Spotlight Story: “If You Feel It, Chase It” A Jemez Man’s Journey of Healing, Strength, and Self-Belief

In the quiet early mornings of 2010, a young man from Jemez Pueblo began showing up at the local fitness center not with a goal, but with a simple intention: to move. “I just took it day by day,” he said. That year, without even realizing it, he lost 40 pounds. It was mostly cardio, not much muscle work, but he felt good. Strong. Alive.

Then, in September 2019, everything changed.

A devastating car accident left him unconscious, waking up days later in a hospital bed, surrounded by family. “It felt like a dream,” he recalled. “I tried to lift my leg and arm, but they were too heavy. I couldn’t believe it happened.” His wife showed him photos of the wreckage firefighters pulling him from the crushed vehicle, airlifted to safety. “I just busted out crying,” he said. “I thought I was never going to walk again.”

The journey back was slow and painful. He spent weeks in the hospital, then rehab, relearning how to move with only one functioning side of his body. A nurse gave him a challenge: if he could get into his wife’s car, he could go home. “That was my motivation,” he said. “First try I did it.”

But going home didn’t mean going back to normal. He couldn’t walk, couldn’t drive, couldn’t play with his kids. “I felt useless,” he admitted. “I started thinking, how am I supposed to be a father and a husband now?”

Therapy at the Senior Center helped him regain mobility, but the emotional weight lingered. He lost his job. COVID hit. Depression crept in. “I was jobless, drinking every day. My highest weight was 280 pounds,” he shared. “I knew my family was getting tired of it.”

Then came the community hunt in November 2024, a moment that would reignite everything.

He joined the hunt with his father, brother, cousins, and godfather. “I was happy to have family involved,” he said. “Usually you don’t get that.” When one of his cousins harvested a bear, they needed help packing it out. The terrain was steep, snowy, and unforgiving. His father told him to stay back. “But he didn’t know my mindset,” he said. “I looked at that mountain and told myself, I think I can make it.”

Step by step, he climbed. “I caught up to my dad halfway. He looked at me and said, ‘I didn’t know you were that strong.” Eventually, he reached the bear. “I looked back at the road and thought, did I just do that?” He smiled. “I felt happy. Relieved. That was the day my motivation started.”

In December, he began working out again not to lose weight, but to rebuild strength. “I didn’t care about losing weight. I just wanted muscle,” he said. He focused on his left side, the one that had been shattered. “I did it before. I can do it again. Just take it day by day.”

He trained hard, lifting weights, doing cardio, and slowly transforming. “I stopped drinking soda. Cut back on alcohol. Started taking creatine and pre-workout. I downloaded fitness apps. I studied workouts on YouTube.”

Then, one day, his wife found an old photo of them in Las Vegas. “I looked at it and said, ‘What the heck!? Give me that picture.’ I taped it in the bathroom. That’s my motivation every day. I don’t want to be that guy anymore.”

Now, he’s playing baseball again. He’s preparing for ceremonial initiations. He’s living the life he thought he’d lost. “It’s been life-changing,” he said. “I used to think I’d never walk again. But here I am.”

His message is simple, but powerful:

“Nothing is impossible if you set your goals. Nothing happens overnight. If you feel it, chase it.”

That quote from the movie Twister has become his mantra. It’s more than words. It’s a way of life. For Maverick Romero it is a Jemez way of life. One rooted in tradition, family, and the belief that healing is possible not just physically, but spiritually.

“I was shown our way of life,” he said. “And I was given the strength to believe not just in our ways, but in myself.”