Santana

"Don`t live small or dream small. Live big. Dream big."

Those words of inspiration help propel Carlos Santana, the pioneering Latin-rock guitarist who has been living big since his 1969 performance at Woodstock catapulted his percussion-driven band to fame and fortune.

But the superstardom he has achieved since his group`s "Supernatural" album last year has exceeded his wildest dreams.

"Look where I am today. The previous album we did (1993`s `Sacred Fire`) sold 200,000 copies, and this one is now close to 22 million in sales worldwide," said the Mexican-born Santana.

He recently was also honored at a morning ceremony in his former hometown of Tijuana, where he was given the keys to the city and named Tijuana`s cultural ambassador. The free outdoor event was held at the Palacio Municipal in the Zona Rio district. (On Oct. 10, the Tijuana City Council voted against renaming a major street or a bridge near the Tijuana/San Diego border for him.)

"I like to believe Santana is beyond the music," he said. "It`s about bringing unity and harmony to families within the city, state, nation - the world."

Santana, 53, has had an exceptionally busy year. Besides his hectic touring schedule and his full family life, he was the big winner at February`s Grammy Awards, when "Supernatural" earned nine trophies. And, last month, the same album won three Latin Grammy Awards.

In his first interview since February`s Grammys, he spoke recently from his San Francisco office about his career and about growing up in Tijuana, where he moved as a boy from Autlan de Navarro, an agricultural center in the Mexican state of Jalisco.

Q. You were only 8 when you moved to Tijuana in 1955. What was your first impression of the city?

Santana: "Let`s see. It was the last part of July, and it was extremely hot and very dusty. In the beginning, it was a little scary, because something was happening between my mom and dad and it was (uncertain) whether they would keep us together as a family, which they did. There were eight of us in Colonia Libertad, a very funky part of Tijuana. They didn`t have running water or electricity then.

"It got better; we moved to the center of town. The smell of tacos, the colors, the tourists, Roy Rogers, Sugar Ray Robinson, (the music of) Bo Diddley, Little Richard - all of that was Tijuana for me. Everything is still very clear in my mind. Tijuana is like the "Star Wars" cantina. Especially now, with people coming not just from Mexico, but from all over Latin America, to cross the border. Tijuana is a whole other world with a lot of innocence, with all the children, and (also there is) crime, with drugs and all of that."

Q. What are your fondest memories of growing up there?

Santana: "What I treasure the most is going to the bullfights, and - on Sundays - to Avenida Revolucion, with all the colors and the sound of marimbas. It was really lovely. I have a lot of great admiration and respect for the people and the spirit of Tijuana, because it`s not easy to live in that town. A woman in Tijuana has to be gifted with a lot of faith, because you don`t know from day to day how you`ll put food on your table."

Q. Did that apply to your mother then as well?

Santana: "That applies to a lot of people, even today, because there`s no welfare. So, you have to depend on creating something that the tourists have to buy, or the neighbors. You have to improvise."

Q. Before you began playing electric bass and guitar at nightclubs on Avenida Revolucion as a teen-ager, did you think you would follow in the footsteps of your father, Jose, and become a mariachi?

Santana: "I was hoping not, because I never liked that environment. But, hey, I don`t have to like a certain kind of Mexican food; if I`m American, I don`t have to like hamburgers. I don`t like to be stereotyped. Some of that (mariachi) music is played to appease tourism; just like in Las Vegas where they wear certain clothes to attract (casino) customers.

"My taste for music at that point was Little Richard and John Lee Hooker, and I hoped to go another direction than mariachi, (though) I loved my dad, and his feeling for music, and the way people loved him."

Q. How quickly did you become aware that you were living in a Mexican border city that was on the cusp of two very different cultures and ways of life - rich and poor?

Santana: "When you`re a child, you just want to play games. I could tell by my mom`s face that she was very sad when we moved to Colonia Libertad, not that she expected any riches, but we were so drastically poor and she didn`t want to have her children living in a place like that. I remember my dad cracked a box of Spearmint gum in half and he also gave my brother a shoeshine box. My mother never realized this, but my father pulled us aside, and said, basically: `Don`t come back until you sell this gum, because we need help with the rent.`

"He had his violin, and he had four brothers and two sisters to feed, plus me, my brother and my mother. In retrospect, I can see why he was so stern about it. He needed help. It was a cold slap in the face for me, but a good lesson. Because, ever since, I`m not afraid of the streets, not at all."

Q. How`d you react when your family moved to San Francisco in 1962?

Santana: "I didn`t want to come. By that time, I was working on Revolucion at the Convoy Club, and was making my own money. Actually, I liked being around prostitutes is what it came down to; at the age of 15 and 16, I didn`t want to hang around a bunch of kids from junior high school. It was more fun hanging around grown people, and there`s a certain mystique about prostitutes.

"It`s not that they like doing it, but they have kids to support. And hanging around with them after the gig was a lot of fun, going to Rosarito Beach and listening to Ray Charles on the radio. It was a great time to be a teen-ager, and you learn a lot from women anyhow.

"A lot of prostitutes I saw there had more class than Queen Elizabeth. You can drive a Bentley or Rolls-Royce, but you can`t buy class. Prostitutes do what they do at night; during the day, they dress their children in immaculate white outfits and take care of them, and the prostitute is a different person. I learned to value women immensely in Tijuana, and that`s a big part of my life and music now. I learned how they walk, how they curse, how they pray, all of it. So, it was important to me to get that education."

Q. Didn`t you briefly move back to Tijuana?

Santana: "I went back there on Halloween night in 1962, and it was really scary because my whole family was in San Francisco, (and) Tijuana was so poor and small. I went straight to the Mission of Guadalupe Church, downtown, and got myself together. I stayed in Tijuana one more year and got more education as a musician, and it really helped me out. It gave me a lot of belief and conviction."

Q. What did music mean to you when you formed the Santana Blues Band in San Francisco in 1966, and what does music mean to you now?

Santana: "Back then, I was just thinking of music as a means to give people joy. I knew a lot of people were not happy, and that music had a spirit to lift people out of that mire of frustration and depression. People have a hard time validating their own spiritual worth. People don`t realize that with every breath you take, you have options and alternatives and choices, and that you can work with your divinity to create a phenomenal synchronicity in your life.

"Music to me is extremely important. Because I never thought of Santana as selling tortillas, or records, but of giving people joy. Now, it`s taken me to a whole other plateau.

"When you consider the phenomenon of `Supernatural,` it`s the first album in a long time that parents, grandchildren and kids got into. Usually, parents and teen-agers don`t listen to the same thing, so `Supernatural` is quite a phenomenon. And that really validated the direction; it really confirmed that what we`re doing with our music is the right thing."

Q. Is commercial or artistic success more important to you?

Santana: "Commercial success validates what you do. Van Gogh was really poor when he died, and now his paintings have more success than anyone`s. I`m grateful to be in the same arena as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, and to remind people that these acts don`t have a monopoly on radio, and that people still gravitate to songs.

"It`s a phenomenon to live right now, in 2000, and have the No. 1 hits for so long on the charts, this year and last year. And, man, we`re fiftysomething years old, and we didn`t have to paint ourselves like Dracula, or wear funny clothes or do something stupid to sell it. It`s the songs."

Q. Backstage at the Latin Grammy Awards, you said you hoped Spanish and English would become mandatory in schools in California, Arizona and other states that have large Latino populations. Are you surprised at how little attention those comments received?

Santana: "People won`t pick up on that, on something that threatens their economy. I don`t have any fear in saying it. I think we should make it mandatory English and Spanish.

"In Europe, they speak several languages, fluently. In this country, we don`t even speak English well, and we`re going to be arrogant about it? Go to London, they speak good English; we speak bad `American.` Why won`t they invest more time and money into making it more harmonious?

"To call people `aliens` when you know they are from the same planet, how stupid and arrogant can you be? You can call them an alien when they are from another galaxy. It would be more important to start with English and Spanish being mandatory in schools, and spend more money on teachers and schools. Seven out of 10 Latinos drop out of school in California, and we spend $4,000 or $5,000 per student, and $35,000 per inmate, per year.

"I`m not giving an interview to say: `Buy my CD.` I want to talk about things more important than that. I know when people read this, most of them will realize I`m not complaining. I`m very grateful for the country I live in, but I love the whole world and my heart is really wired to accommodate the underdogs in the world. I`m trying to raise consciousness. Because, obviously, the government is not doing it and religion is not doing it. They`re set up to make money.

"I want to help people realize their own light, so that we can take this world to the next dimension. We don`t have to rely on gurus and swamis. It`s in your heart. You can ask your inner-guide: `How can I help?` Behold, that`s where I am. I`m successful. That`s what success is: finding a need that the world needs fulfilled. I don`t feel bad for supplying something I think is needed, which is hope."

Q. Do you hope people might have more compassion the next time they encounter a kid selling gum on the streets of Tijuana, or anywhere else, because you used to be that kid?

Santana: "I never wanted people to feel sorry for me or pity for me. I shy away from sensationalism and gossip. That`s why - even though we broke a lot of sales records and won a lot of Grammy Awards - I shy away from TV shows, because they`re very idiotic, insulting and demeaning.

"The best thing that can come from this interview is that some people identify with that child in Tijuana. Because all of us are that child; it isn`t just Carlos Santana. The more we can have people realize we are all one, the better. You and I, all of us, have a oneness. We`re all one on this planet, so people shouldn`t feel like that little kid selling gum wants to con them. He probably wants to help his father, like I did."

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Author: George Varga