Dramatic.
That’s the only word you can use to describe the journey and transformation of Nashville business woman Eva Angelina Romero.
Romero, who is the broker/owner of Century 21 Capital Properties and co-owner with her husband Dr. Jaime Romero of Solace Oral Surgery and Implant Center, has overcome a difficult upbringing and personal trials to become a community leader and personal role model.
In everything, Romero said that faith is the bedrock of the transformation she’s experienced.
Humble Beginnings
Born the daughter of Mexican immigrants and raised in Los Angeles, California, she was the first in her family to graduate from high school and attend college. Raised by a single mother of five girls, Eva’s early life was marked by hardship, instability, and cycles of abuse.
At just 14-years-old, her mother arranged for her to be married to a man 12 years her senior. By 16, she was a young mother herself, struggling with depression and searching for identity and purpose.
After excelling in high school and then college, she first dreamed of being a lawyer–then found a passion for entrepreneurship.
Of her journey, Romero said that she’s full of gratitude for everything she’s accomplished, knowing that her life today is what she once only imagined.
“God is super faithful,” she said. “A lot of the things I visualized in my mind have become a reality. Years ago, I never thought I was worthy, but God took care of me.”
“Sometimes it almost feels like that was another person,” she said of her early years.
Romero became a teacher in Los Angeles after college, and then saw her marriage begin to deteriorate. Suddenly a single mom, she worked hard to raise her daughter on her own.
“I was going through that life change and I knew I was going to leave the relationship. I got into real estate at that time,” she said. “In the middle of selling one of my first investments with my ex-husband, the agent helped me navigate the sale. He saw my potential.”
She shadowed the agent and helped fill a need he had for a bi-lingual agent. Because of financial struggles, she began real estate work on a part-time basis and began imagining a potential new profession. She ultimately began her career in 2007, just before the stock market crash.
While working part-time in California, she also visualized how the new career could affect people’s lives.
“I was really inspired by the work he [the agent] was doing,” Romero said. “It wasn’t just sales. He was helping people, especially first-generation owners.”
That belief in service to others ultimately became the primary component of her professional life years later in Nashville.
A Faith Transformation
While Romero’s personal life was changing, so was her spiritual life.
Raised Catholic, she always considered faith an integral part of her life; still, she didn’t truly experience a relationship with Christ on a personal level.
After getting married and having a baby so young, Romero began experiencing depression–and didn’t know where to turn. She remembers feeling lost and confused, wondering what her purpose was and where her life was headed.
She visited her uncle’s Pentecostal church and found hope through its message of a personal spirituality; she knew that it was what she needed.
“I had reached a level of depression that I felt really lost. I was desperate to feel something other than the sadness,” she said, “but I knew that there had to be something more.”
She still remembers a moment in church when she began to sob and then felt the pain slowly leave her body. She immediately knew that there was something bigger than her pain.
“In 2017, I was born again and baptized,” she recalled. “It changed my life, and helped me focus on something other than myself. I knew that something was bigger than me, something was bigger than my pain. I reconnected with God, and have learned so much on this journey.”
She began reading Christian books, found a new sense of community, and began rediscovering the Bible. In Scripture, she found the verse that his been her guiding one throughout her Christian walk.
“Jeremiah 29:11 has always been my verse,” she said. “I know that God wants something better for all of us. That knowing it’s not just about me, and that there’s a greater good even when you go through trials. that knowledge that we’re not alone has led me to live with purpose.”
“That purpose, along with my faith, has kept me moving.”
Making Nashville Home
After her divorce, Romero navigated life with her young daughter–struggling, but also learning valuable professional and spiritual lessons–and then met and fell in love with Jaime while still living in Los Angeles and he was in school for his oral surgery residency. As a teenager he’d visited Nashville and he still had meaningful memories about his time there.
“He said, ‘I want you to come see Tennessee,” she said. “That was in 2010, and we both fell in love with it. We felt like it was home.”
Even though they both had to start over with new businesses, they moved to the Nashville area and have never looked back.
She received her Tennessee broker license and began working part-time while they both launched and opened Solace Implant Center and Oral Surgery in 2013. Through those two processes, the Romeros made history–Jaime as the first Latino Latino Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon in Nashville, and Eva as the first Latino franchise owner at Century 21.
At the same time that they were building their professions, they began building and raising their own family.
Together they have five children ranging in age from 29 down to 3 ½.
“It’s such a blessing to have this little one. Sometimes he feels like a grandchild, because I had my first at a young age,” Romero laughed.. “But we love having him together and he blesses our lives as all our kids do in different ways.” “Our kids adore him. “
In Nashville, Romero leans into the purpose she discovered as a new Christian back in California; she believes that there’s a bigger purpose in her work, and she strives to do everything possible to serve her community.
She is the founding president of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) Nashville, and serves on the National NAHREP Board of Directors, Greater Nashville REALTORS, the American Red Cross, ELLA, and the TLAF Foundation; she was appointed by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee as a Commissioner for the Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA). This year, she was also accepted into two prestigious programs: Stanford University’s Latino Business Action Network (LBAN) Executive Program and Leadership Nashville.
She’s also currently working on launching her own nonprofit called Project Shine, which will work to provide people with medical resources to improve their daily, everyday lives. “For example, dental service is so expensive and there’s a need for that,” she said. “We want to be able to provide both preventative and restorative services.When a person can smile confidently, they often have more hope.”
And as a real estate and investment professional, Romero has a passion for helping people find affordable housing; she especially loves helping Hispanic families and individuals become first-time home owners and investors.
She said that the Nashville area–including Franklin, where she’s based professionally–is one that gives homeowners affordable opportunities, but there needs to be more. “The real estate market in Nashville provides a lot of opportunities,” she said, “but I really believe that everyone has the right to own their own home at some point. We need affordable housing for that.”
Romero has recently started a new endeavor that’s given her the chance to spotlight the town and area she loves so much; as one of the new hosts of “American Dream Selling Nashville” (which is produced by HGTV and can be watched on a variety of streaming platforms), she features real estate but other local people and organizations that are impressive to her.
“It features real estate and lifestyle, but also nonprofits and business owners in Nashville,” she said. “It’s a great way to tell people about Nashville, and to let them know how great it is.”
She’s also working on a book that she hopes to release next year which chronicles her journey as a business owner and Christian. It takes readers back to her humble beginnings and traces the challenges she’s had along the way.
She prays that it–and her entire life story–can encourage others.
“I want people to learn from my resilience,” she said. “I want people to know that God can give you the power to live the life you desire. You just have to trust him.”
cherylswray@gmail.com, Author, Freelance Writer, Speaker, “This is my story”.
