Carlos Santana, the pioneering Latin-rock guitarist, has been breaking musical boundaries since his debut album in 1969. He grew up in Mexico, the son of a father who was a mariachi violinist. He took up the violin at five, but at eight switched to the guitar. The family moved to Tijuana, where he began playing in clubs and bars. In the early '60s, Carlos moved to San Francisco. His blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms and rock foreshadowed the Rock En Español movement, as well as the current Latino-pop craze. Currently, Santana is easing in as an elder statesman of both rock and Latin music. The rise of the Rock en Español movement has made him a transcendent godfather.
His contribution to Hispanic culture goes beyond music. Santana is involved in several organizations. He received the 1999 Medallion of Excellence Award for Community Service from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in Washington, D.C. He has worked with Cada Cabeza Es Un Mundo, the Blues for Salvadorbenefit concert, and the San Francisco Earthquake Relief benefit. Carlos Santana and his wife also have their own foundation called "Milagro," that provides financial assistance for educational, medical and housing needs of children all over the world.
Joan Baez
Joan Baez was born in Staten Island, New York. Her father was a physicist, born in Mexico, and her mother was of Scottish and English descent. She grew up in New Yorkand California, and when her father took a faculty position in Massachusetts, she attended BostonUniversityand began to sing in coffeehouses and small clubs.
Subjected to racial slurs and discrimination in her own childhood because of her Mexican heritage and features, Baez became involved with a variety of social causes early in her career, including civil rights and nonviolence. She was sometimes jailed for her protests. In 1968, she married David Harris, a Vietnamdraft protestor who was in jail for most of their marriage.
Early in her career, Joan Baez stressed historical folk songs, adding political songs to her repertoire during the 1960s. Later, she added country songs and more mainstream popular music, though always including many songs with political messages. She supported such organizations as Amnesty International and Humanitas International. Joan Baez continues to speak and sing for peaceful solutions to violence in the Middle East and Latin America.
TOP PICK:Gracias a la Vida(“Here’s to Life”) was a 1974 album by Joan Baez. The album was performed entirely in Spanish. Her rendition of "We Shall Overcome" became the anthem of a movement that abhorred violence and supported equal rights for everyone. The artist sang to support Mexican farmworkers, people whose language had not previously been understood or taken into account in the corridors of power in the United States. Baez stated at the time that she also released the album as a "message of hope to the Chileans suffering under Pinochet” in the wake of the death of Allende. Always critical of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, she has toured and worked on behalf of improving human rights in the region. Songs include selections by Chilean composers Victor Jara (who was tortured and killed in the aftermath of the 1973 coup) and Violeta Parra, who composed the title song.
