Who I Admire- Kristina Lopez

I look up to and admire many people. This is a hard question for me to answer because right when its brought up I instantly have four people who come to mind and then slowly more and more people who have both affected my life and who I just see on TV and respect start coming into my mind as candidates. I have narrowed my choices down to two people who both have inspired me and who I look up to and have since I was very young. The person who I choose to write about is one of my favorite guitarists of all times, Carlos Augusto Alves Santana.
Santana is no doubt one of the most technical, amazing, and most famous guitarists in the world. He has put a huge inspiration into the instrumental pieces I write on both guitar and in any other song I have put together, even the metal songs. He has inspired me to be the best musician I can be and follow my goals, dreams, and aspirations in music. He was discovered playing in Woodstock when he was younger and after he played his life zoomed forward in a spiral going nowhere but up. He is now known throughout the world as one of the greatest Latin guitarists and has been featured with many other famous artists.
I completely look up to him, he is living my dream that I know I will get to one day and he is forever influencing the way of my playing. My favorite song by him would have to be one of his instrumentals were it is all him playing the guitar, no vocals, no loud percussion, just him; this song is known as Flor De Luna translating to Moon Flower and it is very popular. The song is gorgeous, technical, graceful, and so completely beautiful. It completely mesmerizes me how natural sounding his playing is, not just over the recorded version but also live in concert. He makes the hardest guitar riffs sound easy and he does this with such little looking effort, it all seems to come so naturally to him and that is something you don’t see in many guitarists anymore. He has something you can’t copy. I aspire to be as good as him one day, not only is he an amazing guitarist but he is also one of the only Mexican guitarists known throughout the world for his playing and me being Mexican (I know I don’t look it) just makes him that much more of a role model to me. I respect, admire, and look up to him as the great musician he is. His playing is what I base my playing off of and I will do anything in my power to achieve his level of professionalism in his music. He is one of my biggest role models and always will be.