Santiago was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother is Colombian and his father is from Spain. He began his dance training at 8 years old through one of Boston Ballet’s outreach programs called ‘Citydance’. The program visited third grade classrooms of the Boston Public schools and recruited several students to their program. Santiago finished his training at Boston Ballet School in 2017 and joined Philadelphia Ballet 2. Two years later he was promoted to the rank of apprentice. 

In 2021 he joined Los Angeles Ballet where he had the pleasure to dance the Cavalier in the Nutcracker as well as ballets by Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.