Carlota Castillo, a Dominican US-based media producer and community advocate, has spent her whole life knowing exactly where she comes from.
Her parents were born in the Dominican Republic. So were her grandparents, her great-grandparents, and every generation before them as far back as family memory reaches.
So when a DNA test told her she is 70% Nigerian, she did what any curious, creative person would do: she decided to see how she looked in traditional Nigerian clothing.
“Somehow, I’m 70% Nigerian,” Castillo said in a post that has since captivated her followers and sparked wider conversation about identity, ancestry, and the unexpected stories locked inside our genes.
“It still amazes me because my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and generations before them were all born in the Dominican Republic. DNA has a fascinating way of telling stories that history doesn’t always make obvious.”
View this post on Instagram
The result of that curiosity was a series of striking portraits of Castillo draped in vibrant traditional Nigerian attire—richly patterned fabrics, elegant headwraps, and layered necklaces.
The transformation was more than a costume change. For a woman who has built her career giving a voice to others—first in nearly eight years of service at the Merrimack Valley YMCA, then in local journalism for The Valley Patriot, and now through her own Cold Castle Podcast and Castle Digital Services agency—this was a rare moment of exploring her own voice and heritage.
Castillo, a single mother, launched the Cold Castle Podcast as an educational resource, driven by her experience as the English-speaking go-to for her immigrant family. Her work has always been about connection, whether she is helping small businesses operate more smoothly behind the scenes or amplifying local stories in the Merrimack Valley. But the DNA revelation added an entirely new layer to her own story.
The images, which she shared widely, came with no grand declarations of a new identity, but with genuine wonder. “So, of course, I had to see what I’d look like in traditional Nigerian attire,” she said, “and I absolutely love it.”
The public reaction has been a mix of astonishment, celebration, and a flood of similar stories from others whose DNA results sent them on journeys they never expected.
In an era where home DNA kits have turned millions of people into amateur genealogists, Castillo’s experience is a vivid reminder that ancestry is often far more complex and surprising than the stories we inherit.
For now, she is holding the discovery lightly—a fascinating piece of a much larger puzzle that includes her Dominican roots, her American life, and the work she does every day in her community.
The Nigerian attire hangs in her closet, a colourful bridge between the woman she knew she was and the ancestry she never saw coming.
