 Alba Alonso Cleaves was born in 1924 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras to Cecilia de Jesús Cleaves and Agustín Alonzo.After completing her primary schooling at the "Escuela República del Paraguay" in Tegucigalpa, she attended the Normal School for Young Women, also in the capital, graduating with a license to teach.With a group of friends, who sought professional careers in law, medicine and pharmacy, she entered the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH).