In the midst of the release of his most recent record work titled ‘I’m still Rafael Santos’the eldest son of Diomedes Díaz recalled an anecdote with his father.
It is the day that Rafael Santos graduated as a bachelor and received a sumptuous gift from ‘El Cacique’.
The singer remembers that, at that time, when he had barely 17 years, Diomedes Díaz gave him $10,000 (about 88 million pesos in current currency) in cash so that he could study at any university in the world.
“I didn’t have this, dad didn’t give this to me, but I give it to you because things are different, Santos recounted that the ‘Cacique’.
However, in the plans of the firstborn male the studio was not there and immediately explained to his dad why: “The first thing that came to my mind was the image of me arriving at the university early one Sunday to Monday. I like the singing singing I feel alive, singing is the way to get closer to people, I’m shy. Dad, I’m going to tell you the truth, because I never want to fail you and I don’t want them to tell you: ‘the son of Diomedes came, drunk, gone crazy, and ruined my class.’ I’m going to sing.”
Faced with such a revelation, Diomedes stopped his ‘boy’ dead in his tracks and replied: “Ah, do you think you’re going to be Diomedes? There will not be another Diomedes, Santos. But let’s do a thing, take 5 (5,000 dollars) and I’m going to baby 5 (5,000 dollars) and do whatever you want.”
The ‘Turpial’ tells that those $5,000 he invested them in his first record work with Álvaro López.
On his first recording (1998) the young man born in Valledupar managed to sell 70,000 copies of musical work ‘For the history’ next to Álvaro López.
Rafael Santos recently presented his new album ‘I’m still Rafael Santos’ alongside accordion player Jimmy Zambrano in a work by 12 previously unreleased songs in which he combines the talent of composition jugglers such as Marciano Martinez and Chiche Maestre with new generations such as Sergio Luis Rodriguez Isaac Calvo and Milciades Cantillo.
BY: JOSÉ ALEJANDRO MARTÍNEZ / EL PILÓN