VALENTINA âValâ CASTILLO / 27 YEARS OLD / STAFF AT CATWALK CLOTHING / THE BAY
Valentina âValâ Castillo.
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS:
Val rents a house down by the Bay using some of the money her group roped in with all the albums and tickets they sold in the years they were together. She brought her pet with her when she moved, a Dalmatian named Dixie, but other than that she has the medium-sized house all to herself. She definitely doesnât mind the solitude though, instead finding comfort in the fact that nobody lives with her.
Valentina Castillo â a girl of Mexican descent more commonly referred to as Val â lost herself in music when she was just a little girl growing up in North Carolina. She listened to some of her parentsâ old vinyl and completely fell in love with classic rock, much to the joy of her father, a man whoâd spent half of his childhood playing bass in a small town band and worshipping the members of Foreigner. As she grew up, it was clear to everyone who knew her that becoming the frontwoman of her own group was her destiny. She had the voice, the talent, and the attitude to be perfect for the position. And when she was sixteen, that dream became a reality as she rounded up three of her best friends in high school and formed a band.
They started out covering their favorite songs from the nineties, but by the time Val turned eighteen, she was writing music of her very own. Her father was almost as enthusiastic as she was and acted as their manager, landing them plenty of gigs in local venues. Their sound was inspired by all of those vinyl records sheâd listened to as a kid: a dirty, bluesy rock, just the way Val liked it. When she was just twenty years old, her group was signed by a record label called Roc Nation, and she began writing songs fit for their first EP shortly after.
Everything was perfect for a long time. Their EP was released a year after they were signed, and their debut album came out just two years after that. Val was a twenty-three-year-old woman whose dream of singing in her own rock band had come true. Their band, named Valentina since it was her initial idea to form and her creativity that kept them going, toured with some of the biggest names in rock. They opened for Fall Out Boy, Halestorm, The Black Keys, and by the time they released their second album when Val was twenty-six, their fanbase had become big enough that they could start talking about their own American headlining tour.
Behind the scenes of their second albumâs blossoming success, however, Val struggled to keep it together under the stress of a recent traumatic experience. At the after party for one of their last tours, the man in charge of their merchandise sales â someone she considered to be a close friend â took advantage of her after she consumed a little too much whiskey that night. She woke up the next morning blaming herself for the rape. She knew she was naturally flirtatious and her music and stage presence held no shortage of sex appeal, but she never expected someone in her own crew to violate her like that. Val had trouble sleeping for weeks after the assault, and she had to pile on makeup to hide the bruises on her neck and body that had been left behind. Performing the last few shows on that tour took a tremendous effort, as she kept thinking of the fact that her attacker was busy selling t-shirts with her name scrawled across the front while she was up on stage.
Once it was over and the last show had been played, she got to spend some time away from him in between that tour and the release party for their second album. Nobody in the band, the rest of the crew, or the label knew about what had happened, since she was too afraid to come forward. Valentina didnât want to be the center of a scandal and she didnât want other people to blame her like she already blamed herself. But most of all, she didnât want to be labeled as a victim or a survivor or any of the other terrifying words she knew would get tossed around once people found out.
The attack had been violent, shocking, and more traumatic than she would have expected since it had been carried out by someone she trusted. As her bandmates and her crew buzzed with excitement over the prospect of their first headliner, she observed it all in silence, knowing she didnât have it in her to travel across the country when she wasnât even able to look at herself in a mirror or write new content anymore.
Eventually she cracked one day, coming clean about the rape to her bandmates and the label so that they would understand why she was requesting they go on a hiatus for a while. She didnât tell them it was their merch guy who did it or when it all went down, only providing them with the bare details. Although the rest of the band was all very excited to go on tour in the fall, they each accepted the fact that she needed some time away to clear her head and come to terms with what had happened, so they let her go. She moved to Harpoole Bay just before her twenty-seventh birthday to try to find herself again mere months after the assault.
It had always been her dream to be in a successful rock band of her own, and just as she was achieving that, her muse and passion for the music and for her lifestyle was destroyed by a single selfish man. Valentina moved so that she could figure out a way to move on and surround herself by new people â and most of all, so that she could find her way back to writing music again. She knew that she needed a fresh start if she ever had any hope of going back to America and picking up where her self-titled band had left off.
Valentina has always had the heart of a rockstar. Sheâs got a strong personality, meaning she is unafraid to speak her mind or stand up for other people. Her body-confidence used to be outstanding â she used to flirt with everyone and wear the skimpiest outfits she could find, but ever since the attack, sheâs become more conservative and generally more shy with showing off her body. She also has grown a lot more cynical and hasnât been able to be intimate with anyone since she was assaulted back in the beginning of the year. Overall, on the outside, Valentina is a friendly, stubborn, loud woman who can get a little sassy at times but usually has the best of intentions. And even though she is fighting every day to triumph over the recurring nightmares and the PTSD, she wonât let anyone see how vulnerable she really is just beneath the surface.
FACE CLAIM: Emeraude Toubia â MUN: Ria, EST, 18, She/Her
