Larrea, Juan (1782–1847)

Juan Larrea (b. 1782; d. 1847), Spanish-born merchant and member of the first Argentine patriot junta. Larrea arrived in Buenos Aires prior to 1806. He fought British invaders as a captain in the battalion of Volunteers of Catalonia. An early champion of independence, he was initially associated with the Spanish-dominated Partido Republicano, which controlled the cabildo, or town council. In 1810 Larrea joined Mariano Moreno and other creoles participating in the cabildo abierto on 22 May, and became a member of the first patriot junta. During the ensuing controversy between federalists and centralists, Larrea continued to support Moreno and was exiled to San Juan after Moreno's resignation and the revolt of May 1811. In January 1813 Larrea represented Buenos Aires at the constitutional assembly. Named minister of the treasury under Supreme Director Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Larrea and Carlos María de Alvear were charged to acquire a naval squadron. Larrea accomplished this with the aid of the North American merchants Guillermo Pío White and William Brown. The unraveling of the "united" provinces in 1815 forced Larrea, once again, into exile and obscurity. Reestablished as a merchant, he was appointed Argentine consul general in France several years later. Larrea eventually returned to Buenos Aires, where he died.

See alsoCatalonian Volunteers; Creole; Moreno, Mariano.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carlos Alberto Floria and César A. García Belsunce, Historia de los Argentinos, vol. 1 (1971), pp. 244 and 322-337.

Diego Abad De Santillán, Historia Argentino, vol. 1 (1965), pp. 516-528.

Ione S. Wright and Lisa M. Nekhom, Historical Dictionary of Argentina (1978), pp. 476-477.

Additional Bibliography

Halperin Donghi, Tulio. Revolución y guerra: Formación de una elite dirigente en la Argentina criolla. Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI Editores Argentina, 2002.

Herrero, Fabián, and Klaus Gallo. Revolución, política e ideas en el Río de la Plata durante la década de 1810. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Cooperativas, 2004.

Szuchman, Mark D., and Jonathan C. Brown., eds. Revolution and Restoration: The Rearrangement of Power in Argentina, 1776–1860. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

                                          Christel K. Converse