Cha Cha Romero: Fashion Artist and ER Nurse

The Colorado fashion industry is continuing to grow, and Cha Cha Romero could not be more thrilled to be a part of it. 

As the creator of Vanity Dollz and Boi Femme productions, Romero is well-known for creating unique fashion and makeup styles, entertaining burlesque performances, and stunning, queer events. Unfortunately, her creativity had to be put on pause. When not working on artistic projects, Romero is an emergency room/trauma nurse who has been working non-stop on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The struggles and challenges due to these unprecedented times has left Romero mentally and physically drained. 

Romero took some time to chat with OFM about working in the medical field and how she uses her creative platforms to cope with her job. 

You are an emergency room nurse who has been on the frontlines during COVID. From a firsthand point of view, can you tell us what that experience has been like?
If I could describe it, I can say that I absolutely identify with the military going into war. I feel like we were completely trained and prepared to handle situations, but we were not prepared for what was about to happen. For the supplies to run out, the amount of deaths that we have seen, the mental collapse of your co-workers, or even death of your co-workers from COVID. This past year and a few months have definitely been trying, and something I can identify with the military.

Is the ER as bad today as it was a year ago?
I think a year ago, people were scared to go anywhere out and about. Now, we are extremely busy. Busier that we have been in a very long time.

How has this affected your own mental health and well-being?
Aside from having to go through this, you also have to maintain your personal life. A lot of things were going on in my personal life that I had to push aside in order to just get up and do what I had to do every day at work. I had to focus my energy and redirect my energy into going to work. If anything offset that, it was complete chaos for me. 

When you first heard about COVID, what was going through your mind? Did you foresee us going into a global pandemic?
I think the training that we get prepares us, and we knew eventually that something like this would happen. Did I think it was going to happen in 2020? No. Did I think it would ever happen in my lifetime? I thought it may be possible. I think because it hit so hard, and our own government was not preparing us in a way they should have as far as information and knowledge when it was actually taking place, I think workers were terrified because we were watching our own die. 

We kept hearing about doctors and nurses dying in New York, and we were told we should probably talk to our loved one about what our wishes would be if something were to happen to us. Having that conversation with my father was probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. Saying this is how I would like to go; this is what I would like to have done. It was hard for him and the rest of my family to hear that, but we were all terrified with the fact that we did not have appropriate PPE equipment. We did not have proper masks; we had masks that felt like toilet paper, and I think we were just all terrified that we were not going to make it through. 

What did you do to take a breather and some time for yourself?
I don’t really know what that’s like [laughs]. We have been going balls to the walls ever since. I have been in the medical field for quite some time, and I have never been tired after shifts. It is not only mentally exhausting, but physically exhausting. All the gear that we have to wear just to protect ourselves throughout the entire shift is wearing. You are not really getting a lot of good oxygen when you are wearing an N95, plus a shield, plus a gown, and goggles. I am thankful that I have all of those things now, but in the beginning, we did not. My dad went to all of his neighbors asking them to check their garages for any N95s so he can give them to me. He was so worried about me. I am thankful that I have family and friends that were dropping things off at my porch. Gloves, masks, N95s, things like that to ensure my own safety, which I was sharing with my co-workers. Because I do design work on the side, I started the Colorado Mask Making Mafia, and we started sewing cloth masks. 

What made you want to become an ER nurse?
I always wanted to be a nurse since I was four. I was fascinated with science and with the human body and how it worked. I have always been the type of person who cares. My personality, I have a very caring heart and am always taking care of people. I was just fascinated with medicine at a very young age, so I was like, do I want to be an MD or a nurse? I felt like nurses did so much, and even during the war time, the nurses were the ones keeping the soldiers healthy and changing their bandages. I looked up to nurses, so I decided that is what I wanted to be, and trauma/emergency medicine is what I wanted to do. I feel like I am not a typical trauma/emergency medical person where they are adrenaline junkies. Some of them are. I just like the fact that I am constantly being challenged. I am seeing new things that I have never seen before and it keeps my clinical and critical thinking skills up to par. I cannot explain what it feels like to be able to give somebody their life back. You are giving them that second opportunity to live. 

For those who would like to pursue nursing, what advice can you offer? More so, what kind of mindset should one have?
Passion is the biggest thing if you are going to go into medicine. Whether you be a doctor, a PA, a nurse, you have to have compassion, understanding, and a caring heart. You do not get into medicine because of money. I can promise that you are paying most of that back to your student debit, and we are not paid a lot of money for what we do. You must have passion for humans and want to care for somebody. You can make life better for them. So, you must understand that you need to have that type of personality.

You also juggle another career as the creator of Vanity Dollz and Boi Femme. What can you tell us about them?
This is more of a fashion platform, and the burlesque and performance, part of my life. I do a lot of makeup and fashion shows, then I was producing a lot of burlesque shows. That all kind of fell on Vanity Dollz. I came up with that name because I have a love for retro lifestyle from the 40s and 50s, and watching my grandmother sit at her vanity getting all dolled up is how I came up with that concept. I wanted to just empower men, women, whoever wanted to be a part of fashion, retro lifestyle, and burlesque. 

Through that and over the years, I had a lot of people in the queer community come to me wanting me to produce genderfluid events. That led me to creating Boi Femme productions. I created that with my friend Ty, who is nonbinary, and we do a lot of gender-fluid events here in Colorado for Pride and other big events throughout the year. 

You say you use your creative platform to cope with your job as a nurse. How so?
There are different levels of nursing. Care nurses, such as ICU nurses and emergency room nurses, tend to endure a lot more than some of the other nurses. I would probably even put hospice nurses in that because they are helping people. So, you absorb all that energy from people who are dying or suffered tragic events in their life. Let’s just take the energy that I am holding onto and forward it into something positive and creative. That really helps offset so I can handle what I do on a day-to-day basis. Some people play guitar, some people sing, this is what I do.

Like the medical field, have you always had a passion for art and fashion?
Yes. Ever since I was little, I would cut off all my Barbie’s hair and color it with different colors. I was constantly sewing different clothes for them, using markers and ink pens to put makeup and things on their face. I think it was when I was nine when my mom realized that I had this talent and gift, so she had me start putting makeup on her. I think I was 16 when I participated in my first fashion show. Then when I went through nursing school, I obviously took a whole hiatus from doing anything creative because I had to focus on that. I picked it back up and have been a huge part of the fashion community here in Denver. I have done my own segments for 303 Magazine, I won twice in a row back-to-back ‘Makeup Artist of the Year’ for 303 Magazine, I have done commercials, magazines, and I just really love creating something pleasing for the eye. Things that people can wear. Again, I feel like fashion, makeup, even performance is empowering other people to really just live their truth and be who they want to be without caring. 

Now that the country is slowly but surely reopening, do you have any queer events, burlesque performances, or fashion shows coming up?
I am not planning anything just yet because I want to see where we are at and make sure whatever I can possibly do will be safely done. We are thinking about doing a soft Pride event if things are good by that time, but I am doing several fashion projects where we are creating. I have a whole team of friends and other designers that I work with in Colorado creating looks for some photoshoots. So, those are coming up, but as far as events, I have not planned anything because I think we are still kind of on hold until things open up a little bit more. 

What more do you hope to accomplish with your platform?
I think coming out of this for everybody, I hope to give people a piece of remembering who we are as humans and the enjoyment that we can have when we have a good time together at events. We have not had that in so long. I just want to make people smile and have fun.

*Feature image by Sheila Broderick Couture of models Sinna-G and Lakota, concept and styling by Cha Cha Romero

Stay up-to-date with Romero by following her on Facebook (Cha Cha Romero) and Instagram (@vanitydollz, @boifemmeproductions).