The Maracas Kid was a name you’d probably hear around Waco in the 1950s, but today you’d be hard-pressed to find someone familiar with that name or his story. But Ruben Salazar is hoping to change that with his latest book Shake it down!: A Tribute to Gabino Rodriguez.
The sounds and rhythms of maracas – a traditional staple of the Latin American sound – quickly fill a community room inside the South Waco Public Library.
But this music lesson is part of a larger story, a piece of local history that Ruben Salazar has recovered. And it goes something like this: Throughout the mid-1900s, GabinoRodríguez, better known as the Maracas Kid, was a local performer, an entertainer who would stroll into venues like the mutualista hall, and play along to the jukebox or shake his maracas to the sounds of a touring conjunto band. He was a character – and Salazar knew it from the first time his father mentioned the name to him.
"Along the way [my father] mentioned a character that they called maracas kid, and it's some dude that used to play in the cantinas and the bars and the night clubs, shaking his maracas and dancing," Salazar said.
Shortly after, Salazar began reaching out to more community members, tracking down anyone who might remember Rodríguez. Salazar says while there were a few who didn’t know the story of maracas-shaking man, the folklore that surrounded him was pretty well known amongst community members active in the Waco night life.
“So unless you were at these bailes, at these cantinas, the pool-shooting scene, the beer-drinking scene, or if you didn’t go to the Waco missions, the big bailes, the mutualista, you probably didn’t know this guy.
But even then, it wasn’t very hard for Salazar to come across people familiar with the local character.
“And of course they didn’t know him by his real name Gabino Rodríguez, they knew him as the Maracas Kid.”
The journey of publishing the story of the Maracas Kid– a biography infused with bits of local history – took several years and for Salazar the importance of writing it was two-fold: In one way, the book allowed him to contribute to the dearth of children’s and young adult books written about or by people of color.
According to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center – a research library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison – of the 3,500 books received by the library in 2014, 59 were by a Latino or Latina author and 1.8 percent were about Latinos. And although there's a sizeable percentage of those books that don't reflect race at all - there's children books about animals, nature or trucks and trains - Salazar says there's still a lack of book that reflect different perspectives, cultures and histories.
Bob Kelley is the branch manager for the South Waco Library. He says not since the Prince of South Waco in 2013 has a book highlighted local culture and history.
“It’s, you know, an advance for recognition to the Hispanic community and it’s history in Waco," Kelly said.
Secondly, says the book inspires generations to discover and write about local histories.
“My ultimate hope is not to sell a 1,000 books but to have 1000 readers, a 1000 young adult readers read this book, ask questions about their own creativity and to ask questions about the Hispanic community and where they came from," Salazar says.
The book, Salazar says, is also important for those who aren’t Hispanic.
"And it's also special for people who aren't Hispanic to begin to ask questions and, like an investigator, find out why, why did this happen and what have we learned from that and how can we use that to address questions today and tomorrow."
Back in the community room during Salazar’s presentation, an older woman, who’s a radio shy – gets up and talks about her memories of the Maracas Kid, vividly recalling Rodriguez’s dance moves. The kids there too. They soon shake along to Salazar’s maracas presentation. And that’s really what the 43-year-old Salazar wants, to bridge generations and communities and inspire kids to write their own stories. He does this all through the lens of a local, quirky character.
And this may not be the last we hear of the Maracas Kid, Salazar has other maracas-related projects in mind, like a children’s book.