“I visualized him and there was a lot of light behind him”: Carlos Santana reveals how he forgave the man who abused him for two years when he was a child

The weight of a childhood marked by sexual abuse has dragged the famous Mexican guitarist Carlos Santana for years.

In silence and, paradoxically, in music, he kept that stage. He silenced his fears and made a breastplate. Only time and maturity gave him peace. It helped him more that he didn’t know he was to blame for what he experienced.

As a child, for two years he was the victim of sexual abuse by an adult, by the family of a well-known man who betrayed their friendship and trust.

Carlos Santana publishes an autobiography and dedicates it to his mother

Carlos Santana’s Childhood Sexual Abuse

Just 23 years ago, the musician born in Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico, decided to reveal what he had experienced and suffered. When he entered his first decade of life, the nightmare began.

People recalled that Carlos Santana told in 2000 that he was abused “almost every day” “between the ages of 10 and 12 by a man who crossed the border into Mexico and brought him toys and gifts.

The facts were told in an interview with Rolling Stone. However, he kept the details. At the time, he did not openly say who stole part of his childhood.

Fourteen years later, he opened the door to the past again, and The Guardian offered an insight into how close his abuser was to him, People reported.

Thus, in 2014, he stated that “the sex offender is an American tourist who befriended his parents.”

At home I’m just Carlos, the Mexican, says Santana

This is how Carlos Santana forgave his sexual abuser

Santana, as the whole planet calls him, inherited his artistic passion from his father, who was a mariachi violist. In San Francisco, California, where the family moved in 1961, he embraced music and made it his own.

Infobae recalls that he became famous 8 years later when rock took him to the Woodstock festival. Among the big hits, Santana is the “interpreter of hits like ‘María María’ and ‘Soul Sacrifice’.”

With a career full of awards, forged by perseverance, the guitarist who will turn 76 next July surprises again when he talks about his past of abuse.

This time he talks about how he closed the crack that caused him to look at those two years of sexual abuse by predators.

Now he’s told People how he’s found peace. She said: “My son and I talked about it.”

I have learned to look at anyone who has ever gone out of their way to hurt me, humiliate me, or make me feel less than 5 or 6 years old, and I can look at them with understanding and compassion.

Carlos Santana

He does not seek punishment for his aggressor. He knows that “hurt people hurt people. That’s my pain, that’s what happened to me. But if you open your hands and let it go, then you don’t feel it anymore.”

He told People exclusively about how he closed that chapter: “Instead of sending him to hell forever, that person who sexually abused me, I visualized him as a child, and there was a lot of light behind him.”

So I can send him to the light or send him to hell knowing that if I send him to hell, I will leave with him. But if I send him to the light, then I will go with him.

Carlos Santana

The music idol, winner of 10 Grammy Awards, wants to offer “people hope and courage” and leaves this second message from People: “Acceptance and forgiveness are truly spiritual.”

(AND)