Teodoro Núñez Ureta (1912–1988) was a Peruvian painter and a writer, noted for an original and distinctive style in Latin American art.

His work often celebrated the life of the simple people of the Andes and the countryside, as distinct from a Spanish colonial legacy which had tended to ignore such topics.

Lima was more cosmopolitan than Arequipa, with an expatriate European contingent among its elite; this provided Núñez Ureta's reputation a conduit to international recognition.

Through poetic symbolism it presents the frustrations of a poor farmer who migrates to the city, only to suffer a constant yearning for his native land; the story represents a dominant Latin American social phenomenon.

His country awarded him its highest honor, the Orden del Sol, with Grand Cross (1982); Medal of Congress with the Grade of Commander (1982) and Las Palmas Magisteriales, with the degree of Amauta (1988).