Diomedes Díaz Maestre (26 May 1957 – 22 December 2013 ) was a Colombian vallenato singer, songwriter, and composer.
His nickname, "El Cacique de la Junta" ("The Chieftain of La Junta"), was given to him by another vallenato singer, Rafael Orozco Maestre, in honor of Díaz's birthplace.
1975
In 1975, Jorge Oñate and Colacho Mendoza recorded the song "Razón Sentimental" for him on the album "Los dos amigos".
In 1975, Diomedes participated in the contest "King of unreleased song" of the vallenato legend festival occupying third place with his song "Hijo agradecido". The concourse was won by Julio Oñate Martínez with the theme "La Profecía".
This festival took place between April 26 to 30.
According to his friend Jaime Hinojosa Daza, Diomedes was going through financial difficulties and sold a bundle of lemons in the Valledupar market to buy a cassette and with a borrowed recorder he composed the song.
The cassette was presented to the organizers of the contest, then he left to Carrizal because he did not have money to stay in Valledupar, so he heard the results of the competition through Radio Guatapurí, so he knew that they gave him third place.
The next morning he went to Valledupar to claim the award.
His then-girlfriend "la Negra" Sarmiento kept the trophy they gave him as a prize, which she still keeps.
The same year, Jorge Oñate and Colacho Mendoza recorded Diomedes' composition called "Razón profunda" on the album "Únicos".
In the "Rey Vallenato Professional Accordion" category, the accordion player Nafer Durán was the winner, who contacted Diomedes, through the then artistic director of Codiscos Emilio Oviedo, to make a recording together.
One month after the Vallenato Festival, Diomedes and Náfer Durán with his accordion recorded in Medellín the LP "Herencia vallenata" under the Codiscos label, album that included the song of Diomedes' authorship "El Chanchullito", composed for his sentimental partner Patricia Acosta.
Náfer included three songs made by him, "Pobre negro" "Teresita" and "La invitación". Although this musical production did not have too much success, it served to make Diomedes known has a singer.
In those years, the vallenato music market was dominated by Jorge Oñate, Los Hermanos López and Los hermanos Zuleta.
1976
Then with "El Debe" López, they recorded the LP's "Tres canciones" in 1976, and "De frente" in 1977.
Diomedes initially traveled from Valledupar to Bogota, where the producer Gabriel Muñoz of CBS (now Sony Music) made him a six minutes audition with the theme "Cristina Isabel", and when he noticed Diomedes' talent, decided to contract him.
For the album "Tres canciones" Diomedes included two of his songs, "Celos con rabia" and "Tres canciones".
2008
Diomedes Díaz is the biggest record seller in the history of vallenato, exceeding 10 million throughout his career, due to this, he was awarded gold, platinum and diamond records, unique in Colombia until 2008.
2010
In 2010 he won the Latin Grammy in the "Cumbia / Vallenato category".
Loved and idolized by many, Diomedes' followers adopted the nickname "diomedistas", while Diomedes called them his "fanaticada".
His personal life was marked by family instability, controversial friendships, ups and downs with the consumption of alcohol and drugs, accidents, financial and legal problems, especially the death under strange circumstances of Doris Adriana Niño.
Diomedes Díaz was born and raised on a farm called "Carrizal" on the outskirts of La Junta Township that belongs to the Municipality of San Juan del Cesar, La Guajira.
His father, Rafael María Díaz, and his mother, Elvira Maestre, were poor.
His childhood was spent helping his parents and eight brothers with farm duties, while he was musically influenced by his locally renowned uncle, Martín Elías.
According to the journalist Alberto Salcedo Ramos, when Diomedes was a child, he acted as a scarecrow to protect the cornfields from birds and, to avoid getting bored, he sang and exchanged songs as a barter with indigenous people from the neighboring farm in exchange for coffee.
Diomedes' first love, a young woman named Helida, was the one who inspired him to compose his first songs.
Diomedes was also trying to dabble in singing, but by way of derision, he obtained the nickname "El chivato" (the little goat) for his voice during puberty.
He also learned to play the guacharaca and sing verses.
Eventually, his uncle decided to help him train his voice and compose songs; Diomedes mastered his vocal training and was invited to perform at parties.
From Carrizal, he was taken to Villanueva to study in elementary school at the "Liceo Colombia".
During his stay in Villanueva, a childhood friend accidentally stoned him in the right eye while trying to get mangoes from a tree, he lost sight in the affected eye.
Diomedes worked as a gardener to help with his livelihood, and then, dropped out of his studies to be a messenger for the Radio Guatapurí station with Manuel Pineda Bastidas being the manager, who gave him a bicycle to run errands for him, but Diomedes never learned to use it.
He alternated his job with his studies at the "Colegio Nacional Loperena", night shift, where he finished the penultimate grade.
Diomedes' intention of working at Radio Guatapurí was, once inside, to make friends with the announcers and Disc jockeys so that they could play the album that contained his song "La negra", which had recently been recorded by Luciano Poveda and Jorge Quiroz.
Diomedes stayed on Radio Guatapurí for eight months, but due to delaying running errands because of not knowing how to ride the bicycle, he was dismissed.
From his friendship with Rafael Orozco, came the recording of the song "Cariñito de mi vida", which consolidated Diomedes as a composer and Orozco as a singer along with the accordionist Emilio Oviedo.
Through a greeting in the song "Cariñito de mi vida", Rafael Orozco coined and immortalized Diomedes the nickname "El Cacique de La Junta".
Diomedes continued exercising several trades, but always trying to interact with vallenato artists, even working as a prop, picking up wires and adjusting the sound of the microphones of "Los Hermanos López group".
On the advice of his uncle Martín, Diomedes began to dabble in singing.
The accordionist of "Los Hermanos López", Elberto López also allowed Diomedes to sing the last songs of their live performances.
