Pancho Casarez: Food, Fellowship, & Fishing from Walker’s Point

Meet Pancho. Musician. Gardener. Gourmand. Husband. Father. Neighbor.

Longtime Walker’s Point resident and anchor to Milwaukee’s Santana tribute band Abraxes, Pancho Casarez has called the neighborhood home since he was a young child, growing up near 3rd and National and now proud owner of his family’s home near 4th and Mineral.

He’s witnessed the neighborhood evolve from the 1960s. Pancho remembers his dad would volunteer Pancho and his siblings to do odd jobs for an older generation of Polish and Serbian neighbors, including “older ladies with bigger houses.” “They always gave us food,” Pancho recalls. “My dad, my family would never ever take any money. They would always pay us with some kind of dish. I learned about soda bread. Cabbage rolls. Corned beef. We didn’t have that kind of food. We were eating basically traditional Mexican food. It was something very new to us. We enjoyed it. The community coming together.”

Pancho has always loved good food—and he is mindful that clean water creates it. During summer, his Facebook profile teems with photos of fresh vegetables plucked from his Walker’s Point yard garden—sumptuous melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, leafy greens, and more. Later in summer, the photos include delicious-looking grilled meats and Mexican dishes garnished, topped, or stuffed with the vegetables. The secret is out about Pancho’s yard garden. Friends, family, and neighbors have descended for “Build Your Own Salsa” parties to share in the bounty.

The produce of his garden has also led to other neighborly connections. “There was one guy who was working concrete,” Pancho recalls. “And he came up, caught me on a weekend. He goes, can I get some of those chili peppers? I’m like, which ones? He’s like, those red ones. Those really long red ones. They are so good. I remember this from my mom in Mexico before we came here. I’m like, go right ahead, go right ahead. He’s like, I’m only going to take one because they’re so hot. I want it for my lunch… I’ve got like four of those plants and they’re growing so good. He would come by during his lunch and go there and pick one, and he would go back to work. He would always have a fresh pepper.”

Pancho’s father was a Mariachi singer from Mexico who found various gigs around Milwaukee. As a kid, Pancho would tune his dad’s guitar. On occasion, he also backed up his dad’s vocals. At the time his dad commented that he lacked the “charismatic attention” to engaging his audience. Pancho agrees he was too young to be passionate about Mariachi—his emerging love was rock ‘n roll. He studied music at Milwaukee Tech and learned to play guitar. In the early 1980s Pancho formed a band with his high school buddies. The five-man band initially dubbed itself the “Latin Invasion.” Pancho remembers they played their first gig in Walker’s Point at Guadalupe’s church festival, where they got “two hours and an extension cord.” From there the band evolved, gaining experience through the summer festival circuit, eventually opting to differentiate themselves from Milwaukee’s salsa and tejano bands. Santana would be their thing. They adopted the name Abraxes, after one of Santana’s albums—partly because it would fit on a T-shirt. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Abraxes carved out a niche entertaining audiences from corner taps to the Summerfest stage.

One memory stands out to Pancho, showcasing the American experience—Milwaukee-style: Abraxes played a gig to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day inside the former Club Wasabi, a corner tavern/Chinese restaurant at 60th and Burnham in West Allis. “He’s got a Latin rock band celebrating an Irish holiday with a complete Chinese buffet. It was awesome. It was packed,” Pancho recalls. “This is how you do it. Eating fried rice, singing ‘Oye Como Va,’ drinking green beer. That will always stick in my mind.”

In recent years the joy of sharing music—like the sharing of food and practice of neighborliness—has led Abraxes to perform in Paliafito Eco-Arts Park as part of the summer concert series, Music Under the Stars, sponsored by the Walker’s Point based nonprofit Arts @ Large. The park is just half a city block of green space a few blocks from Pancho’s home, and features the landmark “rock bracelet” sculpture. In recent years the park gained a small performing stage and light utilities overlooking a community garden area capable of being irrigated by rainwater collected in a 7,000-gallon underground cistern. Water management was embedded in the refreshed design. The cistern’s installation was guided by the Walker’s Point based nonprofit Reflo and assembled by community volunteers.

Fishing Reminiscence

As a young Mexican American growing up in Milwaukee, when he was 16 or 17, Pancho learned about fishing from Polish old timers who took him under their wing. Pancho learned to dip nets for smelt along the metal shoreline of Jones Island, drag for salmon running the Kinnickinnic and Milwaukee Rivers, and cast hook and line for perch off South Shore Park. There was a sense of community and camaraderie among the fishermen. Though invasive species and other factors have impacted the Lake Michigan fishery, particularly decimating perch populations, Pancho still appreciates the sense of access and connection to the water his time fishing provided. For an extended reminiscence, listen to the audio file below.