Leonor Buenaventura de Valencia
Leonor Buenaventura de Valencia (1914–2007) was a Colombian songwriter, poet, singer, and teacher from Ibagué. Her songs La Ibaguereña and Ibagué are considered the city’s anthems.
She was born on May 10, 1914, in Ibagué. Her father, poet and historian Juan Nepomuceno Buenaventura, wrote the lyrics to her first composition, Morir Soñando. Her mother died in 1931, and her father faced financial problems around the same time. She studied music at the Tolima Conservatory, went to high school in Bogotá, then returned to Ibagué to care for her younger siblings. There she taught piano and singing.
In 1938 she became the leader of the children’s choir El Muñequero and led it for ten years. She continued her music studies and earned a degree in the mid-1940s. By the 1950s she was well known as a songwriter. In 1949 she joined the Tolima Choir as a tenor soloist, a role she held until the 1970s, and with the choir she toured Cuba, Guatemala, the United States, and Europe.
In the 1980s she formed her own choir, first called the Leonor Buenaventura de Valencia Choir and later Rondalla Ibaguereña. In 2004 she recorded two albums with her choir at the University of Ibagué. She married Gonzalo Valencia in 1938 and was friends with Matilde Díaz and Lucho Bermúdez, who recorded many of her songs. She died on June 2, 2007, in Ibagué.
Her first piece was Morir Soñando. In 1947 she wrote La Ibaguereña, a tribute to her sister Olga, and the porro Ibagué, both of which became city anthems. She also wrote many songs about death and politics, as well as children’s songs collected in Canciones Infantiles. Notable works include Tolima Mío, Novia del Sol Antioqueño, Calentanita, and Leyendas de Mi Tierra, and many of her songs were recorded by other artists. She also loved poetry, starting as a child with encouragement from her father and uncle, Roberto Torres Vargas.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 22:16 (CET).