A TAXI FOR EVERYONE

A tribute to a cab driver of Mexican descent who became a local institution in a segregated Texas city.

Saluting her subject’s determination to “dream big and work hard,” Zapata describes how Roy Velásquez, child of immigrant parents, steered past and over obstacles to found a cab company in the wake of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Serving Austin’s segregated black and immigrant residents, his company grew from one car to 35 in its first year, unlike its “White Riders Only” rivals. Though skimpy on biographical specifics, the narrative does note that Roy also went on to lead early voting drives, helped to integrate a public swimming pool, and was a founding member of the local chapter of LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens. Sandoval Herrera adeptly incorporates photos, newspaper clippings, and banners with protest slogans into retro-style gouache and paper collage scenes of the industrious cabbie driving his car—painted green with a red top in tribute to the Mexican flag—or speaking with multiracial groups of fellow citizens. In her afterword, the author, a native Austinite who identifies herself as the child of white and Mexican American parents, encourages communities to see “inclusion as a strength” and closes with a five-step formula for changemakers willing to follow Roy Velásquez’s example in speaking out against racism and injustice.

A rousing account of an admirable figure certain to inspire grassroots activists.