Juan Antonio Lavalleja y de la Torre (June 24, 1784 – October 22, 1853) was an 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.