Isabel Oyarzábal Smith

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Isabel Oyarzábal Smith (1878 in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain – 1974 Mexico City) was a Spanish-born journalist, writer, actress and diplomat.

Oyarzábal's first position was of a Spanish language instructor in Sussex, England. After the death of her father, she met Ceferino Palencia, the son of actress María Tubau. Oyarzábal told Palencia of her desire of becoming an actress and Palencia cast her for the play Pepita Tudó. She kept writing and with her friend Raimunda Avecilla and her sister Ana Oyarzábal she edited the magazine La Dama y la Vida Ilustrada. She was also a reporter for the English magazine Laffan News Bureau and the newspaper The Standard. In 1909 she married Palencia and then collaborates for the Spanish magazinez Blanco y Negro, El Heraldo, Nuevo Mundo and La Esfera.

In 1926, she wrote a Spanish folkore book titled El traje regional de España. In 1930 she became the only female in the Slavery Permanent Commission of the United Nations. In 1939, she relocated with her family in Mexico where she kept writing and died in 1974.