He served as the first Spanish High Commissioner in Morocco and as Captain-General of Catalonia.

Born in Santo Domingo,[1][note 1] son to the Dominican trinitario Felipe Alfau y Bustamante and Rosa Josefa Mendoza Pineda.

[2] Leader of the first brigade of Jägers of Melilla, he was promoted to division general in 1910.

[5] He left the post on 15 August 1913, when he was replaced by José Marina Vega.

[6] Alfau—who, according Francisco J. Romero Salvadó did not take the Defence Juntas seriously—[7] was fired on 27 May 1916 in the context of the 1917 military crisis, and was replaced again by the General Marina.