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Paloma Soto-Castillo

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Kogs:


Biography
Paloma Soto-Castillo (24)
Hometown: Downey, California
Occupation: Student

Paloma Soto-Castillo has been playing the social game her entire life, one of the skills necessary to succeed in the game of SURVIVOR. Her parents were both missionaries, causing her to move around a lot during her childhood. Growing up with this lifestyle taught her to adapt to any environment and she became a stronger person as a result.

Soto-Castillo was born in Chile and lived there for a large part of her life before moving to Tennessee, Virginia and then settling in California. One day, on a whim, she decided to leave everything behind and move to Kenya…alone, without any group or organization. She lived among the natives and wild animals for three months without any support from family and friends or any modern conveniences. After witnessing the people's suffering first-hand, she says it changed her life and she's certain she'll go back and help change their lives. Soto-Castillo is motivated to win SURVIVOR so she can open an orphanage or elementary school for the children of Kenya.

Soto-Catillo has a B.A. in communication studies from California State University, Long Beach and continues to go to school. She is currently working on her single subject teaching credential and works part time as a waitress. Her hobbies include traveling, camping and reading. In her free time, Paloma loves staying competitive and keeping her mind sharp by playing Texas Hold 'Em.

Soto-Castillo is single. She currently lives in Downey, California with her ****zu, Sam. Her birth date is August 24, 1984.

Kogs:
Meet Paloma http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYC1lgyilJU


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puddin:
.....

Texan:
She may have a leg up on living with out since she has done that once.  We will see.

marigold:
An interesting article .... an interview with Paloma:

I don’t think you can compare…the next 39 days to my life outside of it

Paloma Soto-Castillo is a 24-year-old student who has missionary parents, so she’s lived in different places. A year and a half ago, went to Kenya to do volunteer work where she “completely bushed it,” she said. That’d seem like excellent experience, but for a number of reasons, Paloma seems at once to be prepared for the game and not at all.

She was recruited at the Hard Rock Hotel’s Rehab pool party in Las Vegas, and is a student who graduated with a degree in communications last December but is currently working as a waitress and getting ready to return to school. While she has seen past seasons and understands the basic tenets of the game, I’d say she’s among those who know the least about it. While Paloma was pleasant, nice, and thoughtful, she ends up being kind of forgettable.

Paloma likens Survivor to a game like Monopoly and said she’ll “do whatever it takes,” regardless of her faith. Refreshingly, she said she wouldn’t draw any lines in advance of the competition because she doesn’t know what’s coming. “I don’t want to be that person that was interviewed … and then you watch me three months later and say, that girl’s such a hypocrite,” she said.

We talked a lot about that, because Paloma wants to differentiate between her game self and her day-to-day self, she insisted that what happens on the show doesn’t reflect who she is. While that’s not unlike the argument other contestants made, she seemed especially concerned about not being judged for what she does. “The situation is so different you can’t compare it to real life. Like, when I’m lying to someone on the game, I’m not lying because of resentment or things that I harbor inside my heart, it’s because I want to win a million dollars. So it’s completely different. It’s like you’re comparing oranges and apples. I don’t think you can compare this life and the next 39 days to my life outside of it,” Paloma told me.

That ideology works as a guard against accusations of hypocrisy, but at other points during our conversation, she’d also say contradictory or hypocritical things and not be aware of that. “I don’t gamble but I do like to play Texas Hold ‘Em,” she said, saying that she often wins or comes in second during tournaments.

Hypocrisy aside, that’s a skill that could benefit her in the game, except her Survivor strategy seems to be to wait around until everyone has no choice but to give her the $1 million. Paloma plans to “be myself, be low-key, let people bicker at each other, take each other out, be really helpful around camp, try my best during challenges, just be really active but at the same time not be too loud, where they notice, you know. And then, towards the end of the game, once my biggest threats have been taken out by each other, then I can just step up the game and eventually sneak up their somehow,” she said.

And if she does win, she has perhaps the most noble plan of any contestant, planning to give some of it to charity. She’s concerned that if her fellow tribemates learn that, she’ll be voted out because they’ll think, “she’s going to give some of her money to kids in Africa and build a school, so I’m not going to take her,” Paloma said. She also wants to buy a house, go on a vacation, and do other things with the prize.

Link: http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/survivor_gabon/2008_Sep_17_paloma_soto_castillo

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