Leandro José Díaz Duarte (February 20, 1928 – June 22, 2013) was a Colombian

vallenato Vallenato () or "Szlager" in Wayuu language (from the German "Schlager"), is a popular folk music genre from Colombia. It primarily comes from its Caribbean region. ''Vallenato'' literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing t ...

music composer. He is mostly known for his ability to compose very descriptive and narrative vallenato songs despite his blindness. His songs have been recorded by many Colombian musicians including Carlos Vives, Diomedes Diaz,

Jorge Oñate Jorge Antonio Oñate González (31 March 1949 – 28 February 2021) was a Colombian singer and composer, one of the most renowned of the vallenato musical genre. As of 2004 and since the beginning of his career in 1968 he had achieved 25 gold d ...

, Ivan Villazon, among others. During the 38th version of the

Vallenato Legend Festival The Vallenato Legend Festival ( es, Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata) is one of the most important musical festivals in Colombia. The festival features a vallenato music contests for best performer of accordion, caja vallenata and guacharaca ...

, Diaz was proclaimed "King for Life of the Vallenato Legend Festival" along with

Rafael Escalona Rafael Calixto Escalona Martinez (May 26, 1926 – May 13, 2009) was a Colombian composer and troubadour. He was known for being one of the most prominent vallenato music composers and troubadours of the genre and for being the co-founder of the ...

Emiliano Zuleta Baquero Emilian or Emiliano may refer to: *Emilia (region of Italy), a region of northern Italy * Emilian of Cogolla, a Visigothic saint *Emilian dialects, spoken in Emilia, northern Italy *A Romanian male given name: **Emilian Bratu (1904–1991), chemi ...

, Calixto Ochoa, Adolfo Pacheco and Tobías Enrique Pumarejo.

Early years

Díaz was born in a farm named "''La Casa de Alto Pino''" in the locality known as Lagunita de la Sierra then corregimiento of Hatonuevo in the Commissary of La Guajira which in 1928 pertained to the municipality of Barrancas. Díaz was born blind but that was not an impediment for him to develop a sense of the world he could not see. His parents took him to the Virgin of El Carmen festivities every year, vacation time in which his cousins visited him and sang to him for fun. He composed his first song at the age of 17 years and named it "''La Loba de Ceniza''". On October 4, 1948, Díaz decided to move to Hatonuevo where he participated in numerous parties with friends and which he was always asked to sing. He met local musician "Chico Bolaño" and established a friendship. Bolaño died shortly, death that inspired Díaz to compose the song "''Mañana''".

Life in Tocaimo

Díaz began to travel the region as a singer and established for a while in village of Tocaimo, located in the

Department of Cesar Caesar Department ( es, Departamento del Cesar, links=no) or simply Caesar () is a department of Colombia located in the north of the country in the Caribbean region, bordering to the north with the Department of La Guajira, to the west with ...

, between the municipalities of Codazzi and

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

. while living in Tocaimo, Díaz composed the song "''Los Tocaimeros''", in which he mentioned every single family name in town. He also composed two of his most renowned songs "''Matilde Lina''" and the "''Diosa Coronada''" whose intro inspired the Colombian

Nobel laureate in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

and appeared in the beginning of the novel ''

Love in the Time of Cholera ''Love in the Time of Cholera'' ( es, El amor en los tiempos del cólera) is a novel written in Spanish by Colombian Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez and published in 1985. Edith Grossman's English translation was published by ...

''. He also composed during time the songs "''La Primavera''" and "''La Ford Modelo''" among others. Another hit song, recorded by vallenato singer

, was "''A mi no me Consuela Nadie''". Diaz met vallenato accordionist

Pedro Julio Castro Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

, a native of

San Juan del Cesar San Juan del Cesar is a municipality and town located in the La Guajira Department, Colombia. Etymology San Juan Bautista del Cesar name in en, John the Baptist and ''Chet-tzar'' or ''Sasare'' indigenous language for calm water, the name of the ...

and traveled the region for gigs.

Family

Díaz then met Elena Clementina Ramos, with whom he ended up having eight children, including singer Ivo Díaz. In 1993 Ivo composed the song "''Dame tu Alma''" to honor his father. The song won at the

as best song. He is the father of three children.

References

External links

Colarte: Leandro Diaz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diaz, Leandro 1928 births 2013 deaths Blind musicians Colombian musicians Vallenato musicians

Early years

Life in Tocaimo

Family

See also

References

External links