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Street Wise
Avenida Benavides named for Banker and Early Miraflores Landowner
By James Rudolph

Juan Alfredo Benavides Fernández Cornejo was born in the port of Islay (Arequipa) in 1857. He moved to Lima, where he founded the Banco Internacional del Perú, which many years later was confiscated by the military regime led by Juan Velasco Alvarado and subsequently privatized as Interbank.

Sr. Benavides lived on Jr. de la Unión, but traded this property with the Hereen family for a sizable fundo in Miraflores, which was then on the outskirts of Lima. As Miraflores grew, he gave portions of his land to the Municipalidad that today constitute Av. Benavides and Calle Porta.

Like all Peruvians interested in preserving la patria as well as their property, Sr. Benavides fought in the War with Chile, when he was Capitán de la Reserva del Batallón Tarapacá.

He married María Diez Canseco y Coloma whose father, General Pedro Diez Canseco was provisional president of Peru for a brief period in 1868. Their daughter Francisca would marry a third cousin, Oscar Benavides, who also became president of Peru from 1914-15 and again from 1933 to 1939. Their eldest son, Alfredo Benavides Diez Canseco, was an outstanding diplomat, the founder of the Peruvian Olympic Committee and active in a number of Lima's burgeoning private clubs, including the Jockey Club and the Club Terrazas.

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