The university level history of mathematics in Colombia began on March 13, 1762, when the doctor of Viceroy Messia de la Zerda, José Celestino Mutis (1732-1808), inaugurated the chair of mathematics at the Colegio del Rosario in Santa Fe de Bogotá. Mutis set out to make Copernicus' theory, which brought him serious problems with the Dominicans who continued to think that the sun revolves around the earth. In his chair the first Colombian "scientists" were trained and contributed to his famous Botanical Expedition founded in 1783. Mutis founded the National Astronomical Observatory inaugurated in 1803, the first Observatory of America, in which meteorological and astronomical observations were made. Secondly, I am going to highlight the Frenchman Aimé Bergeron (?), who came in 1848 to the newly founded Military College to train civil and military engineers. Bergeron did the first course on infinitesimal calculus in the country. The French influence in the engineering career at the National University of Colombia was maintained until the middle of the twentieth century. In 1940 another Spaniard Francisco Vera (1888-1967) spoke for the first time about set theory and modern mathematics at the National University and the Colombian Society of Engineers. Finally, I must mention the Italian Carlo Federici Casa (1906-2004) who arrived in 1948 at the first faculty of sciences created in the country in 1947 and conquered engineering students to train them in a degree in mathematical sciences. This program became the first mathematics degree in the country. Federici left a deep mark among the first Colombian mathematicians.

Alfred Rosenbaltt (1880–1947) was born in Polish Kraków under Austrian administration. He graduated from Vienna Polytechnic (1902) and from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where he completed his doctorate (1908). He was interested in many fields of mathematics, but after undergraduate studies in Göttingen (1909–1910, Hilbert, Klein) he started his research in two very popular fields: algebraic geometry and hydrodynamics. Rosenblatt became a known specialist in hydrodynamics. He published almost 40 papers and books on this subject, participated with talks in international congresses, and was invited to present his results at the Sorbonne (1931). Rosenblatt also was doing interesting research in algebraic geometry. His research was known to Italians—Francesco Severi, Guido Castelnuovo, and Federigo Enriques—and they have chosen him to be the chairman for the Geometry Section of the IMC Bologna 1928. He spoke fluent German, French, Spanish, Latin, and Polish. By 1936 he had written about 150 papers. Between 1913 (veniam legendi) and 1936 Rosenblatt was in Poland. He unsuccessfully tried to obtain a chair at a European university. In 1930, he was invited to lecture at La Plata University. He was supported by outstanding scientists, including Albert Einstein and Tuli Levi-Civitta. Rey Pastor sent him an invitation letter, but because of the September Revolution in Argentina Rosenblatt did not leave Europe then. In 1936 he was invited to Peru. This time Rosenblatt left Poland, and in Lima he immediately obtained the Chair of Astronomy and Geodesic at the UNMSM, therefore starting his academic life in Peru.
Rosenblatt is mentioned among the four mathematicians of the twentieth century most important for Peru (the others are F. Villarreal, G. García Diaz, and J. Tola Pasquel).
The long and a difficult way from Kraków in Poland to Lima in Peru will be the main topic of my talk. I am also going to mention some scientific and academic results obtained by Rosenblatt during his Peruvian period.

The Institute of Mathematics, the Department of Mathematics (both at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), and the Mexican Mathematical Society were founded around 1940. This period marked clear signs of an effort to professionalize the discipline in the country. During this time, a Spanish translation of Grelling's book on Set Theory was also published. In this talk, we will discuss some of the origins and consequences of this last event.