St. Ana: A Herstory

Carlos Santana, or nah?

Despite the name of this blog, I don't consider myself a religious person. I was raised in a Catholic household and a majority of my family was raised the same way. Needless to say Catholicism has always been present in my life and I would be lying (A SIN! jk) if I said it didn't influence me. I'm interested in many concepts of organized religion even though I don't think it's right for me. The idea of using the theme of Saints for my blog stemmed from my name, Santana.

Upon meeting me many people ask if I was named after Carlos Santana. Which is like, fine or whatever, but I think it would be really weird if my parents were that obsessed with a guitarist. Also, Santana is typically a last name and for many people in this region that can be confusing. I don't know many individuals (with the exception of men on sports teams) who prefer being called by their last name, but people sometimes think that's what's happening. Nah. My mom heard the name on some soap opera before I was born and she just liked it. That logic seems sound to me but there's times when someone wants a better and bigger explanation, I guess because my name is uncommon-ish? Like sometimes people just name their kids weird names, okay? North. Blue Ivy. Topanga. FRANCIS BEAN. It happens. Anyway, sometime in my Catholic childhood it was pointed out to me that my name was basically a smushed up version of Santa Ana (St. Anne, duh) and that maybe it was my namesake. It wasn't and I knew that, but I kinda just started going along with it. It seemed to better satisfy people when I said I was named after a saint instead of a random character on some trashy day time television show.

So, that's how St. Ana came to be. I can see myself using it as part of a personal branding system for a while. I'm obviously not a saint but I think it's kind of funny to call or describe someone as such. Also, it's not at all meant to offend people but it might and that's okay. Here's a 15th century painting of St. Anne. I can defs see some resemblance. 

Does anyone else get stuck in weird situations when introducing themselves? Anything from explaining your name or general social anxiety (which is a topic worthy of a few posts, imho), I wanna hear!