This video by Paolo De Gregorio is excellent and comes from information provided by Lucho Rocca of the Afro-Peruvian Museum in Zaña. He posits that the cajón is a descendant of the calabash drum from Zaña, the Checo. I don’t think that connection is as strong as the tradition of the ‘cajoneador’, which is also mentioned. The cajón does not appear in the CODEX produced between 1782-1785. The cajita and quijada do. The custom of the ‘cajoneador’ playing at the foot of a harp (al pie de la arpa) does. Cajones were played in Lima several decades before 1894. Some cajones were sat on, and others were held between the legs. Some were played symmetrically, and others side-saddle. That information about the Condemarin brothers and the photo of one brother playing an upright cajón is significant. Is the cajón an instrument whose origin is in Northern Peru? Perhaps. But there are earlier references to it being played in Lima.
Dear David, thanks for your comment, however, the connection that I suggested between the calabash and the cajon does not come from Lucho Rocca. As a matter of fact I was banned from his Facebook group because he strongly disagreed with my researches. I actually made that connection putting together many significant clues and historical sources that link the birth of the Zamacueca to the Tondero which is an older musical tradition from northern Peru. The first report of a cajón within a musical context related to the Zamacueca is actually from Chile in 1824. This does not mean that the cajón was created there, however it proves that these types of instruments appeared around that time in those places that were exposed to the Zamacueca. This was much later than the Codex Trujillo saw the light. In any case, the Codex cannot be considered a complete depiction of all the instruments of the Afro Peruvian folklore of the times, as it focused on a specific area of the country and it verged on many topics, ranging from botanics to geography. Lima is of course the place were the cajón developed and established stronger than any other. Surprisingly though, there are other unrelated cajón traditions in Africa with more than a century of history. Last year I published a book citing all the bibliography and sources, it is available from cajondg.com
