Reconnecting Journey
Rosa Blumenfeld-Romero is a Native/Indigenous woman from the Muisca people who was raised outside of her traditions and lands in Vancouver, BC, Canada. As a child she had recurring dreams of getting on a bus, train, or plane going the wrong way. At first she thought she was losing her mind, but really this was her ancestors telling her what she already knew: that the Colombian and Jewish cultures that she was being raised in weren’t the whole story of who she was. That she was going on the wrong direction and needed to follow the path to reconnect to her roots. She met her Indigenous mentor, Jennileen Joseph from the Rroma people, in 2014 and has been doing coming home work ever since. This has led her from back home to the ancestral lands of her people in Colombia where she now lives full time with her dog Penelope. (Rosa is pictured right as a 5 year old in Colombia in 1991)
Popular Education
Rosa started teaching popular education workshops when she worked for the labor movement in Massachusetts from 2006-2014 with mentorship from the Labor Extension Program at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, the Labor Education Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, DC, the United Association for Labor Education, and the Women’s Institute for Leadership Development. She has taught workshops to union members all over the United States about leadership development, power mapping, strategic planning, organizational development, campaign strategy, economic policy, dismantling racism, ending sexism, workplace solidarity, working class history, one to one meetings, target development, and more. Her training in the political, inclusive, and radical nature of popular education is the spirit from which she teaches her reconnecting classes today.
Sacred Lakes, Sacred Water Connection
Her whole life hough she felt a soul deep connection to the element of water. On a trip to Lake Guatavita in 2016, she learned about her people’s creation story and our connection to seven sacred lakes in the Cundinamarca, Boyaca, and Santander regions of Colombia. It made all of her delightful memories of playing in pools, swimming in the ocean, or floating in a pond, make sense.
Although her focus is on reconnecting, Rosa also maintains a connection to her Jewishness through water. She is a certified Mikveh Guide at Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters in Boston, MA, a frequent collaborator with the Queer Mikveh Project, and the author of water immersion ceremonies like For Palestinian Life and In Generation Gratitude for Jewish Women of Color.