 At the age of twenty he traveled to Quito to study painting with the noted pictural artist Antonio Salas, where he learned how to paint oil and watercolor.At the age of 33, he and Antonio Neumane created the Ecuadorian National Hymn, "salve, Oh patria".Juan Leon Mera's son José Trajano Mera (1862 – 1919) became a poet, playwright and diplomat, 

In the year 1854, he published his first verses of poetry in the newspaper La Democracia, with the help of writer Miguel Riofrío.