José Manuel de Moraleda y Montero (1750 - 1810) was a Spanish naval officer and cartographer known for his explorations of Chiloé and the archipelagos of Patagonia in the late 18th century.

He was born in 1750 in Pasajes San Pedro in the Spanish Basque country, he was son of navy officer Manuel de Moraleda, and grew up in a family related to maritime activities.

[2] Moraledas works as well as professional qualities are praised by Alessandro Malaspina in his extensive letter to the Spanish interior minister Antonio Valdés.

Twenty years later he was the subject of an essay named Moraleda, explorador del Pacífico insular in a publication of Untzi Museoa-Museo Naval of Donostia.

[7] The mythical encounter with Chillpila would have occurred in 1786 and served later as founding myth for the secret Huilliche society of La Mayoría or Recta Provincia.