Pokes: Santana Rodriguez Exclusive Interview w/ CHAMPMAG.COM
Hollywood
CHAMP Magazine
CHAMP: We’ll start off with the name Santana. Is that your real name?
Santana: Actually, (laughs). Not quite. I mean it’s a nickname absolutely. People call me that, but as far as my actual birth name, no it’s not.
CHAMP: How long have you been doing the whole modeling thing for?
Santana: I’ve actually been doing it for about eight years now, and it’s been a really wonderful opportunity, I’ve met so many people who I’ve learned so much from. I’ve had a lot of great of experiences that I think many people dream of having when they get into this business. I’ve definitely been blessed with quite a bit and it’s been a true blessing.
CHAMP: Of course, I love hearing the story of how some models were discovered. It could be you just walking down the street and simply getting discovered, but what was Santana’s story when she actually got approached?
Santana: Well actually, it’s really interesting because I was actually in Buffalo, where I’m originally from, and I couldn’t decide whether to go to LA or New York to pursue the industry. … then what happened was that I submitted to agencies in New York and LA, and landed an interview in both cities. When I came out here it was really ironic. I was walking on the board walk in Venice Beach and I remember they were shooting a commercial on the beach and there were many people on the set. I happened to be walking by, and this gentleman approached me and asked me, “would you like to be apart of our set?” They were filming girls in swimsuits and at the time and I think I had my swimsuit top on with some shorts so they asked me to be a part of that. That was really my first opportunity I landed in a commercial. Just walking by and being recruited into the whole thing. It was a really a great opportunity. During that same trip, I was out here, I met up with a well renowned photographer that wanted to shoot me for Playboy. At the time I wasn’t ready for that. I said no, I didn’t think that was something I wanted to do, and granted there are a lot of photographers that will approach many girls with that, I felt very flattered that it came from someone that was incredibly legitimate and that shot a lot of well known playboy models, but at the time, it was something that I did not go for and was ready for, so I never took that opportunity. He really did get me started into the whole modeling thing.
CHAMP: Definitely. Now what are some of the work people may recognize you from?
Santana: I had two covers back in April of last year out at the same time. One was the cover for a New York magazine, called New York Faces magazine.. You can actually go to the website and I’m on there, and another magazine titled V’ Blazin’ Magazine,. I’ve also been in MMA Magazine, which is a martial arts magazine kinda like UFC style. I’ve probably shot for over 14 different magazines. I’ve been in Oxygen magazine, Oye, Planet Muscle, Lowrider, American Curves just to name a few. It’s been quite a extensive.
CHAMP: Before the modeling thing what were you doing?
Santana: It’s so funny. I was going to school for college in Florida completed my four year degree, and always thought I’d find myself in New York as being apart of the advertising industry. I really thought I would become an executive for let’s say a fashion or cosmetic firm and at the time I said you know what? I’m just going to wing it. I’m young and I’m free, and have no responsibilities. Let me just go for it and fly to Los Angeles and see what opportunities lye out there. So I kind of put things on the backburner in New York and decided to come out here and go for it. I don’t regret any of it. It was a really good decision and I just always said that I never want to be one of those people who look back on my life and say what if? What could’ve happened? I never want to wonder. I think we should all live our lives to the fullest, and if there’s something that you always wanted to do, don’t be afraid of failure, just go for it because there is no turning back. We’re only granted one life and you have to take advantage of it. I’m extremely glad I did and there are no regrets. I’ve achieved things I would only dream of as opposed to being in the corporate world. I prefer this direction much better. There is no doubting that. The only drawback is missing my family…however I make many attempts to visit my family quite often.
CHAMP: You of course mentioned that you had gone out to LA. Is that where you’re at or are you back at Buffalo at the moment?
Santana: I’m in LA. I actually went from Buffalo to attending school in Florida, and then graduating. I decided to come directly out here, and that’s kind of what happened (laughs). Not only that, but I’m not going to deny that after being in Florida, I became too spoiled by the warm weather. In Buffalo it’s freezing , and once you leave a cold city like that to be somewhere warm, you get spoiled to the greatest degree. At that point, I knew that I definitely could never be in a cold city again. So aside from Florida, California was the next best bet. I love it out here. It’s absolutely beautiful. It’s perfect weather. I like it better than Florida personally just because you don’t have the humidity and bad hair days, and the scary bugs crawling around..lol… and of course it’s sunny everyday in LA, and rarely does it ever rain. I’m truly happy to be out here.
CHAMP: Oppose to the cold we get every single day up here in Canada huh?
Santana: Yes!! (laughs). Someone asked me one time, would you ever go back to Buffalo? and also raised the question about Toronto being a city of opportunity especially in the entertainment industry. I said, yeah but it would have to take a really phenomenal opportunity for me to go back to live in the cold, because I can’t imagine just putting on all that winter gear, and mittens, boots and driving behind the wheel dressed like a stuffed animal…not for me.. don’t miss it at all(laughs).
CHAMP: In terms of your background/nationality. What are some nationalities people have thought you were and what is your actual nationality?
Santana: Oh my God. That’s a great question, because I’ve been taken for sooo many things all across the board.. Basically, I was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico so I’m Puerto Rican. My father was actually from Mayagüez as well, and my mother is originally from Brazil. She was born out there, and at the age of 11 her family migrated to Puerto Rico where she met my dad.. and so for the longest time, I would say I’m Puerto Rican and my friends would be like …“no you’re not because wherever both your parents are from, you have to classify that”,.. so I will say that, even though I’m half Puerto Rican and half Brazilian, I still migrate more towards the Puerto Rican culture just because we were raised more so with that as opposed to Portuguese. It’s really interesting, but the best advantage of all is that , as an actress, I could portray a lot of different nationalities which is really wonderful. Because of that international look, it creates more opportunities for me especially in the modeling world as well.
CHAMP: Just to dwell in to your background a bit, are you fluent?
Santana: Séguro que si, no hablan español ?(laughs).
CHAMP: Wow! I don’t know what you just said but I heard the “hablan espanol” part, so I’m assuming you were asking me if I know how to speak Spanish.
Santana: (laughs). Yeah it’s in our household. Growing up, my parents made us speak spanish. It’s interesting because where I grew up, was more of a smaller town outside of Buffalo, NY. I grew up in a very caucasian neighborhood, and we were probably the only Latin family there. We had maybe one African American family, one Native American family, but I’ve never even met an Asian person until I went to school, and because of that I always spoke English outside of the house and there was no other Hispanic family to communicate in Spanish with, so because of that, my parents found it imperative that we speak Spanish in the household so that it will never leave us. I’m glad she did. When I speak to my parents, it is always in Spanish, but when I speak to my one and only sister, we would speak in English. My father, when he migrated out here, went to school to learn English, so he knows it very well and my mother speaks it but is more fluent in Spanish. If you speak to her she’ll understand but sometimes will have a difficult time communicating it back to you, but she’s great. My mother is one person where when my sister and I were kids, would never allow us to get away with anything. I remember one time speaking to my sister in English and I didn’t think my mom was listening, I would say to my sister, let’s go outside and play, I was about six years old at this point and remember my mother just out of the blue saying you’re not going anywhere. I’m like oh my God, she understood? (laughs). We could never get away with anything. Not with my mom. She was probably the one that wore the pants in our family (laughs).
CHAMP: Now you’re a women of many talents, so if you can let the people know what you do?
Santana: In New York, I would say two years ago, I was actually working for a TV show titled NYCTV Profile and basically what that is, is a one on one celebrity interview show. They would have a special guest every single week on the show, and then incorporate another segment, which was the nutrition and fitness segment ..so I was actually the girl that would give the nutrition and fitness tip of the week and my segment was like 30 seconds long. The beauty of that was not only did I come in as a segment host for the show, I also came in as a segment producer… so for me, It was an opportunity for me to expand my creativity as well as my talent. I really wanted to feel that I was using my intellect and my brain to put things together and create. Therefore production was actually one of the things that became of a strong interest to me. My mission became to empower women. That’s really what my ultimate mission is. I want women to use their mind, not just their looks and body to build businesses as well as become business savvy . Once you know the business side, you can be successful and powerful in many things. If you come in with just talent, in my opinion I don’t think that’s enough to get you out there. You have to know how to market yourself, promote, otherwise you’re just going to be waiting forever for an opportunity to come to you. I really believe that for women especially. I mean obviously men as well as women should also, I’d like to see more women pursue the industry a little bit more especially on the production side of things. I was actually very happy for the opportunity to be in New York and produce. As well as host for three seasons. So in answer to your question, hosting is a big part of what I do out here. That’s a part of the industry I truly love.
CHAMP: One thing about the industry that we’ve witnessed ourselves is that there’s always funny moments behind the scenes. Especially on set at a shoot. What’s Santana’s funny moment story on a set?
Santana: Wow um… (Laughs), that’s a really really good question. Have I really had an embarrassing moment?
CHAMP: Santana’s flawless (laughs)
Santana: (laughs) I would say on a TV show not that long ago that I was working on, where we had a wardrobe malfunction when I was wearing this dress and all of a sudden this dress basically didn’t pin very well. When I walked onto the set and we were actually about to shoot the scene, the back of the dress, behind the neck, loosened up and came down. There was almost a free show on the set, with the cameras running (laughs).
CHAMP: Woooow
Santana: And so I would say that probably was an embarrassing moment, because at the time I didn’t know what was showing and how much came down. However, they took me off the set right away, and the wardrobe people came over and pretty much took care of things and ensured me everything was ok.
CHAMP: For all the fellas. What is Santana’s status right now?
Santana: Ummm… (Laughs)…well, I can say that I’m seeing someone…yeah, I’m seeing someone.
CHAMP: So you’re breaking hearts today
Santana: (laughs). Oh well. I think I’ve done that in the past, but I don’t do that anymore (laughs).
CHAMP: What’s the craziest thing a guy has done for you and the lamest thing a guy has done for you?
Santana: The craziest thing was very memorable. I was in a Low Rider Magazine that I had shot for in the early stages when I came out to LA, and about two months after that, I was driving along Wilshire Blvd, in the Westwood area, headed towards Miracle Mile.. So I’m driving and all of a sudden, this guy starts speeding up and he’s like going side by side with me, looking over, trying to get my attention, I’m thinking this is just a guy trying to pick me up or whatever. He’s honking the horn and I’m like what does this guy want, directions or something? So I roll down my window, and I’m like what? And he’s like “You’re the girl in the magazine”, and I said what are you talking about? I’m thinking current because I didn’t shoot for anything recently within that month. So he’s like “The magazine” and I didn’t believe him. I asked what magazine? So here we are driving and talking down Wilshire Blvd and this is all happening, and he says to me “Low Rider Magazine”, and he’s like “I have it, I have your issue, pull over!” So I’m like do I pull over? Is this a trap? Is this a set up? because you have to be careful. So I pulled over and he pulled out the magazine and he had my issue and I thought wow, he really recognized me from driving, and so he asked me if he can have an autograph and I said absolutely. I then signed the issue … and that had to be the craziest thing that anyone’s ever done.
The lamest thing any guy has ever done, was when this one guy called me and wanted to take me out. I think I met him on the set of a show that I was working on. We exchanged numbers and he had called me the following evening saying he wanted to take me out. So we set plans for the time and everything and then he’s like I’d love to have dinner with you and we’ll figure something out afterwards. I said ok., sounds great. So when I called him, rather than suggesting to pick me up or let’s meet somewhere, he wanted me to go drive to his place and pick him up. Come to find out, he says when you get here, we don’t need to go anywhere, I am making you dinner and this was our first date! I was just like…completely shocked. He did not really ask me that, and I said to him are you kiddin’? Or are you serious? And he’s like no I’m serious and I said I’m sorry this isn’t gonna work and I hung up on him and never spoke to him again (laughs). What a cheeseball…. He tried calling me maybe like twice after and he’s like you know I’m sorry but I never really spoke to him after that. It would be one thing if the guy told me a head of time, but it was almost like he waited ‘til the last moment where we had set plans, which was at 8pm or so, and at that point told me to go to his house. I totally felt set up. After that, I was done, so that was the lamest thing a guy has ever done.
CHAMP: So Santana it’s the first quarter of 2010. What plans can we expect from you for the rest of the year?
Santana: There’s a lot of great things to come. I was in a CBS promo for Super Bowl, so I’m actually in a commercial for this years Super Bowl and it’s a really funny one. It’s a promo piece for a theme where they’re trying to prove that guys are so into sports that anything around them is non-existent. The theme is, we’re at the beach and these two guys are actually carrying there television sets on the beach and not trying to miss the Super Bowl. I’m supposed to be the girl basically running by them in this really sexy outfit, and they don’t even notice me. They’re not even supposed to look at me and so, I’m like flipping my hair and trying to be sexy and everything and they’re just not even looking and I’m like what? Are you kidding? That’s supposed to be my attitude for this particular scene and that’s the highlight of the commercial..
I also got into something I’ve never done before. I auditioned for a 2010 dance production, which basically incorporates Polynesian dancing, and that’s something I’ve always wanted to do. So I tried out and made the production team. I’m really excited about it. We have rehearsals every Sunday, and this year we’re expecting to go on tour. We’re either going to Brazil or flying to Asia for a few weeks. We might also have a possible contract with Disney, and that’s another thing I’m looking forward to. Our first show is going to be on April 16. I’m looking forward to it..
CHAMP: Santana’s really busy for the year!
Santana: Yes I’m really busy. I’m also launching my own business and I don’t want to discuss the business just yet, but it’s a business that will be launched in about three weeks or so. I’m using the business side of things outside of the entertainment industry for my own personal business. I look at longevity in my life and I’ve always wanted to own my own business so I’m really excited about getting it out there. I don’t want to give too much detail about it until the website is launched.
CHAMP: Where can people get more info and be more up to date with anything going on with Santana?
Santana: You can go to twitter.com/Santanarod, I’m also on facebook.com/santanarod, and myspace.com/santanarod, and my regular website santanasantana.com. So you can definitely check me out and see what’s going on, on either of those four websites.
For Bookings Please Contact: SANTANA658@AOL.COM
I’ve been a fan of Santana for a long, long time! Loved the interview!!!
Nice Interview! All Best – Heather
Make sure you become a fan of Santana on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SANTANA-RODRIGUEZ-FAN-SITE/404987738407?ref=nf&v=wall
Hello Santana is already a star in my book and magazine. As editor In Chief of New York Faces Magazine we had Santana on our cover which completely sold out in New York City and Florida. Her interview was very interesting as it was in this on line magazine. We hope to have her articles in future additions if she has time to speak to us so we can follow up on her life career. I am sure we can sell out our magazine every time with her on the cover.
Thanks Santana and congratulations in another well spoken interview
Sam Robles
Editor In Chief
New York Faces Magazine.
NewYorkFacesMagazine.com
646-717-2017
Wow that girl really has a great head on her shoulders… Its soooo refreshing to see someone in this business that is so level headed as Santana… Also she’s not hard to look at either.. LOL
Keep going upward Santana…
I really liked your interview.
wow what a beautiful model you are! And it looks like you are well on your way to success and stardom! keep it up girl!
Nice interview! you are soooooo hot! wow! so whats next you little hottie? who is the lucky guy that gets to be with such a smart, beautiful, stunning hot sexy doll? lol. Oh well, im sure you will get that part on that tv show at cbs. Best of luck to you!!
Nice interview, this hottie has the complete package going on. Hope to see more of her in the future.
Wow, brains, beauty and brawn, a true modern day renaissance woman! Sounds corny I know, but Santana could be the girl Air Supply was singing about in “Every Woman in the World . . .” for she really does have it all!
You are gonna do great at whatever you put your mind to! Doesn’t hurt that you are gorgeous either!
What a star in the making! I can’t wait to see more from her in the future.
Fantastic interview Santana! “Don’t be afraid of failure” is my motto in life as well! You’re beautiful and inspirational! Keep doin BIG THINGS girl! Sky’s the limit and you’re definitely reachin for the stars.
Much Love!
We need your NYC workout show playing every morning in Los Angeles! Your energy is amazing too.
Great interview! Keep doing your thing and remember me when you’re a star!