When Christine Castillo was small and growing up in San Francisco, her parents would chat about the "camp" in Wyoming and the friends they had made there. To Castillo, it sounded like a wonderful place, and she knew it was where her parents had first met.
“My parents talked about it since it was a part of their history,” Castillo said. “It wasn't all doom and gloom, and their conversations about life at Heart Mountain were actually really fun for me to listen to.”
Her parents told her stories about the World War II Japanese internment camp — the mess hall, incredible pie makers, and their high school teachers. They had baseball and football teams and, best of all, they would talk about the skating rink her grandfather, Shigeru Oba, had built for the community.
“All of these things sounded really fun to me and normal,” Castillo said. “I was shocked when I realized they had been there for three years and why.”
The camp was an internment facility known as Heart Mountain Relocation Center where Castillo’s California family had been sent during World War II.
They were among the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were taken from the West Coast and brought inland or to remote areas of the country where, Castillo said, they conceivably couldn't do any harm to the country or commit acts of sabotage.
Christine Castillo never planned on coaching but when she saw the desire kindled in one girl and knew that all this young skater needed was proper techniques, Castillo started teaching. Her ‘one time’ turned into five years of coaching and now a new figure skating club to bring more opportunities to her students in Cody, Wyoming. (Courtesy Christina Castillo) 
Christine Castillo is sharing her love of ice skating with her students in Cody, Wyoming. This joy she brings to the young figure skaters is the same joy that her grandfather brought to the community of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center when he built them an ice-skating rink. (Courtesy Christina Castillo) 
Christine Castillo never planned on coaching but when she saw the desire kindled in one girl and knew that all this young skater needed was proper techniques, Castillo started teaching. Her ‘one time’ turned into five years of coaching and now a new figure skating club to bring more opportunities to her students in Cody, Wyoming. (Courtesy Christina Castillo)
Following Her Dreams
When Castillo moved to Cody 10 years ago, it was because she had fallen in love with the mountains and wide-open spaces. Her mom warned her that it would be cold, but that just meant better ice skating.
“I knew the camp was here,” Castillo said. “I just didn't realize how much of a destination it was, and that it was this amazing historic site.”
For Castillo, the lure of Cody was the chance to ice skate and raise horses, her two childhood passions. She immersed herself in ice skating and, unwittingly, followed her grandfather’s lead when she became a coach.
He had brought joy to his community, and now it was her turn.
“My grandfather liked to skate,” Castillo said. “He and his best friend saw that there was all this space, and so they got the idea to build a rink.”
The two men flooded their makeshift rink with water and when it froze, the entire camp had access to their new ice skating rink that was built between their barracks. They bought cheap skates from the Sears, Roebuck and Co. Catalog catalog and skated like they used to back in their homeland of Japan.
“You need to make the best of your situation and create a sense of normalcy,” Castillo said. “We have all these wonderful photographs of people enjoying themselves, and you can see the joy in their face of being able to be out there and glide.”
It is this joy that Castillo had discovered herself at an early age.
Shigeru Oba built an ice-skating rink for his community at Heart Mountain Relocation Center during World War II. He brought smiles and laughter to the camp where he and his family lived in Cody, Wyoming, for three years. Years later, his granddaughter moved back to Cody and has just started a figure skating club named in his Honor. (Courtesy Christina Castillo) 
Christine Castillo never planned on coaching but when she saw the desire kindled in one girl and knew that all this young skater needed was proper techniques, Castillo started teaching. Her ‘one time’ turned into five years of coaching and now a new figure skating club to bring more opportunities to her students in Cody, Wyoming. (Courtesy Christina Castillo)
A Passion For The Ice
“I fell in love with skating when I was 2,” Castillo said. “I had watched Peggy Fleming and the 1968 Olympics on TV, and to me, it was just magical.”
She begged her parents for roller skates, and for the next two years, the toddler practiced her moves on the concrete area of her parent’s yard.
“I would try to emulate what I had seen and had some falls which weren't so nice,” Castillo said. “I really had to use my imagination about what this was supposed to feel like.”
By the time she was 4, her parents realized Castillo's passion for ice-skating was not going away, so they took her to a rink in Santa Rosa.
“I will never forget it looked like a Swiss chalet,” Castillo said. “The beautiful rink was just like a fairy tale.”
It was her first official skate, but after years of dreaming of the moment, by the time she got on the ice, the sport came naturally.
“I just started trying to skate backward,” Castillo said. “I copied the figure skaters who were practicing in the center of the ice and I didn't want to get off.”
For the next three years, Castillo was able to skate at a neighborhood rink and loved every moment.
“Skating's been a big part of my life since the beginning,” she said. “Sadly, I didn't really get much of a chance to compete when I was younger because the ice rink that we had in San Francisco closed soon after I started skating.”
Castillo’s dreams of ice skating were over by age 7, but she never truly forgot what it was like to glide free on the ice. She didn’t skate again until she was on a trip to Yosemite National Park in her mid-20s.
“We had actually gone for the purposes of cross-country skiing, but there was no snow,” Castillo said. “But there was an ice rink and when I went out there. It was as if no time had passed.”
Back in San Francisco, Castillo learned about adult competitions and began skating in the mornings before work and competing in the evenings and on weekends.
She was trained by top coaches, including Olympic medalists, and was delighted to have this second chance to pursue her dreams of skating.
Paying It Forward
When Castillo and her husband moved to Cody, she had no intention of coaching. She didn’t have a lot of extra time but was thrilled that there was a sheet of ice at Riley Arena in the town.
Her plan was to just work on her own skating since she was still competing and performing.
“Then there was this one parent who was very persistent,” Castillo said. “I really didn't want to go down that path, but she was very sweet and kindly persistent.”
Castillo started paying attention to the woman’s daughter and saw that the girl really loved the sport and had potential if she would change some of her techniques.
“She was doing a lot of things wrong, but she loved it,” Castillo said. “I decided that if this mom approaches me one more time, I will agree to work with her daughter at least once.”
The mom asked again, and Castillo started coaching her.
This one-time coaching has now led to five years and a team of ice skaters as Castillo shares her love of the sport. Now, Castillo has taken it one step farther and has formed a new figure skating club.
Honoring The Joy
“I named it Heart Mountain Figure Skating Club in honor of my grandfather, Shigeru Oba,” Castillo said. “He gave an amazing opportunity to his community at the camp by building his ice rink.”
For Castillo, she considers this club as one of the pinnacles of her own ice-skating career.
“I have made a lot of contacts in the figure skating world,” Castillo said. “I have had the opportunity to work with national, world and Olympic competitors. I felt I could share these same experiences with my club to pay it forward.”
She has already brought to Cody Michael Czech, a U.S. bronze medalist and international gold medalist and world competitor. He worked with her skaters, and Castillo is excited to create more opportunities like it.
“My students have really embraced our origin story of how our club came about, and they're very proud of it,” Castillo said. “They talk about how much fun it is having the opportunity to skate on this amazing ice and having a great community of friends.”
Castillo said that the gift of ice skating is that you are flying over the ice and nothing is holding you back.
“I can do all these really amazing things that feel very liberating,” Castillo said. “That is what my grandfather gave his community, the ability to feel free and to express themselves on the ice and to have a sense of normalcy.”
Castillo said that it has been an incredible journey, and she is grateful for the mom who talked her into coaching.
“I am living my best life here,” Christine said. “I really feel that I am living my dream here in Cody, Wyoming.”
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
