He was raised in Paipa and attended Jorge Tadeo Lozano University.
[1] Tamayo later taught at his alma mater and Del Rosario University.
He was elected to the Paipa City Council between 1974 and 1980.
[2] Tamayo contested his first House of Representatives election that year as a member of the Conservative Party.
[3] Tamayo won reelection to the Senate in 2014,[4] but was diagnosed with cancer in September 2016, and announced that he would not seek a third senatorial term.