Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt is the oldest woman competing on season 44 of Survivor, but she’s also one of the toughest. Fans saw that in the first episode, when Heidi made fire for her tribe. The 43-year-old Puerto Rican native used a Hidden Immunity Idol to make it to the final five, following the eliminations of all her Soka tribemates, including Danny Massa.
Now that she’s reached the finale, Heidi has to outwit, outplay, and outlast the others, if she wants to bring home the $1 million grand prize to her family. Find out more about Heidi below.
Heidi lived in Puerto Rico for more than half her life. She moved to the U.S. after college even though she could barely speak English.
“I pretty much had nothing. I didn’t have any money; I didn’t have a bed. Pretty much nothing other than an offer for a job,” Heidi told Parade about immigrating to America. “In the beginning, I had to struggle a bit and hustle quite a bit in order to get myself going. And that struggle and adaptation that I had to do to move to the U.S. from Puerto Rico, I’m very proud of that.”
Heidi currently lives in Pittsburg with her husband and their two children. She moved from New York to be closer to her husband’s family.
Since Aug. 2022, Heidi has been employed at Hewlett-Packard, Inc as a software R&D manager, according to her LinkedIn. She previously worked at United States Steel Corporation for 5 years and IBM for 8 years.
Heidi and her husband Michael Greenblatt have two daughters. The family of four took a trip to Italy last fall, after Heidi filmed Survivor. Heidi shared epic photos from the vacation on her Instagram.
Heidi proudly talked about her Puerto Rican roots with Parade. “I want to represent my people, my family,” she said. “I want to represent Latinas out there, Latinas working in STEM, and all those people who may have an accent, may sound different, and look different.”
Heidi’s fellow castaway Yam Yam Arocho is also from Puerto Rico. Yam Yam is actually the first Survivor contestant to live in Puerto Rico at the time of filming.
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