Isaías Gamboa

• Name — Isaías Gamboa • Birth Name — Isaías Gamboa Herrera • Born — 12 December 1872 • Birthplace — Cali, Colombia • Died — 23 July 1904 • Place of death — Callao, Peru • Occupation — Poet, Educator • Notable Works — Tierra Nativa • Monuments — Isaias Gamboa Park & Statue • Father — Mateo Gamboa Llanos • Mother — Maria Teresa Herrera Cordoba

Isaías Gamboa Herrera was born on December 12, 1872 in Cali. Isaias was brought up in a traditional Colombian family consisting of Mateo Gamboa Llanos and Maria Teresa Herrera Córdoba, a mother who instilled ideals of liberty and justice, ideals which would influence him as a writer and educator. He shared these ideals with his older brother, Francisco Antonio Gamboa, who migrated to El Salvador and became the first education minister, founder of the public school system in the country and the first school for teachers. His childhood was developed among the green landscapes of El Mameyal, just outside the city of Cali, that inspired his posthumous novel "Tierra Nativa" written in Santiago. He attended elementary school in Santa Librada, founded by General Francisco de Paula Santander in 1822. Additionally received private lessons in grammar and literature from Alcides Isaacs, brother of famous writer Jorge Isaacs, author of La Maria.

He followed the footsteps of his brother Francisco to El Salvador in 1893 where he published his first poems. He was very active in literary circles and was an editor of the magazine "El Figaro" which appeared in 1894-5. After spending time in Costa Rica he migrated in 1901 to Santiago where he became a well-known poet, publishing poems in literary magazines and participating in Poetic Festivals with his poem "Ante el mar", that made him famous. He is cited in the public education curriculum in Chile. He became ill and decided to go back home to see his mother one last time and boarded a ship in Valparaíso but due to his deteriorating health he was disembarked in El Callao the port of the city of Lima, Peru where he died in the Hospital de Guadalupe on July 23, 1904.

• Tierra Nativa (1st edition "El Imparcial", 1904; 2nd ed. 1944; 3rd ed. 2001) - The audio book appeared in 2023 in a podcast.

Isaías Gamboa is recorded as a citizen of El Salvador. Recorded with the occupation writer.