José Genaro Villanova y Jiménez (Goxar de la Vega, Granada 1813 - Colonia del Teatino Villacarrillo, Jaén, 1884) was a Spanish politician and businessman, senator of the Kingdom and deputy to the Cortes for Granada in various legislatures under the crown of Isabel II and senator under the reign of Alfonso XII.

José Genaro was the son of Bernardino Onésimo Villanova López, a small farmer who worked the land inherited from his parents and other fields of the Marquis of Guadalcázar, under sharecropping.

Later, in the years 1847-48 and taking advantage of his stay in Barcelona as an employee of the Public Administration, he attended lectures on agriculture and botany.

[2] He entered the Public Administration, where he had already worked since 1831 as an "unpaid meritorious" in the Accounting Office of Granada,[3] starting a long career in the Ministry of Finance.

Parallelly, he was also appointed secretary of the board for the alienation of buildings and effects of the suppressed convents in the province of Almería by the disentailment of Mendizabal.