The Latin American World - Juan Antonio Lavalleja

Juan Antonio Lavalleja (June 24, 1784 – October 22, 1853) was an Uruguayan revolutionary and political figure. Today's Lavalleja Department is named after him. He led the group called "Thirty-Three Orientals" during Uruguay's Declaration of Independence from Brazil in 1825. His leadership of this group has taken on somewhat mythic proportions in popular Uruguayan historiography. Lavalleja is remembered as a rebel who led the fight against Brazil. But 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.