Works by
Deborah Santana
(Writer)
[1951 - ]

Space Between the Stars: My Journey to an Open Heart (2005)
Deborah Santana is a mother, writer, Vice President of the non-profit Milagro Foundation, and Chief Operations Officer of the Santana Band. Her memoir, Space Between The Stars, was a discovery of her own identity and voice, and she wrote it while raising her three children, managing her family's highly successful business, and setting up their foundation. The book is an intensely personal disclosure of her coming-of-age, her spiritual journey, and her eventual liberation revealed through finding oneness with Spirit.

Deborah and Carlos Santana married in 1973 and began their lives together as seekers on an East Indian spiritual path. They owned, and Deborah managed a popular San Francisco vegetarian restaurant, Dipti Nivas.

Born Deborah King in San Francisco in 1951, Ms. Santana is the daughter of Saunders King, African-American blues pioneer, guitarist, and distinguished tenor, who cut the first significant electric blues record, 1942's "SK Blues." Her mother, an Irish-English American worked full-time and modeled tremendous strength of character for her daughters. Raised in a colorblind household, Ms. Santana recollects in Space Between The Stars the impact she felt from early encounters with prejudice at school, and the overwhelming emotion of living in the time of the vitriolic Civil Rights struggle. Deborah writes that her parents infused her and older sister Kitsaun with the will "to be strong, unsubmissive, and unwavering in our purpose."

Ms. Santana's life experiences did not leave her unscathed and her early choices led her through a year and a half of love turned into abuse by Sly Stone. From that painful lesson, Deborah sought a path of illumination and justice and has remained committed to embody and spread peace and to allow her own spiritual transformation to unfold. She has taught meditation and mentored young adults, formed support groups for women and continues to guide the Santana Band management staff.

Ever growing and learning, Ms. Santana offers her writing and work so that others may perceive life as a walk toward compassion and selfless love.
Audio Cassette narrated by Carrington Macduffie