Rosanna Piazza aka Rosa Rios aka Rose Liberté grew up in the Black Ghetto of Omaha, Nebraska, where her mother was active in NAACP and Civil Rights during the '60's while a Nurse at the School for deaf, dumb and blind children. Rosanna grew up in a Liberal Unitarian household while also receiving Catholicism from her Italian grandmother.
She met Martin Luther King in Chicago, 1967 at the National Convention for New Politics when he was running for Vice President, and Robert Kennedy a few months before his assassination in March 1968 at his campaign speech at Nebraska University. In High School, she and her best friend organized a Human Relations Club, and she was chosen to serve as Vice-president on the Mayor's Youth Committee in Omaha in the wake of the Chicago Riots and explosive rioting following a rally for George Wallace (summer 1968). She became involved in Antiwar Protests in Lawrence, Kansas, having petitions signed to end the War in Viet Nam. (Kansas U.)
In 1969 she relocated to Santa Barbara, California where Antiwar protests and demonstrations escalated so that she dropped out of UCSB (Honor's Hall) and lived in Haight-Ashbury/Berkeley area till 1970, involved in Anti War Protests at People's Park and Marching against the War across the Bay Bridge with 1/2 million people.
She was involved in organic gardening and
health foods, and on a spiritual quest that led her thru Roman Catholicism,
Meher Baba, Bahai World Faith, Sai Baba, Baba Muktananda, SRF (Yogananda),
Ananda Marga, Satchitananda, Yoga, Summit Lighthouse, Brotherhood of the
Sun, Hare Krishna, Buddhism (studying under monk Miyuki), Nicheren Shoshu
Buddhism, Gnosticism, Essene Gospels, Mystic Christianity and
Vedanta, Liberal Catholicism, Vajrana Buddhism
(Nyingma Tradition), Tara Dances,
Dances of Universal Peace, Sikh followers of Kirpal Singh, Church
Universal and Temple of the Presence, Theosophy, Unity Church, Art of Living
(Sri Sri Ravi Shankar). She celebrates the Universal path of LOVE
under all denominations, creeds, sects, paradigms, etc.
In 1972 she married Pennell Spencer, a black surrealist artist (follower of Dali) from Warren, Ohio whom she met in Kenneth Rexroth (beat poet's) class in Creative Studies. From 1975 to present she has been raising her "rainbow family" of six multiracial children, Madeleine Therese (now 25), Adrian Sanctus (23) Air Force Sergeant, Aurora Bliss (now Arotika, a Hare Krishna devotee), Angelica Rose (19), Marissa Paloma (15) and Corazon Raquel (14),as a mother against War and a mother against genetic engineering of foods. They lived around the U.S., up and down the coast of California, Little Rock, AK, Topeka, KS, Rock Island, IL, St. Louis, Mo., Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Honolulu, Hawaii.
In 1976 Rosanna's poetry was published in the Liberal Catholic UBIQUE and she was called the Poet Laureate of the Liberal Catholic Church (LCC). A volume of her poetry "THE MAGICAL MYSTICAL MIRACLE IN WHICH WE LIVE" was self published by her husband Artist Pennell Spencer, Illustrator.
In 1980, Rosanna moved to L.A. and began working as a Bilingual (Spanish/English) Legal Secretary for San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services in Van Nuys and Pacoima, where she was newletter editor of bilingual legal notices. She was accepted to study Law and People's College of Law, but moved back to Santa Barbara again working for Tax Attorney Tomas Castelo and marrying Pedro Rios of Sinaloa Mexico. From 1981 to 1989, Rosanna assisted the Latino community of Santa Barbara County with the translation and filling out of government forms, from unemployment, tax returns, disability, Workman's Comp, Medical insurance, welfare documents, immigration documents, and also worked as Biligual Spanish/English Counselor/ Client Advocate for the Battered Women's Network (Shelter Services,Inc.) from 1984-89, helping to produce a Spanish Video for public T.V. about the cycle of Violence. She also worked as a Counselor for the Developmentally Disabled, Cerebral Palsy Victims, Emotionally Disturbed children, and contributed to Special Travel for Special Olympics.
A Religious studies scholar (as a hobby) she obtained her BA in Psychology (Cognitive Psych) and BA in Sociology (Social Welfare/Social Psychology) in 1987. Her favorite professor Richard "Dick" Flacks was one of the organizers of S.D.S.(Students for a Democratic Society), friend of Tom Hayden. She was accepted into UCSB Sociology Department's, Ph.D. program, but after two years towards her M.A. thesis she took a leave of absence due to stress as a single mother and moved to Montana.
In 1992, Rosanna's poetry was published in the Montana Poet and Montana Arts Council's Newsletter. She was Newsletter Editor for the Performing Arts Center Group.
In 1993, Rosanna started THE VENUS FOUNDATION, an Art Gallery and Children in the Arts program for Children at Risk, coordinating Bozeman United Artists to teach classes in their varied hands-on arts to children. It was also a network promoting the interconnection of poets, artists and musicians to work together, and received a small grant from a United Way Children's Organization.
At various times she spent months in Mexico,
learning from the poverty in various Colonias without running water, bare
dirt floors, living on beans and tortillas. From her experiences in Tijuana,Mexicali,
Ensenada and all through Mexico to Guatemala, Rosanna has learned
to live simply. She also spent several summers living
outdoors in nature, and has a deep appreciation
and love of nature.
She became a member of Natural Law Party
in 1994 as a meditator, and due to her deep commitment to the preservation
of nature, slow growth, and living in harmony with spirit and nature,
organic gardening, alternative energy, alternative healing, and sustainable
agriculture, causes supported by the Natural Law Party, as well as her
deep commitment to creative conflict
involving the mediation of various sides
of the issues, instead of warfare, synchronizing and utilizing the best
of both parties.In 1998 she won 2% of the vote as Senate District 14 Candidate
and in 2000 she went to the primaries as Candidate for Clerk of Montana
Supreme Court. Her campaign was endorsed by Montana Conservation Voters.
She is a member of the local community food coop and worked as Secretary on a neighborhood group to Save Open Spaces (SOS).
She is presently running Topnotch Secretarial Services out of her home doing desktop publishing, typing legal and medical papers, legal transcription, academic papers and manuscripts, working as a 24 hour notary public.
Rose wrote a story entitled Advent of the Butterfly Rainbow Millennium. See it at www.woodstocknation.org/advent.htm
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