Against the Odds: How 2 Bay Area Artists Built a Life of Music, Literature and Love

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I met children’s author Aida Salazar back in 2017 at an intensive, weeklong writing class. It was the type of class aspiring writers sign up for to receive feedback and encouragement to keep going, but few end up going pro.

Salazar landed a book deal. Since 2020, she has published four young adult novels, several anthologies, a handful of children’s books and translations.

I recently caught up with Salazar in the lobby of Freight & Salvage, a live music venue in Berkeley, before her partner, acclaimed Latin jazz percussionist John Santos, took the stage with his sextet. The sold-out show marked the 40th anniversary of Machete Records, the label he founded, and the release of his latest album, “Horizontes.”

Salazar was in charge of the merchandise table, a role she begrudgingly took when they started dating more than 25 years ago.

“When I moved in with him, I said, ‘I’m not going to be the one selling your CDs,’ and now I’m always the one selling his CDs because I know his collection so well,” she said, laughing.

That night, she set out copies of her books alongside the rows of CDs, turning the merch table into another symbol of their partnership. Making a living as an artist in the Bay Area is hard enough for one person, let alone two.

Artists are often credited with fueling the soul and character of a place, but in the Bay Area, artists are regularly forced to flee the high cost of living.

I sat down with Salazar and Santos in their home earlier this year to find out more about how they thrive as a couple — and as working artists in the Bay Area. Art, they said, brought them together as a spiritual practice, a creative practice and a vehicle for social justice.

Salazar’s books, including The Moon Within, A Seed in the Sun and Ultraviolet, focus on the experiences of young Latinos navigating everything from their menstrual cycles to immigration to toxic masculinity. Her children’s book, Jovita Wore Pants, tells the story of her distant aunt who dressed as a man to fight in a civil war over religious rights in 1920s Mexico.

Santos, 69, was born and raised in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. His mother’s family was originally from Puerto Rico, and his father’s from Cape Verde, a small island nation off the coast of West Africa. He learned traditional Caribbean and African rhythms from the various professional musicians in his family.

They met in 2000 in Los Angeles, where Salazar grew up. At 27, she was an artist who made a living producing cultural events for nonprofits and arts organizations. At the time, she had a rule of not dating musicians or actors because they “didn’t know when to stop performing.”

“John came in to do a performance at the museum where I was helping produce a concert series,” Salazar, now 52, continued. “He had an energy about him that was really awesome. I had to take him around to different gigs throughout the weekend, and he just made me laugh. He was so down-to-earth and so charismatic. He just didn’t feel like he was performing.”

It also didn’t hurt that he was tall and good-looking, she added.

“When I met Aida, she was a very beautiful young lady,” Santos said. “She’s very natural, very comfortable in her skin. And smart as a whip and communicative. She was very spunky. That was very attractive. And finding out about her work in the community and her background as an activist, I related to that.”

They dated long-distance for about a year, exchanging many poetry-filled letters before Aida decided to move to the Bay Area.

The foundation of their life in Oakland is their house in the Fruitvale District.

The exterior is painted a deep blue with magenta accents. The inside is filled with photos, artwork and decor from Mexico and the Caribbean. A separate building in the back houses a recording studio.

Santos bought the house in 1997 because, like many San Francisco natives, he was priced out of his hometown. In retrospect, the purchase was fortuitous, given how much home values have risen in Oakland.

Santos’ focus on Latin jazz and Afro-Caribbean music could have pulled him to New York City, but he never had the desire to leave the Bay Area.

“I’m not interested in the commercial aspect of music. I’m not interested in winning a Grammy. I’m not interested in breaking records sales because I know that’s not realistic,” he said. “I’ve never felt limited being in the Bay Area. It’s kind of in my DNA. It’s more mellow here.”

Salazar referred to the house as a blessing.

“We call it La Casa Florida because there’s flowers everywhere outside like the big bougainvillea that I just adore,” she said. “It’s been like a canvas to be able to grow all of these plants everywhere and really make this place our home.”

They’ve focused on what Salazar calls “the ultimate creation,” their children. Their first child, Amaly Celeste, died a month after she was born — a loss they are still grappling with two decades later.

“The arts gave us something to express the grief we have and to dive into it and give us some solace,” Santos said.

They have two children. A daughter, Avelina Claridad, 19, is an accomplished dancer. Their son, Marcel Joao, 17, studies music at the Oakland School for the Arts.

“We facilitated them to find their own artistic path, and they became artists not because we wanted them to, but just because we were able to expose them to a world of the arts,” Salazar said.

Salazar plans to release Stream, her fifth novel, next year. Santos hopes to perform at SF Jazz for his 70th birthday in November.

“We’re lucky to be still doing what we’re doing,” Santos said. “I feel fortunate to have met Aida, who I respect greatly for being an artist. It’s [an] ideal situation because we are coming from the same place in terms of how we see art and the role of art in the community and how it’s such an important voice for sanity and for peace in the world.”