He grew up in Binondo, Manila but went to Basque, Asturias in Spain to earn his bachelor's degree in Arts. Upon his return to Manila, he married a “Tagala” with whom he had four children. He brought them with him when he settled in Negros. Endowed with a pioneering spirit he searched for a place where he could establish a residence and fulfill his dream to carve out fortune. When he resided in Bagawines, he influenced the way of life of the bukidnons. They became civilized and tempered their warring tendencies. He inculcated with them the love of work and the idea of religion. He frowned on laziness. In the hacienda that De la Viña established, unemployment was not known. His work in the plantation made him physically strong and spiritually active. When his wife died, he remarried an Ilongga Doña Narcisa Geopano from the landed Geopano Clan.