José María Montealegre Fernández (19 March 1815 – September 26, 1887) was President of Costa Rica from 1859 to 1863.

[1] Born into a wealthy family of coffee plantation owners, he was sent to study medicine in Aberdeen, where he graduated as a surgeon.

Under the new constitution he was popularly elected to a three-year presidential term in 1860, after which he handed on the presidency, peacefully and democratically, to Jesús Jiménez.

He suffered a political setback when a coup led by Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez deposed his brother-in-law, Bruno Carranza.

Montealegre decided to leave Costa Rica, and sailed with his family on the steamer Alaska to San Francisco in 1872.