Diego de Alvear y Ponce de León

Diego de Alvear y Ponce de León (1749–1830) was a Spanish military commander and politician.

A grandson of the founder of the "Alvear" wine company of Montilla, he was the father of the Argentine politician Carlos María de Alvear, grandfather of another Argentine politician, Torcuato de Alvear, and great-grandfather of Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, the president of Argentina between 1922 and 1928.

He took the name of his grandfather, Diego de Alvear y Escalera, the founder of Alvear. Ponce de León belonged, therefore, to an important family of wine growers in Andalusia.

He studied in Jesuit schools, first in Montilla and later at Granada, until the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767. After entering the Spanish navy as midshipman (1770), he arrived at the Rio de la Plata in 1774 and fought in the "Sacramento War" (also known as "Ceballos Expedition" 1776-1777). Its name derives from a colonial conflict between Spain and Portugal for control of Colonia del Sacramento in what today is Uruguay, where the Spanish forces were commanded by Pedro de Cevallos. After a favorable resolution to Spanish interests, Charles III created the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and named general Pedro de Cevallos as viceroy.

It was on this new viceroyalty where Diego de Alvear y Ponce de León lived for almost thirty years. He continued his ascending military career reaching the rank of general and in 1781 wed María Balbastro, with whom he had nine children.

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