“Author of BORN THIS WAY | From Fast Money to Faith — A True NYC Story of Family Secrets, Addiction, Incarceration & Redemption”
I’m Bladimil “Bla” Castillo, author of BORN THIS WAY: From Fast Money to Faith, a memoir about family secrets, the streets of New York City, incarceration, addiction, fatherhood, faith, and redemption.
I grew up in Washington Heights during an era when fast money and street power surrounded my family. My life took me from witnessing that world up close to making choices of my own that eventually brought consequences I could no longer outrun. I experienced incarceration, devastating family loss, addiction, and the collapse of a life I once thought I controlled.
But that isn’t where my story ends.
After hitting some of the lowest points of my life, faith gave me a different direction. At 51, I was baptized and began confronting my past instead of running from it.
I’m not coming on a podcast to glorify the streets. I’m coming to talk honestly about what fast money costs, how addiction can dismantle a life, what incarceration teaches you about loyalty and consequences, the complicated legacy fathers leave their sons, and whether genuine redemption is possible after decades of mistakes.
My message is simple: your past can explain you without having to define your future.
