Santana

Santana (サンタナ  Santana) is part of the special group of beings called The Pillar Men, though he has been abandoned by Kars's group.

Personality
Santana is, like his brethren, violent and aloof. Also like the other Pillar Men, he is shown to be very intelligent, capable of disassembling weapons far ahead of his time and of learning other languages from only moments of exposure to them.

History
Santana had originally lived in Mexico with the other Pillar Men, and some time after, had turned to stone in exposure to the sun and became trapped in the pillar.

The presence of the stone masks near his resting spot suggests that Santana was one of the proponents for Kars's Stone Mask project, though the location of his resting spot in Mexico suggests that he did not go to Rome to fight the ripple users and became trapped in the column by other means. The comments of the other three Pillar Men shows that they at least knew about and acknowledged his existence. Kars considers him weaker compared to his companions who went to Rome with him, stating that Santana was unable to keep up with the abilities of the other three and has lived only 1/10 of their lives, hinting that Santana was abandoned by his brethren.

Battle Tendency
Santana is discovered in a Mexican pyramid in 1938 by an expedition team led by Robert Edward O. Speedwagon that is later betrayed by Straizo. However, Straizo notices that Santana had been absorbing the blood he shed and, to prevent Santana from awakening, dumped the bodies of the men he attacked into a nearby river. Santana is then excavated and studied by a team of Nazis in an underground base. The team, led by Major Rudol von Stroheim, conducts live human experiments with the stone mask in order to try to strengthen the Nazi Army. The blood from a Jewish prisoner causes Santana to awaken, after which they attempt to conduct behavioral experiments on him. Santana is revealed to feed on vampires and is able to absorb food from the surface of his body. Santana, sensing hostility within the iron, fortified room, breaks many of his own bones in order to squeeze himself into the 4-by-20 cm ventilation outlet of the room, doing so at a speed faster than human eyes can perceive. Santana is then shot with machine guns, but quickly learns both their language and the mechanisms of their weapons from only minutes of contact. He then fires the bullets inside his body from his fingertips, killing almost everyone in the room.



Joseph Joestar (disguised as a Nazi) protects Speedwagon, Stroheim, and himself from Santana's attack by channeling the ripple into Stroheim's hair and using it to shield them. Santana, expressing annoyance at Joseph's antics, tries to absorb Joseph into his body but Joseph uses this opportunity to send the ripple into him. Joseph is able to tie him up and attempts to drag him outside the shelter so that he can be destroyed by the sunlight. After a struggle involving Stroheim sacrificing one of his legs the door to the outside is open and Santana is exposed to the light. However, he quickly forces himself into Stroheim's body in order to escape the sun. Stroheim makes a sacrifice and blows himself up, forcing Santana into the open. Santana attempts to hide inside a well and Joseph goes down the well with him. Santana is exposed to the sun due to light reflecting off the water at the bottom of the well, and is turned to stone. The remains of Santana are seen under the care of the Speedwagon Foundation, where it is kept immobile by UV Lights. A snake is absorbed and turned to stone upon touching it, showing Santana is still alive.

Steel Ball Run
It is possible that the 'Santana Winds' blowing from Mexico at the start of Steel Ball Run are in homage to Santana, as well as a possible pun on the Santa Anna winds.

Trivia

 * Santana is the only one of the Pillar Men whose "past" or "true" name is unknown; he was nicknamed "Santana" by Stroheim.