José María Balbino Venancio Samper Agudelo (31 March 1828 — 22 July 1888) was a Colombian a liberal political thinker and writer, he also worked as a journalist, lawyer, and politician. In his writing he covered many genres including poetry, drama, comedy, novels, didactic works, biographies, travel books, and critical and historical essays. He collaborated in different periodicals of his time, was Founder of La Revista Americana, Editor of El Deber, and Director of El Comercio of Lima

Lima

Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

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Personal life

José María was born on 31 March 1828 to José María Samper Blanco and Tomasa Agudelo y Tafur, in Honda

Honda, Tolima

Honda is a town and municipality in the Tolima department of Colombia. The population of the municipality was 26,873 as of the 2005 census. Along with Líbano, Honda is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Líbano-Honda...

 when it was part of the Department of Cundinamarca, now present-day Tolima. Among his siblings, two stand out, Agripina

Agripina Samper Agudelo

Agripina Casimira de los Dolores Samper Agudelo was a Colombian poet. Member of a literary family, she wrote prose and poetry under her pseudonym "Pía-Rigán", an anagram of her given name.-Personal life:...

, who was married to Manuel Ancízar

Manuel Ancízar

Manuel Esteban Ancízar Basterra was a Colombian lawyer, writer, and journalist of Colombia.He was born in the state of Cundinamarca and educated in Bogotá. He then spent time in Cuba and Caracas, Venezuela, returning in 1847. He founded a publishing house and a newspaper before joining the...

, and his older brother Miguel

Miguel Samper Agudelo

Miguel Samper Agudelo was a Colombian lawyer, businessman, and politician. In politics he distinguished himself as a proponent of abolitionism and economic reform, ans as a Liberal candidate for the 1898 Colombian presidential election.-Career:Educated by José Manuel Groot, he later attended Saint...

, a businessman and politician and the great-grandfather of Ernesto Samper Pizano. He married Elvira Levi Espina in 1851, but she died soon after in 1852 leaving no children. On 5 May 1855 he married Soledad Acosta Kemble, a renowned writer and journalist, and together they had four daughters, Bertilda

Bertilda Samper Acosta

Bertilda Samper Acosta later known as Sister María Ignacia was a Colombian Roman Catholic nun, poet and writer. The daughter of José María Samper Agudelo and Soledad Acosta Kemble, both writers and journalists of great renown in Colombia...

, who become a nun

Nun

A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

, and took up poetry like her parents, Carolina (b. 1857) and María Josefa (b. 1860), both of whom died in 1872 during a smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

outbreak in Bogotá, and Blanca Leonor (b. 1862).

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