Guitarist Jorge Santana, whose riffs on Malo’s 1972 hit “Suavecito” transformed the song into a Chicano anthem, has died at age 68.
Carlos Santana announced his brother’s death on his Facebook page Friday.
Jorge Santana died Thursday of natural causes, the family said.
Born in Jalisco, Mexico, he moved with his family to San Francisco as a child. Jorge Santana began playing guitar following his brother’s footsteps.
He joined a San Francisco-based band that would later become Malo. Their 1972 hit “Suavecito,” released during the apex of the Chicano Movement, became a staple for Mexican American cookouts, weddings and quinceaneras for generations throughout the American Southwest. Its laid-back pace and bilingual lyrics (“never met a girl like you in my life”) came to signify Southern California.
The song remains one of the most requested on the Art Laboe Connection, a syndicated-oldies show out of Palm Springs, California, where D.J. Laboe, 94, allows family members of loved ones in prison to send messages through dedications.
Malo made three albums in the early 1970s with its original members. The band continued playing into the 2000s in different iterations comprising more than three dozen musicians.
Santana also played with the New York-based salsa collective Fania All-Stars. He was one of the few Mexican Americans in a project that included Puerto Ricans and Cuban Americans.
Santana had a solo career as well, and he joined his brother Carlos on tour in 1993.
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