A cajón (Spanish: [kaˈxon] ka-KHON; "box, crate, drawer") is a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru, played by slapping the front or rear faces (generally thin plywood) with the hands, fingers, or sometimes implements such as brushes, mallets, or sticks.

[2] Enslaved people of west and central African origin in the Americas are considered to be the source of the cajón drum.

It is possible that the drum is a direct descendant of a number of boxlike musical instruments from west and central Africa, especially Angola, and the Antilles.

In port cities like Matanzas, Cuba, codfish shipping crates and small dresser drawers became similar instruments.

[3] Peruvian musician and ethnomusicologist Susana Baca recounts her mother's story that the cajón originated as "the box of the people who carried fruit and worked in the ports," putting it down to play on whenever they had a moment.

[5] After a short 1977 visit to a diplomat’s party and a TV presentation in Lima along with Peruvian percussionist Caitro Soto, Spanish flamenco guitar player Paco de Lucía brought a cajón to Spain to use it in his own music, after being impressed by the rhythmic possibilities of the instrument.

This enables the player to beat it just like a pedal-bass drum, thus leaving the hands (and one other foot) free to play other instruments.