Romano became active in the movement for Cabo Verde’s independence from Portugal in the 1950s; under threat from Portugal’s secret police, he settled in Natal, in northeast Brazil, in 1962, where he would live for the rest of his life and write his most famous work, Famintos, a touchstone of Cabo Verdean literature that could only be published in Brazil at the time due to censorship. In 1985, he wrote Cem Anos de Literatura Caboverdiana (100 Years of Cabo Verdean Literature), chronicling the major figures of Cabo Verdean literature, including Eugénio Tavares and Ovídio Martins. Romano died in Natal in 2010.