He became renowned, both in his native land and in Uruguay, after a memorable encounter with Oriental payador Juan de Nava, who carried at the time a certain halo of invincibility.

Gabino Ezeiza was an afro-Argentine born in the San Telmo barrio (a former slave neighborhood),[5] and lived at a time when there were a considerable number of black Afro-descendants in the area of present-day Greater Buenos Aires.

His counterpoints became famous and the one held on July 23, 1884, at the Artigas Theater in Montevideo with the oriental singer Juan de Nava is remembered, witnessed by a large auditorium.

[1] There are those who consider that Ezeiza was the one who introduced the milonga rhythm to payada,[14] and its popularity caused other payadores to spread it to other areas of Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil (on all in the south of this country).

[15] Ezeiza affirmed that the milonga (campera) came from the candombe, a style of music and dance that originated in Uruguay among the descendants of liberated African slaves.