Celebration of Music - Talent Search

Ashley Soto is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants. She’s 21 years old and has been singing since she was 6. Her favorite genre to perform is Mexican Ranchera music. She’s done shows all over New England and even toured to Texas with a Selena Tribute band. Ashley has performed at the Guatemalan, Dominican, Bolivian, Central American, Mexican, Multicultural, Colombian, and International festivals all over Rhode Island and New England. She has performed and was a guest speaker for the girls at Girls Rock! She performed at PVD fest as well. When she was 16, Ashley wrote and recorded Mayor Jorge Elorza’s campaign theme song. She placed first runner up in La Mega Voz Internacional. Ashley is well known in her community and uses that to fight for the respect and credibility her people deserve in this country through her accomplishments. This year, she became the first Guatemalan to have been chosen to compete in the Miss Rhode Island USA pageant. She graduated college this past August, a year earlier than her peers and paying her way through school by performing, from Rhode Island College with her Bachelors in Psychology. She’s been working as a medical interpreter since the age of 18. She does work with the immigration group, Familias Unidas, Love in Action, which provides school supplies and basic necessities to children in Guatemala, and with SAAF, the Strong African American Families program. She recently finished a theater tour with the Trinity Repertory company and Rhode Island Latino Arts, giving free shows all over the state for her community that otherwise wouldn’t have had access to expensive theater tickets. She is proudly the first in her family to graduate high school and college. She was a hospital volunteer in high school and traveled to Ecuador as an education advocate and recruited child laborers off he street to enroll them and actively educate them in makeshift schools. She was chosen as the Queen of the Central American festival of Rhode Island last year. This year she received another honorary crown as well for performing 6 national anthems, those of the United States, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. She plans to continue her studies and attend medical school. Her dream is to build her mother a house in Hawaii.