Mateo de la Mata was born in Requena in eastern Spain. His parents were Mateo de Cuenca Mata and Isabel Ponce de León Iranzú. He studied at San Ildefonso de Alcalá for eight years. He earned a bachelor's degree in canon law from the University of Salamanca and a licentiate from the University of Osuna. He was a knight of the militaryOrder of Calatrava. He was an oidor in the Audiencia of Santa Fe de Bogotá, beginning in August 1674. On October 31, 1680 he was promoted to criminal alcalde in Lima. During this time he married Luisa de Céspedes, a native of Lima and daughter of Juan Antonio de Céspedes y Toledo, knight of the Order of Santiago, and María de Arcos y Aguilar, a native of Lima. From January 26, 1687 he was an oidor in the Audiencia of Lima.
As president of the Audiencia of Quito
Mata Ponce de León was named president of the Audiencia of Quito by a decree dated October 27, 1689, but he did not occupy the position until January 10, 1691. He governed until 1699. By this point he was a lawyer and oidor in Lima, with much experience in public administration. As was the custom in the Audiencia of Quito, for the first two years of his administration he was also visitador general. When Mata assumed the presidency in Quito, nearly all the buccaneers had abandoned the Pacific. Nevertheless, he had to address the continuing effects of nearly a decade of earlier, devastating pirate attacks. He assumed the responsibility of building the new city of Guayaquil. In 1693 he sent the oidor Cristóbal de Cevallos y Borja to supervise the design and construction of Guayaquil. The corregidor of Guayaquil, Fernando Ponce de León, died in 1694 and Mata named Oidor Cevallos to fill the position on an interim basis pending the arrival of a new corregidor with an appointment from the king. In 1696 Mata traveled personally to Guayaquil to inspect and supervise the work there. During his government the institutions of the Audiencia were strengthened and the economic situation improved. On the other hand, there was a series of great natural catastrophes, such as the 1692 earthquake at Latacunga, in which 8,000 of the 22,000 inhabitants perished. In 1693 a plague struck Quito and the towns of the Andean highlands. Mata took care that the sick were aided and medicines distributed, applying some of his own money to the purpose. There was also a severe drought during the last seven years of the seventeenth century. Finally, on June 20, 1698, another earthquake destroyed what little of Latacunga had been reconstructed, and also badly affected Ambato and Riobamba. There were a great many deaths. Mata went to the affected towns to aid in the relief.
Later career
In 1699, after his term as president of the Audiencia of Quito, he again became oidor in Lima. Thereafter the king offered to promote him to a place in the Council of the Indies as a reward for his services, but Mata preferred to remain in the administration in Lima. In 1716 Viceroy Diego Ladrón de Guevara, who had been bishop of Quito, was removed as viceroy. Mata, in virtue of his position as deacon of the Audiencia of Lima, was named interim governor and captain general of the Viceroyalty of Peru. He occupied this position from March 2, 1716 to August 15 of the same year. He died in Lima on November 16, 1720.
