Juan Antonio Lavalleja

Juan Antonio Lavalleja y de la Torre (June 24, 1784 – October 22, 1853) was a Uruguayan libertador, revolutionary, military general, and political figure. He was born in Minas, in a region now named after him as the Lavalleja Department of Uruguay.

Pre-Independence role

Lavalleja led the group called the Thirty-Three Orientals during Uruguay's Declaration of Independence from the Empire of Brazil in 1825. His leadership of this group has taken on somewhat mythic proportions in popular Uruguayan historiography.

Before leading the Thirty-Three, he had been captured by the Portuguese in 1818 and returned to Uruguay in 1821.

Post-Independence career

After Uruguay's declaration of independence in 1825, Lavalleja was brigadier general and commander-in-chief of its national army between 1825 and 1828. on October 22, 1853, in Montevideo.

Historical legacy

Lavalleja is remembered as a rebel who led the fight against the Empire of Brazil. As one of the major figures in early, post-independence Uruguayan history he is identified as a skilled but reactionary warrior who contributed to the culture of intermittent civil war which dogged Uruguay for much of the 19th century.

Family Lavalleja married Ana Monterroso in 1817; she was sister of José Benito Monterroso.