Carlos Santana forgave the man who sexually abused him as a young child.
Reflecting on her childhood trauma, the Mexican-American rocker shared how “truly spiritual” was her journey to find peace and acceptance.
“I have learned to look at anyone who does their best to hurt, humiliate or make me feel small, as if they were 5 or 6 years old, and I can look at them with understanding and compassion. He told People in an interview published Thursday.
“For example, instead of sending this person who sexually abused me to hell forever, I imagined him as a child and there was a lot of light behind it,” he added.
“So I can send him to the light or to hell, knowing that if I send him to hell I will go with him. But if I send him into the light, then I will go with him.”
Santana, 75, added that changing her perspective has led her to forgive her abuser.
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“There is a saying that hurting people hurts people. This is my pain. It happened to me. But if you open your hands and let go, you won’t feel it anymore,” he said.
Santana’s revelation comes days before the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of his new documentary “Carlos,” which will reveal more about his life and iconic musical career.
The legendary guitarist first talked about his childhood abuse in an interview in 2000.
She told Rolling Stone that she was harassed “almost daily” by an American man between the ages of 10 and 12 who had crossed the border and brought her gifts. It finally ended when Santana fell in love with a girl and her abuser got jealous.
“I first looked at him for who he is: a very sick person,” she said at the time.
“You want to be mad at yourself for not knowing any better. Your mind makes you feel so sneaky guilty: you’re guilty, shame on you, you brought this on yourself.”
Santana later told the Guardian in 2014 that her abuser was a tourist who was friends with her family.
He remembered how his mother had confronted him in front of his siblings for years of abuse, which he had said was a burden.
“I was the victim, but they heard that I did it,” he said. “It stayed with me for a long, long time—that he didn’t have the compassion to say, ‘I feel so bad for not reading the signs.