Crónica. GA2-240202501-AA1-EV03

 CHRONICLE

Calendario Obeso

“¿Acaso crees que es negra también el alma mía?... En eso te equivocas, ¡Las piedras más bonitas en el carbón, a veces, se hallan escondidas!”

CHRONICLE

Candelario Obeso was born on January 12, 1849 (Santa Cruz de Mompox, Republic of New Granada) and died at the age of 35 on July 3, 18884 (Bogotá, Colombia). He is considered as the author who initiated the current of black and dark poetry in Colombia.

There is little bibliographical information about the writer, but he was a writer, military man, politician, translator and professor, he dedicated himself to various trades throughout his life due to his precarious economic conditions.

Candelario studied at the Pinillos School in his hometown and in 1866 he entered the Military School of Bogota as a scholar for a year and later in 1867 he entered the Faculty of Engineering, where he later changed to the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of the National University, after two years he obtained his master's degree.

In 1871 he wrote one of his two novels entitled La Familia Pygmalión, some sources say it was written while Obeso was in prison.

During the presidency of Manuel Toro, between 1872 and 1874, Obeso was the national interpreter of Panama and maintained this position until the beginning of the Civil War (1876); during the same years (1873 and 1874) the writer published about 15 poems. The position of national interpreter of Panama made him lean towards liberalism, so he enlisted in the army of that political position; fighting in the civil war in 1876, obtaining the rank of sergeant major.

In 1877 he published what is considered his most important and greatest work "Cantos populares de mi tierra", where he captured the characteristics of his Afro-Colombian community, creating an authentic work.

Other of his works were “Lecturas para ti” (1878), “Secundino el zapatero” (1880) and “Lucha de la vida” (1882).

Candelario Obeso died on July 3, 1884 at the age of 35, from a gunshot wound; in the capital's newspapers it appeared as an accident, but other versions affirm that the writer shot himself with a firearm. He was buried with honors in the Western Cemetery of Bogota.