Frances Romero
Biography
Frances Romero, also known as Frances Mendoza Romero and Mama Romero, was a Mexican immigrant, Tampa cigar worker and mother of six. She and her daughter Caroline Vasquez were arrested on November 7, 1931 during the police crackdown on a Russian Revolution anniversary meeting at the Labor Temple. They remained in the county jail pending trial and were subsequently imprisoned at Raiford. In prison they sewed clothing and were initially kept apart from other women because of their Communist politics. They were released on December 21, 1932. The International Labor Defense campaigned for the Tampa prisoners. Romero later moved to New York. Her son Vladimir Mendoza Romero was killed aboard the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Luis Ortiz’s December 16, 1932 Tampa account gives a January 19 sentencing list and describes the tobacco-workers prosecution on assault-with-intent-to-murder, unlawful-assembly and rioting accusations. It prints Jim Nine, J. E. McDonald, E. Bonilla, F. Marrero, Carolina Vazques, Francis Romero, Mario Lopes, Ysmal Cruz and Jose Campos among fourteen printed names, while claiming fifteen sentenced. These are retained as source variants in the established cohort, without inventing the missing person. E. Bonilla’s initial versus Henry remains unresolved; Marrero’s ten-year figure differs from the later three-year Morrero report, and the magazine’s one-year Romero wording differs from the recorded year-and-day term. Neither conflicting nominal terms nor the article’s eight unnamed deportees are assigned as completed individual service or removal. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n300-NY-dec-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
Joseph Freeman calls her Mama Romero, describes her as a fifty-three-year-old Mexican mother of six, and quotes her account of joining the police wagon after her son Vladimir was seized selling the Daily Worker at the November 7, 1931 Tampa Labor Temple anniversary meeting. The account adds family and arrest circumstances, without changing independently documented trial and release dates. Daily Worker, May 11, 1934, page 5. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n113-may-11-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
Labor Defender, August 1932, printed pages 147 and 158 (PDF pages 8 and 23): Hy Kravif's Our Prisoners Are Well Treated describes harsh conditions for the Tampa labor prisoners. It names Frances Romero, described here as fifty-four and a mother of six, in the overcrowded women's quarters at Raiford. This reported age differs from other rounded contemporary descriptions and is not used to infer a birth date. These treatment allegations remain attributed to the defense magazine and are not measured complete imprisonment totals. The Arthur Maillefert sweatbox death is an example concerning another inmate, not this prisoner's death. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n08-aug-1932-LD.pdf
Hy Kravif's page 6 account places the Tampa anniversary-meeting prisoners at Raiford. Its one-year list prints Frances Romero, Carolina Vasquez, Felix Morero, Felix Rodriguez, Mario Lopez, Jose Hevia and Jose Campo; it separately prints ten years for J. E. McDonald and three for Cesario Alvarez. These are the article's imposed-term assertions, not completed service. Its February 1 trial date differs from the later January 19 sentencing list and does not override existing dates. Morero is retained as a source spelling in the established cohort; conflicting term figures are preserved without changing verified later outcomes. The account alleges police, Klan and Legionnaires attacked the November 7, 1931 gathering and that seven defendants were not individually mentioned at trial. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n169-NY-jul-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf
The pamphlet's pages 4-7 describe the November 7, 1931 Labor Temple arrests and January prosecution on assault-with-intent-to-murder Officer Byrd and simple assault on Officer Wilson. It alleges guilt was presumed from presence and anti-Communist and anti-integration questioning replaced individual proof. The page 7 sentence groups are ten years for Jim Nine, Lezama, Bonilla and McDonald, three for Alvarez and Marrero, and one for the other defendants. These are imposed-term assertions; the fifteen-person/fifty-three-year account and prior fourteen-person/fifty-seven-year reports remain source discrepancies. Page 6 identifies Francisca Romero Palacios and her daughter Carolina Vazquez, the latter a mother whose youngest child was one. The assertion that Romero was Ricardo Flores Magon's widow requires further corroboration and is retained as the pamphlet's claim. Page 9 says the nine one-year defendants had completed their terms in January, with the two women exempted from subsequent deportation. That generalized chronology differs from the independently documented December 21, 1932 release of these women and does not overwrite it. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/pamphlets/tampa-terror.pdf
Joseph Freeman's page 7 Tampa installment identifies Mama Romero and her oldest daughter Carolina as held two months before a trial it dates January 2, 1932, then given a year and a day at Raiford and actually released December 21, 1932. Its January 2 trial date does not replace the separately reported January 19 sentencing date. It describes racial and political bias, exclusion of Yorkina's testimony after she affirmed rather than swore by God, separation from relatives, inadequate food, sewing twelve pairs of prison pants daily and a successful boycott of chapel. It quotes Captain Dobbs saying they had been framed. These are Freeman's attributed interview claims. The nearly-year prison phrase excludes the prior county-jail detention and is not a replacement for the documented total custody interval. Carolina is the established Caroline Vasquez, not a new Romero profile. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n114-may-12-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The January 16, 1932 report individually names the sixteen workers actually arrested November 7, 1931 at the Tampa anniversary meeting after a police and American Legion attack. It reports criminal-syndicalism, inciting-to-riot and unlawful-assembly proceedings and a federal injunction. The January trial was ongoing; no exact physical discharge, individual final sentence or completed duration is established. Daily Worker, January 16, 1932, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n014-NY-jan-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Contemporary Tampa pamphlet and source discrepancies
Anita Brenner and S. S. Winthrop’s Tampa’s Reign of Terror, issued by the International Labor Defense New York District and discussing events through March 1933, names Francisca Romero Palacios and her daughter Carolina Vazquez among the November 7, 1931 Tampa defendants (pp. 6–9). These correspond to the aliases already identified here. The pamphlet inaccurately calls Francisca the widow of Ricardo Flores Magon; that relationship is not adopted. It also says the nine one-year prisoners completed their terms in January, which conflicts with the stronger December 21, 1932 release evidence already recorded for Frances and Caroline. The pamphlet supplies no independent exact admission, sentencing or release day. Existing custody dates remain unchanged.
Source: Tampa’s Reign of Terror, pp. 6–9. Statements and allegations are attributed to this contemporary advocacy source.
Labor Defender, August 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 16, 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, May 12, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The reporter says he personally saw Frances Romero at Raiford, in good spirits, sending greetings. The article calls her a mother of eight, whereas other biographical records give six; the conflicting count is retained without inventing children or overriding the later documented December21 release.
