Carmen Romano Nölck (1926-2000) was first lady of Mexico being the wife of President José López Portillo, in the period that spanned from 1976 to 1982. She stood out for being a great cultural manager who achieved important advances in terms of the creation of artistic institutions, as well as its diffusion to all corners of the country.
However, in Mexican popular culture she is known for leading a life of luxury and extravagant requirements that always gave people something to talk about. Mainly because of their magnitude and high cost, generating a lot of controversy because they were requested during the presidential tours that she carried out with her husband.
At the same time, she was a woman very concerned about her image, always wearing striking clothes and makeup that made her always be on the lips of public opinion..
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Daughter of Alfonso Romano -a high-ranking businessman from the Ford automobile company- and Margarita Nölck, an opera singer from Caracas, Carmen was born on February 10, 1926 in Mexico City, where her parents had finally settled after have lived in the United States, Guatemala and Germany.
His family cultural mix is very diverse, as Romano is of French, Venezuelan, German, Italian and Spanish descent..
As a result of the musical talent inherited from her mother, she trained as a concert performer since she was little, studies that she complemented with piano master classes that she received from great European interpreters.
After becoming a musician, he traveled to Europe to develop as a soloist, but became seriously ill and could not carry out his promising career.
Back in Mexico, she abandoned her dream of dedicating herself completely to playing the piano - although she kept it as her main recreational activity that she carried out on a daily basis - and found a new professional passion as an architect and infrastructure designer, a task that materialized to the point that came to build his own home.
At the age of 25 she married José López Portillo, whom she knew from an early age as he was her neighbor. They both settled in Mexico City and had three children: José Ramón, Carmen and Paulina.
Her husband's first political position was Secretary of the Treasury and Public Credit, which Carmen faithfully accompanied as a volunteer in family development programs, a job that years later she would gestate at the official level from the presidential office..
As a PRI candidate, López Portillo won the 1976 elections. Thus, Carmen Romano became the new first lady of Mexico, a position she would occupy throughout the presidential term that ended in 1982..
Already settled in Los Pinos, the Mexican presidential residence, Carmen Romano and López Portillo were sentimentally separated, but legally united in marriage. Work and responsibility that they decided to assume and maintain during the six years of the mandate, sleeping in different rooms and each one sharing a wing of the house with their families.
From her office, the first lady established and created important institutions dedicated to social development in Mexico. In 1977 he founded the National System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF), which was based on promoting the well-being of the people through preventive medicine, nutrition and progress, especially in the most needy areas of the population..
Public social assistance, the dissemination and expansion of cultural programs formed the axis of its work. Managed the creation of the National Fund for Social Activities, intended to finance and organize cultural activities throughout the Mexican region.
Likewise, he promoted the birth of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra and the School of Improvement, Life and Movement, with the aim of training future musicians in the country..
To honor Spanish-speaking writers, starting with Mexicans, he created the Ollin Yoliztli International Literary Award in 1979, which began to become popular years later until it became one of the most important literature awards in Latin America..
He was also in charge of the Technical Committee of the Trust of the Center for Shows, Conventions and Exhibitions of Acapulco, continuing with his tuning in works destined to celebrate, strengthen and promote musical and artistic idiosyncrasy.
Beyond her merits in culture, music and social development, Carmen Romano always attracted the attention of the press and public opinion for her evident life of luxury and eccentricities.
Her reputation as a wasteful of money earned her an incessant chain of rumors, gossip and criticism that she could never rid herself of. The reputation was formed mainly by the stories of his presidential trips, in which he always carried his gigantic grand piano that he had installed in the hotels where he spent his stay as first lady.
One of the episodes that generated the most controversy was when allegedly, during an official visit to Paris, his piano did not fit in the suite and he ordered the wall of the room to be knocked down to enlarge it and thus be able to play his religious daily recital, paying all the expenses of request.
In terms of image, many remember her as a striking character for her style of dress and overloaded makeup at all times. During her trips to Europe, where she went quite frequently, she used to take a tour of the most emblematic places in terms of tourism, being also a recognized client of the most exclusive jewelers on the continent.
He was very often seen in the most expensive and prestigious luxury restaurants, where he ordered whatever he wanted, even if it was not on the menu. On the presidential plane, she also traveled loaded with enough desserts to supply the days that she would be out of the country, since she would not get them at her destination..
And when he went shopping in stores in the United States and Mexico, Romano had the doors of the stores closed so that he had full freedom to take everything he wanted without limitations or people around.
But transcending the semblance of luxury and monetary waste, his great talent as a pianist and the incessant work for art, culture and music always highlighting the values of Mexico, are facts that will accompany his memory forever..
Carmen Romano died on May 9, 2000 in Mexico City, at the age of 74..
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