Juan Alonso Zayas (1869 – October 8, 1898) was a Puerto Rican who served as a second lieutenant in the Spanish Army.

[1] By 1897, Zayas was already a second lieutenant, when he received orders to head for the Philippines as commander of the 2nd Expeditionary Battalion stationed in Baler.

Among his plans for the defense of Baler was to convert the local church of San Luis de Tolosa into a fort.

The independence advocates, under the leadership of Col. Calixto Vilacorte, were called "insurgents" or "Tagalos" by the Spanish authorities.

Spain ceded its claim over the Philippine Islands to the United States in accordance with the bilateral Treaty of Paris.

On June 2, 1899 the battalion's commander, Lieutenant Martín Cerezo surrendered to the Tagalos only after some conditions were met.

He died, on October 8, 1898, from beriberi and with several other members of his unit was buried in San Luis de Tolosa, the church of Baler.