Photo: Carlos Santana.jpg: Jaud derivative work: Yarl / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Carlos Santana is one of those rare guitarists you can identify in a single sustained note. What moves me is how he carried his Mexican roots from Autlan de Navarro into a sound that fused rock with Latin and jazz and simply belonged to no one else. He could have coasted on Woodstock legend forever, yet he kept reinventing and bridging generations of listeners. The Kennedy Center Honors and Hollywood star feel almost beside the point. For me, Santana plays from the spirit more than the fretboard, and that searching, devotional quality is exactly why his tone still gives me chills.
Overview
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (Spanish: [ˈkaɾlos umˈbeɾto sanˈtana βaraˈɣan] ; born July 20, 1947) is a Mexican and American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the rock band Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States with Santana, which pioneered a fusion of rock and roll and Latin American jazz.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Carlos Santana
- Name (Japanese)
- カルロス・サンタナ
- Reading
- かるろす・さんたな
- Born
- July 20, 1947 (age 78)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Cancer / Boar
- Origin
- Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- singer-songwriter / singer / composer / jazz guitarist / guitarist
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Hempstead High School
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- 2011 California Hall of Fame
- Kennedy Center Honors
- Amadeus Austrian Music Awards
- 2015 American Book Awards
- 2004 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year
- 2009 Billboard Latin Music Lifetime Achievement Award
- star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
- 2015 Billboard Spirit of Hope Award
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Singer-songwriter — see all → · Singer — see all → · More people from Mexico →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.