Álvaro de Mendaña Neira (born in 1542 in the Province of León - died in 1595 in the islands Santa Cruz) was an exploring navigator and there Spanish.

Left the Peruvian coasts in 1567, it crosses the Pacifique of is in west, in the southern hemisphere, and discovers the archipelago of the the Solomon Islands. In 1595, it directs the second forwarding in the Pacific and discovers the Marquesas Islands before continuing until the islands Santa Cruz (end is current archipelago of Solomon) where it dies.