Resources for Teachers and Students on Carlos Santana

Prepare: Carlos Santana took up the guitar at the age of eight when his family lived in Tijuana, Mexico. Combining the sounds of Latin music, rock music and the blues, he quickly built up an international following of fans drawn to his humanitarian message. His biography can be found on a promotional site for his records at http://www.santana.com/carlos/carlos.asp.

Read: Carlos Santana wrote an original essay for the Architects of Peace project. In it, he briefly explores the power of music to bring people together, and therefore to promote world harmony.

Explore: The International Committee of Artists for Peace (ICAP) in 2002 bestowed its inaugural "Humanity in the Arts Peace Award" on Carlos Santana. ICAP was founded on the principle that the appreciation of human creativity leads to respect for the dignity of human life. The ICAP homepage can be found at http://icapeace.org/home.html.

Write: In his Architects of Peace essay, Carlos Santana claims that "music, more than almost anything else, has the power to bring people together." Is this true? Is the role music has traditionally played in the peace movement been merely symbolic, or does music actually have power to create harmony among people. Write a two-to-three page reflective essay exploring the relationship between music and peace.

Extend: Carlos and Deborah Santana founded the Milagro Foundation in 1998 to benefit underprivileged children around the world. The foundation, which takes its name from the Spanish word for "miracle," concentrates on health, education and the arts. To find out more about the foundation's work, or to join them in making a difference in the lives of children, survey the Milagro website at http://www.milagrofoundation.org/.

Additional Resource: A listing of other causes dear to Carlos Santana can be found as links on his personal website in the "we care about" section, which can be accessed at http://www.santana.com/frameset.html.

Biography of Carlos Santana