Where is ‘Survivor’ 45 winner Dee Valladares from?

The dust has finally settled in Fiji, and Jeff Probst just crowned the winner of Survivor 45. A total of 18 people went head to head to outwit, outplay and outlast each other for the coveted million dollar prize. This season, 26-year-old Dee Valladares took home the money, beating out her showmance partner Austin Li Coon and the whiny goat Jake O’Kane.

Dee edged out Austin five votes to three, and Jake garnered a total of zero votes, which isn’t surprising considering he spent most of the season falling upward and bungling every chance at advancement he ever got (remember the missing puzzle piece fiasco??).

Dee, on the other hand, won immunity three times, including the final immunity challenge of the season, which guaranteed her a spot in the final and allowed her to choose who was going to make fire for the third spot.

She dominated most of the game partly by being in the right tribe at first (Reba), but also by playing a great social game and picking the right alliances. Her focus in the numerous challenges also helped her to secure victory. All in all, she’s definitely one of the strongest Survivor players we’ve ever seen.

Let’s find out a little bit more about the very capable and focused entrepreneur.

Who is Survivor 45 winner Dee Valladares, and where is she from?

Dee Valladares originally hails from Havana, Cuba but she lives in Miami, Florida. Starting on the dominant Reba tribe, she played an excellent social and strategic game, and her name barely came up ever on the chopping block.

Dee credits her entrepreneurial background as being pivotal in helping her to navigate the game. At 23, she started a business called WANAROAM, which sells rugged travel backpacks.

“Starting my business at 23. I’ve learned how to turn an idea into reality, how to navigate hardships when finances were uncertain, and how to become a better business partner.” Having a business partner, she said, helped her to approach things democratically with other people as well as illustrating the importance of healthy communication.

Working in sales, she’s adept at finding out the key parts of a message and how to sell a story over just a “product.”

Part of what helped her excell in the game as well was knowing when to step back and let other people take charge, especially in the beginning of the game.

For example, when a boat showed up early to take someone on a journey to potentially get an advantage, she stayed put. That’s because the “beginning stages are so crucial in your game.” She knew that she had to blend in and take it easy, because she didn’t want a target on her back early on.

In an interview with the Newsweek Parting Shot podcast, Dee revealed a bit more about her upbringing and just what kept her going during her lowest moments.

“I think everybody that goes into Survivor needs a ‘why,’” she said. “After every challenge, any time I was at my lowest, two weeks not eating, just straight up coconuts, I always thought to myself, my dad would like, recycle gum.”

Dee explained that when her parents lived in Cuba they were so poor that even gum was considered a scarce resource and not to be simply thrown away, because they “really did not have food. They had a piece of bread to share between the family.”

When she was growing up, she said, sometimes the only thing to eat would be a cup of noodles, because that’s all her family could afford. She saw her parents work two jobs to try and make sure all the bills got paid, and she never forgot that type of work ethic.

That helped her move forward and not get discouraged, so she could keep her eyes on the prize and continue moving forward. Her mom worked odd jobs like bus driver or janitor, and she would go to work with her mom and “clean, like, literal s*** off toilets.”

Still, her dad would bring them lunch at the job site. That combination of love and hard work stayed in her mind during her stay in the jungles of Fiji.

“I just thought about them,” she said. “That kept me going.”