 Their ancestor was Captain Álvaro de la Iglesia who fought against the Moors in Spain in the 8th century.Lorenzo Iglesias Espinach left his home town of Solivella in Catalonia in the early 19th century to join three uncles on his mother's side who had founded the Chota silver mine, near the town of Cajamarca, in the county of the same name, in north Peru, in 1780.Lorenzo Iglesias Espinach became both the heir of his uncles and sub-Prefect of Cajamarca; was a friend of Simón Bolívar who stayed with him in Cajamarca; and was one of the group of dissident Spanish colonists who supported independence from Spain.