Nicomedes Santa Cruz
Nicomedes Santa Cruz Gamarra , known as Nicomedes Santa Cruz, was a black Peruvian musician who, from the 1950s onwards, helped to raise public awareness of AfroPeruvian culture.
Santa Cruz was born in La Victoria District, Lima, Peru to Nicomedes Santa Cruz Aparicio and Victoria Gamarra Ramirez, and was the ninth of ten siblings. After his schooling it was decided that he would work as a blacksmith, which he did until 1956, when he left his workshop and traveled throughout Peru and Latin America, composing and reciting his poems. In 1945 he met Don Porfirio Vasquez , who became a decisive influence on Santa Cruzs development as a decimero, a composer using the dcima form. Porfirio Vasquez came to Lima in 1920 and was an early pioneer of the movement to regain the lost cultural identity of AfroPeruvians.
Source: Wikipedia