Name
Daniela Nicole Castillo
God is My Judge | Victory of the People | Castle

Province
Uplana

Age
24

Gender
Cisfemale

Faceclaim
Leslie Grace

Personality
ENTJ-A | The Commander
Extraverted • Intuitive • Thinking • Judging • Assertive
They are decisive people who love momentum and accomplishment. They gather information to construct their creative visions but rarely hesitate for long before acting on them.
Dani proved herself independent in more than one way before the age of three, running from her parents and generally making a nuisance of herself to the abuelos and abuelas in the barrio. She hated taking instruction from others, a trait that she never truly outgrew. God will judge her one day for her disobedience, but for now, she intends upon making her mark upon the world. However, she does possess a talent for seeing the strengths in others along with the ability to envision outside the box, making her an ideal leader and elementary teacher. Her rebellious streak never quite faded either, but for the most part, she keeps it in check. Most importantly, she possesses an abundance of self-confidence and assurance that she used to lack. She knows who she is, where she is from, and she is not ashamed of it in the least.

Background
Born on March 22, the older of two twins, to a Dominican papá and a Honduran mamá in a little barrio at the heart of Uplana, it is no surprise to hear that Daniela never quite knew where she belonged. Was she Dominican? Was she Honduran? Was she an Uplanan? This posed a question that she set out to answer. The barrio served as the petri dish for her experiments. The abuelitas and the tías who raised her filled in the rest. Abuelita, nana, was her name for any older woman who raised her, regardless of blood relation—although Abuela Lidia, her mamá's mamá, took the top spot in Dani's heart. She grew up alongside many other primos who wanted to know the same answer as her.
¿Quién soy yo?
Who am I?
Along the way, they learned where to find the best raspado—at the corner of 183rd and Mardella—how best to cool down on a summer evening—bust open a fire hydrant with a wrench—and (Dani's personal favorite) who told the best stories—Tía Rosita spun endless yarns of historia that captivated them for hours. Tales of faraway places where their mamás and papás and abuelas and abuelos grew up. Tales of Vega Alta and Havana and Punta Cana. Dani could listen to her for days without taking a break, and Tía's tales lit a spark in her storytelling blood.
As Tía Elena often told her:
¡Ay, muchacha! ¡Tienes historias en la sangre! ¡Usarlos!
It was true. After all, los músicos told stories through song, and Tía Catalina wrote traditional books for a living. Dani knew she was meant to tell stories. Her story, stories of her block and the barrio, stories to make el mundo understand.
But Papá wanted differently. Mija, you do not want to end up pobre. Pobre, poor, the word that drove so many of the barrio's familias to Uplana in search of a better life for themselves, for their children. So she went to school. She excelled in her classes. And when the time came, she applied to five universidades. If she could not perform it, she would teach it. All five accepted her, but only two offered her full-ride academic scholarships, and she left the barrio for the first time in her eighteen years, heading west.
It took leaving home for her to truly understand her Tía Elena's courage, to leave Honduras with nothing but a bag and her guitarra, searching for a better way to provide for the familia. But it was that same journey, to a place where she found herself surrounded by people who looked nothing like her, who lived ignorant of the joys of raspado and huge family dinners and the community of a barrio, that taught her who she was.
Me llamo Daniela Nicole Castillo.
My name is Dani.
Soy Dominican-Honduran.
I am American.
Soy ambos.
I am both.
Leaving did not mean surrendering her heritage. It only meant expanding it, and expand it she did. While at school, she picked up a TESOL certification, and when she returned home, she began after-hours tutoring at an inner-city school. After graduation, she applied for and received a position at the school, substituting and then truly teaching her favorite subject. Though she continued composing her own canciones, she hid it and allowed her familia to believe her sole focus was the school.

Other
~~~ Nicknames ~~~
•Dani
God Judges
[anyone]
•Chiquita
Little Girl
[close elders, ie: parents, grandparents, aunts]
•Tramposa
Trickster
[twin brother]
~~~ Family ~~~
Castillo
Castle
•Mamá, age 50: Mariana Isabel Castillo
Of the Sea | God is Perfection
•Papá, age 51: Juan Amar Castillo
God is Gracious | Long Life
•Hermano, age 24: Amar Leandro Castillo
Long Life | Lion-Man
•Hermano, age 19: Luis Dejan Castillo
Warrior | God is Reconciling
~~~ Quotes ~~~
•I'm young, but I'm not dumb.
•¡Ay, no!
•Let the music speak.
•¡Dios mío, chica!
~~~ Theme Songs ~~~
•Carnaval del Barrio by In the Heights Original Broadway Cast
¡Alza la bandera, la bandera Dominicana!
•Breathe by Leslie Grace
As the radio plays old forgotten boleros I think of the days when this city was mine
•Who I Am by Jessica Andrews
I'm gonna be just fine 'cause I know exactly who I am
~~~ Skills ~~~
•bilingual
English | Spanish
•musicianship
flute | piccolo | clarinet | violin | viola | ukulele | voice | piano | guitar

Passwords
Integrated into the form.
Let me know if you can't find them!

Tags
I did this the first time in the book... Since there's no more spots, is this needed?