Nicomedes Santa Cruz Gamarra (Lima, June 4, 1925 - Madrid, February 5, 1992) was a Peruvian decimist who took his country's culture to different parts of the world. Nicomedes Santa Cruz was born on June 4, 1925, in the Lima district of La Victoria (Peru). He was the ninth of the ten children of Nicomedes Santa Cruz Aparicio and Victoria Gamarra Domínguez. After finishing school, he dedicated himself to working in the family blacksmith shop on Abancay avenue in Chacra Colorada, in the Breña district, a trade he carried out until 1956, when he left the workshop and dedicated himself to touring Peru and all of Latin America. Upon returning to Lima, he decided that he would become an artist. His closeness to Porfirio Vásquez, whom he met in 1946, had a decisive influence on his training as a decimista. In the early 1960s, he participated in the Latin American Folk Festival in Salta, Argentina, dazzling the people of Salta with his poem about the Blanquinegrindio. He assumed the task of reviving Afro-Peruvian folklore that he organized with his sister Victoria Santa Cruz (1956-1961), through radio performances and their collaborations in the Peruvian newspapers Expreso and El Comercio, and other publications. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Nic%C3%B3medes+Santa+Cruz">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.