Ramon "Mongo" Santamaria was born in 1922 in Havana’s Jesus María barrio. Originally a violinist as a child, he switched to percussion and dropped out of school to become a professional musician.

He worked at the Tropicana Club in Havana and traveled to Mexico City with the Dámaso Pérez Prado orchestra. Before Fidel Castro came to power, he headed for New York in 1950.

In 1951, Mongo joined the Tito Puente band, with which he recorded two now classic Afro-Cuban percussion albums: Puente in Percussion (1955) and Top percussion (1957). In 1958, Mongo started performing with vibraphone player Cal Tjader, and timbalero Willie Bobo.

In 1960 he traveled to Cuba where he recorded two legendary albums: Mongo in Havana, with Carlos Embale and Merceditas Valdés, and Sabroso, with tres player Andres Echeverría, a.k.a. El Niño Rivera. In 1962, Mongo returned to the United States and began his natural progression towards jazz. In the early 1960s, Afro-Cuban music and San Francisco jazz jams took place at the Treat Street headquarters and studios of Fantasy Records. The jazz axis of this strange revolution was Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamariarevolving around the axis were Cal Tjader, Vince Guaraldi, Bola Sete, and others.

In the mid 1970s he returned to his Afro-Cuban music roots. Mongo recorded with the Fania All Stars, in 1977, and one year later he won a Grammy for Best Latin Recording with the album Amanecer.

Mongo's superb band was joined by Dizzie Gillespie in 1980, to record Summertime. Gillespie was still a trumpeter of incendiary power.

In recent years, Mongo Santamaria established his residence in Miami during the winter months. He died in February 1st, 2003, at the age of 86, victim of a heart failure.