with his livelihood, and then, dropped out of his studies to be a messenger for the Radio Guatapurí station with Manuel Pineda Bastidas being the manager, who gave him a bicycle to run errands for him, but Diomedes never learned to use it. He alternated his job with his studies at the "Colegio Nacional Loperena", night shift, where he finished the penultimate grade. Diomedes' intention of working at Radio Guatapurí was, once inside, to make friends with the announcers and Disc jockeys so that they could play the album that contained his song "La negra", which had recently been recorded by Luciano Poveda and Jorge Quiroz. Diomedes stayed on Radio Guatapurí for eight months, but due to delaying running errands because of not knowing how to ride the bicycle, he was dismissed. From his friendship with Rafael Orozco, came the recording of the song "Cariñito de mi vida", which consolidated Diomedes as a composer and Orozco as a singer along with the accordionist Emilio Oviedo. Through a greeting in the song "Cariñito de mi vida", Rafael Orozco coined and immortalized Diomedes the nickname "El Cacique de La Junta". Diomedes continued exercising several trades, but always trying to interact with vallenato artists, even working as a prop, picking up wires and adjusting the sound of the microphones of "Los Hermanos López group". On the advice of his uncle Martín, Diomedes began to dabble in singing. The accordionist of "Los Hermanos López", Elberto López also allowed Diomedes to sing the last songs of their live performances. In 1975, Jorge Oñate and Colacho Mendoza recorded the song "Razón Sentimental" for him on the album "Los dos amigos". Participation in "Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata" (1975) In 1975, Diomedes participated in the contest "King of unreleased song" of the vallenato legend festival occupying third place with his song "Hijo agradecido". The concourse was won by Julio Oñate Martínez with the theme "La Profecía". This festival took place between April 26 to 30. According to his friend Jaime Hinojosa Daza, Diomedes was going through financial difficulties and sold a bundle of lemons in the Valledupar market to buy a cassette and with a borrowed recorder he composed the song. The cassette was presented to the organizers of the contest, then he left to Carrizal because he did not have money to stay in Valledupar, so he heard the results of the competition through Radio Guatapurí,