in Baja California, California, and Oaxaca.