Candelario Obeso was an Afro-Colombian poet known as the precursor of the Poesía Negra y oscura (black and dark poetry) in Colombia, a literary style that focused on describing the daily activities performed by the Colombian black communities. He wrote his narrative in the first person and using the language the Afrocolombian communities spoke. An example of this is his first book of poems, Cantos Populares de mi Tierra, published by Imprenta de Borda in 1887
He was also a translator of Shakespeare, Víctor Hugo, Byron, Musset, Longfellow, Goethe, and Jonathan Lawrence.
