José Antonio Primo de Rivera

Early life José Antonio Primo de Rivera was born on Calle de Génova (Madrid) on April 24, 1903, the eldest son of the military officer Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja (who would later govern Spain as dictator from 1923 to 1930) and Casilda Sáenz de Heredia y Suárez de Argudín. From his father he inherited the title of Marquis of Estella. He never married. during a visit of Alfonso XIII in 1918. His mother died when he was five years old, and he was subsequently raised by his father's sister, Maria Jesus Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja. He was privately taught at home, and learned English and French. When at university, he did not attend lectures until the second year of his undergraduate studies. He spent his summer holidays at the country estate of an uncle, where he practiced horseriding and hunting. Primo de Rivera went on to study law at the University of Madrid between 1917 and 1923. He helped to organize the student union there, Federación Universitaria Escolar, which opposed the higher-education policies of his father. He took undergraduate and graduate courses simultaneously and he obtained both his Bachelor and Doctor degrees in the same year, 1923. After graduating, he chose the "One-Year Volunteer" option to do his military service while his father was dictator. He served with the Ninth Dragoons of St. James cavalry regiment, stationed at Barcelona. He was court-martialed for punching a superior officer, the future Nationalist army leader, Brigadier General Gonzalo Queipo de Llano. Queipo de Llano had written a defamatory letter against an uncle of José Antonio and against the Dictator himself. José Antonio, ready to defend the honour of his family abused by the Republican general, went to the café where the latter used to socialize, and after asking whether he was the author of the writing, and after receiving the general's affirmative reply, delivered a spectacular punch that made the general roll on the floor, sparking a free-for-all between the companions of José Antonio and the companions of the general. A relatively successful lawyer not involved nor expected to be involved in politics before 1930, the impetuous José Antonio Primo de Rivera decided to do so after the death of his father in his Parisian self-exile in 1930; this was for him the best way to defend the memory of his father, whose work at government had often been derided. In 1931, he was invested "Perpetual Dean of the Illustrious College of Lawyers of Madrid". He ran for office under the banner of the National Monarchist Union but failed to get elected. He was detained briefly in 1932 for collaboration in General José Sanjurjo's attempted coup. During the speech he made remarks stating that violence was needed. Rivera claimed that certain goals could only be achieved through violence, and that the situation called only for insurrection. Stanley G. Payne argues that Rivera's view that violence was acceptable if done for a just cause was paralleled by that of the Spanish Left, who held similar views on the use of violence; unlike the Italian fascists, the Falange never developed a sophisticated theory for their doctrine of violence. Payne argues that because his father had ruled as a dictator with relatively minimal violence during the quieter 1920s, Rivera naively assumed he could impose a new authoritarian system with relatively limited violence, but he would eventually find himself caught in a spiral of killing that he could not control. When he founded the Falange, Antonio was more reluctant to use violence than other leading members of the party; he did not seem to expect violence from the political Left to be directed against the party. However, after Juan Cuéllar's death, he seemed to overcome his reluctance and thus intermittent killings on both sides would continue. Rivera's closing words on the eve of the 1933 Spanish general election made explicit his Romantic nationalism. Stating that the people of Spain would need to make sacrifices in the name of nationalism. And claiming that right-wing parties in the election would not attain his desired result. Despite being a candidate he stated "I take part in these elections without faith or respect." Finally closing with a statement for political action outside of the official government. On February 11, 1934, Falange merged with Ramiro Ledesma's Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista to create the Falange Española de las JONS under José Antonio's leadership. In the view of Gonzalo Álvarez Chillida, both José Antonio and Ledesma probably thought that such antisemitic raids could enhance mobilization within the purportedly threatened small-business sector. He shared with other rightists the belief that violence was legitimate against a Republic that he perceived as influenced by communists, Jews and Freemasons. The upper-class José Antonio abandoned the tie and suit and took on the new blue-shirt Falange uniform (despite later mocking JAP militants because of this, the Falangists were originally dressed in suit and tie); the uniform, adopted in October 1935, was deliberately chosen as a reference to Italian Fascism. In 1935 Primo de Rivera collaborated in editing the lyrics of the Falangist anthem, "Cara al Sol" (Face to the Sun). Every member of the Falange had to obey unquestioningly. They were told: The honour and task of Falange must be gauged by those who carry the burden of leadership on their shoulders. Do not forget that one of the rules of our code of ethics is to have faith in the leaders. Your leaders are always right. Prior to general elections of February 16, 1936, Primo discussed with Gil-Robles the question of Falange joing CEDA-led electoral alliances. He was offered 3 places, including the one in Salamanca which virtually guaranteed the mandate. However, Primo was not satisfied with the proposal, rejected it and decided that Falange candidates would run on their own. Primo fielded his personal candidature in 13 electoral districts, always as individual non-aligned Falange candidate. In total, he won 24,017 votes. He performed best in Cádiz (he was supported by 7,499 voters, it is 4.66% of all voters), followed by Cáceres (4,427; 2.30%), Valladolid (2,793; 2.15%), Madrid city (4,995; 1.20%), Seville city (942; 0.79%), Toledo (1,479; 0.67%), Huesca (260; 0.27%), Oviedo (818; 0.25%), Ciudad Real (269; 0.14%), Orense (141; 0.08%), La Coruña (217; 0.07%), Albacete (87; 0.06%), and Baleares (90; 0.06%). In Cuenca (where Primo did not run) the elections were initially declared invalid due to massive irregularities; they were to be repeated on May 3. This time the agreement with Gil-Robles was successfully concluded and Primo de Rivera was fielded on the list of a joint counter-revolutionary bloque. At this point electoral authorities changed the original decision and declared that the Cuenca elections, scheduled for May, would not be repeated elections, but the second round of indecisive February 16 elections. The change rendered Primo's candidature invalid, as in the second round only candidates running in the first round were allowed to stand (in case of repeated elections an entirely new set of candidates was possible). Some scholars claim that the decision was taken exactly to prevent Primo from standing. Despite this, Primo did not withdraw (peculiarity of the electoral regime was that invalid candidates were allowed on the list). There were 45,828 voters (44.38%) who supported Primo, even though most of them were probably aware that their votes would be discounted. Falange won only 0.1% of the vote; but the wave of instability which greeted the victory of the Popular Front—a left-wing coalition of anarchists, communists, socialists, liberal republicans like the radicals, and others—caused an influx of new members, and the minuscule party grew to more than 40,000 members by July. Imprisonment and death On March 14, 1936, he was arrested in Madrid and charged with illegal possession of firearms (at that time, Spain was awash in privately held weapons on the part of all political factions). Nine weeks later he was transferred to the prison in Alicante. In both Madrid and in Alicante, he was able to maintain intermittent secret contact with the Falange leadership and, several times, with General Emilio Mola. On October 3 he was charged with conspiracy against the Republic and military insurrection, both capital offences. Primo de Rivera conducted his own defence. On November 18 he was found guilty by a people's tribunal and sentenced to death by firing squad. The three career judges who participated in the trial, along with the popular tribunal, asked for the death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment but this was rejected by the majority of government ministers (the two ministers from Izquierda Republicana voted against the death sentence). The sentence was carried out on November 20 by local authorities in Alicante. In his will, he professed his innocence and defended the case of his brother. He made specific wills on what was to happen to his belongings and assigned close companions to retrieve debts owed to him in order to pass it on to those he willed it to. One of the most significant clauses in his will assigned his companions to "destroy all of those of deeply personal character, those containing merely literary work, and those which are mere sketches and drafts in any early stage of development..." and that Franco turned down the offer. Others contend that it was the Republican government who rejected the deal of the Nationalists and that General Franco approved several failed commando raids on the Alicante prison to try to rescue José Antonio. Either way the death of the founder of Falange rid the general of a formidable rival. Perhaps tellingly, it was well known that the two men disliked each other. Much of this disagreement arose because Primo de Rivera strived to become the political leader of the Nationalist uprising. After one of the two meetings they had, Franco dismissed José Antonio as "a playboy pinturero" (a foppish playboy). Elizabeth Bibesco's last novel, The Romantic, published in 1940, starts with a dedication to José Antonio Primo de Rivera, whom she had known during her stay in Madrid where her husband, Prince Antoine Bibesco, was a diplomat from Romania in Spain between 1927 and 1931: "To José Antonio Primo de Rivera. I promised you a book before it was begun. It is yours now that it is finished – Those we love die for us only when we die–". == Post-mortem relevance ==

Falange joined the military uprising against the Republic. The initially marginal party gained ascendancy over the course of the war, partly as a result of its prominent role in the brutal repression that took place behind Nationalist lines. Nevertheless, the party lost autonomy, and in 1937 was made wholly subservient to the will of General Franco when he had Primo de Rivera's temporary replacement, Manuel Hedilla Larrey, thrown in jail, tried and sentenced to death (although his sentence was commuted). Franco decreed the merging of the Falange Española de las JONS with the Carlist traditionalists through the Unification Decree, and became the national chief of the new party, FET y de las JONS. The reign of Francisco Franco nurtured a convenient cult of personality around the dead figure of Primo de Rivera whom Falangists dubbed "El Ausente" (The Missing One). This name was created during the period after de Rivera's execution but before this was officially confirmed to the Nationalist public at large by its leadership on 18 July 1938. While the Falangist leadership knew the truth, they chose to keep it a secret for fear of the impact it would have on morale, though rumours of his death would continue to circulate for the period. Thus until this date many Falangists had lived in hope that de Rivera would still return (commonly saying "when José Antonio comes back") and began referring to him as "The Absent One", a reference to the Falange's tradition of calling "present!" when the names of the fallen were read out. The founder of Falange was anointed a martyr of the "crusade against Marxism." Notwithstanding the apparent veneration by the Francoist State, it remains true that the Missing One's demise had removed a dangerous opponent: Primo de Rivera had been marquis, a doctor of civil law, a political thinker; Franco owned no comparable pedigree, no comparable education and no personal ideology. The postwar cult of personality had two ubiquitous icons. The first, a funereal slab placed on the external wall of many churches and cathedrals which bore the crowning inscription, Caídos por Dios y por España ("Fallen for God and for Spain"), followed by a list of local Nationalists killed during the war; Primo de Rivera's name headed every list. The second was the rallying cry, "José Antonio—¡Presente!," a figurative reply to an imaginary roll call invoking his ghostly attendance or immanence. With the arrival of democratic rule, the legacy of Primo de Rivera and the cult of personality created by the Spanish state started to wane circumspectly. In 1981, the Madrid City Council moved to reinstate the original name of its grand avenue, the Gran Vía, which Franco had renamed "Avenida José Antonio Primo de Rivera" in 1939. However, as late as March 2005, the Guadalajara City Council removed a memorial to the founder of Falange under cover of darkness. Burial At the end of the war in 1939, the remains of Primo de Rivera were carried on the shoulders of Falangist relay teams from Alicante to Madrid (a 300-kilometre journey) and provisionally interred at El Escorial. The church had contained the pantheon of Spanish monarchs but Primo de Rivera was buried directly in front of the altar. Reburial at the Valley of the Fallen In 1959, Primo de Rivera was exhumed and re-interred 13 km away in the basilica of the Valley of the Fallen, located in the Guadarrama mountain range. Between 1975 and 2019 Francisco Franco was buried nearby. In the context of making the site less partisan, Franco's remains were removed from the Valley. This did not establish a clear precedent for moving Primo de Rivera, given that he died a victim of the Civil War like most of the other burials at the site. However, in late 2022 it was reported that Primo de Rivera's family had requested the exhumation of his remains on the grounds that the deceased wanted a Catholic burial. The Democratic Memory Law of 2022 envisaged the future of the Valley of the Fallen as a civil cemetery, and accordingly the government proposed to deconsecrate the crypt of the church in order to promote national reconciliation. Reburial at San Isidro cemetery, Madrid Primo de Rivera's family arranged for his remains to be exhumed from the Valley in April 2023 and reburied in Saint Isidore Cemetery in Madrid. ==Ideology==

He espoused an elitist understanding of politics, influenced by the ideas of Ortega y Gasset. His political thought evolved as he progressively radicalized into a more anti-conservative direction. Primo de Rivera put much faith on corporatism, one of the few early Falangist tenets framed in positive terms, adopted from Italian Fascism. Regarding political violence, he early alluded to what he famously termed as the "dialectics of fists and guns", already stating during the Falange foundation event at the Teatro de la Comedia, that in order to fulfill the desired cultural and historical regeneration of Spain, "if this has to be achieved through violence, we shall not be stopped by violence". Willing to offer an alternative to the most basic fundamentals behind liberal democracy, he also non-accidentally addressed some words of scorn to "that terrible man who was called Juan Jacobo Rousseau" during the foundational meeting of the Falange. Like other Falangists, Primo de Rivera partially embraced the sense of Castilianist essentialism from the Generation of '98, but, conversely, he was also distinctly aware of the cultural plurality of the peoples in Spain, and thus the Falangist national project for Spain was framed following the orteguian legacy as one of "unity of destiny in the universal". It has been noted that at some point he benignly put his hopes on politicians far from his own Fascist stances such as republican Manuel Azaña (in this case for a very brief time) or socialist Indalecio Prieto as potential candidates to alleviate his self-imposed burden for "saving" the country. According to Álvarez Chillida, Primo de Rivera's written works did not feature a marked antisemitism when compared to other Falangist leaders. Though Falangism marks resemblance to Italian Fascism, Primo de Rivera was openly critical of fascism which leaves the subject of whether or not he was fascist in great debate. We believe in the supreme reality of Spain. To strengthen her, to make her great is the paramount task of every Spaniard. Personal interest, collective or class interests must surrender to the achievement of this goal. The third article states unequivocally, We have the will for empire-building. We affirm that the historical fulfillment of Spain is the empire. We seek for Spain a preeminent place in Europe. We do not tolerate international boycotts or foreign mediation. In regard to the countries of Spanish America we favour the unification of culture, of economic interests and of power. Spain puts forward her pivotal role in the affairs of the Hispanic world as entitlement to occupy a position of dominance in global affairs. He restated his position forcefully two months later in a letter to General Franco. At the end of my meeting [with the Minister of the Interior] my determination to go out on the streets with a rifle to defend Spain had not cooled, but it was accompanied by the near-certainty that all who went out on the streets were going to play a dignified part in a defeat. Before the likely crafty and able assailants of the Spanish state, the Spanish state, in the hands of amateurs, does not exist. From his jail cell in Madrid two months before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War he called on all military officers to take up arms against the government. When your sons inherit the uniforms you now flaunt, they will with them inherit either the shame of hearing it said, "When your father wore this uniform what was once Spain ceased to exist," or the pride of remembering, "Our Spain did not succumb because my father and his brothers-in-arms saved her in the moment of truth." If you do, as the old version of the oath says, "May God reward you," and if you do not, may he call you to account. --> It was six-thirty in the evening. In the Palace of Venice, not the smallest sound of bustle. Two militiamen and an easygoing doorman guarded the entrance. It could be said that to enter the palace where Mussolini works is easier than having access to any Public Administration building ... Mussolini works in a huge suite made of marble and almost without furnishings. There he was, in a corner at the far end, behind his desk. He was far away, alone in the immensity of the room ... I knew him from the familiar posters: nearly always striking a military pose, saluting or haranguing. But Il Duce of the Palace of Venice was somebody else: with silver in his hair; with a subtle air of fatigue; with a certain tidy negligence in his civilian clothes. He was not the leader of rallies, but of a marvelous serenity. He spoke pausedly, enunciating every syllable. He had to deliver some instruction over the telephone and he did so in the calmest tone, without the least tinge of authoritarianism ... We chatted for about half an hour. Then he accompanied me to the door across the vast chamber ... Then he returned to his desk, slowly, to start his work afresh in silence. It was seven o'clock in the evening. Rome at the end of a working day spilled over onto the streets in the mild night. Il Corso was all bustle and conversation, like our own Alcala Street about the same hours. People walked into cafés or into the cinemas. It could be said that Il Duce alone remained at work beside the lamp on his desk in the corner of a large, empty apartment, keeping watch over his people, over Italy—whom he could hear in the distance, pulsating—as if over a small daughter. What apparatus of government, what system of checks and balances, counselors and assemblies, can replace that image of the hero turned father, who stays vigilant beside a small, perennial light on behalf of the laboring and of the leisure of his people? On Karl Marx: (March 4, 1934, at the Calderón Theatre, Valladolid) Of course the workers had to rebel one day against that jest [economic liberalism] and class struggle had to break out. Class struggle had a just motive, and socialism had at first a just reason, and we do not have to deny that. What happened is that socialism instead of keeping to its initial course of pursuing social justice among men became a pure doctrine of chilling coldness and does not think, little or much, about the liberation of the workers. There are a lot of workers out there proud of themselves saying they are Marxists. Many streets in many towns of Spain are dedicated to Karl Marx; but Karl Marx was a German Jew who from his office observed with terrible detachment the most dramatic events of his age. He was a German Jew who before the English factories of Manchester, and while he formulated implacable laws about the accumulation of capital, while he formulated implacable laws about production and the interests of the factory owners and the interests of the workers, was writing letters to his friend Engels telling him that the workers were a mob and a rabble with whom one should not mingle except as it afforded an opportunity to test their doctrines. On Fascism in Spain: The movement we are initiating in Spain is not the copy of any foreign movement. It has learned from fascism what fascism has of the idea of unity, authority, and substitution of the struggles among classes by the idea of corporation. ''On Spain's position regarding the motion tabled before the League of Nations to impose military sanctions on Mussolini's Italy for his invasion of Ethiopia'': (October 2, 1935, parliamentary intervention) But I tell you something else—this is the second reason—that Spain, in the moment of deciding whether to remain neutral or not, must consider this exclusively: her national interest and her decorum; she must consider if there is a Spanish national interest in the matter, and there is none in defending the British empire, whom we owe nothing [Mutterings]. Shall I have to bring to your minds the memory of Gibraltar? We do not owe anything to the British empire and we should not defend it and what we should consider is this and this only: what Spain's national interest is. What the decorum of Spain does not tolerate is to adopt a posture of intervention or neutrality because of threats or demands [Applause]. On Capitalism: (November 21, 1935. Arriba, 20) While the current terrible economic crisis is ruining or on the way to ruining the medium producers ["producer" is a euphemism for "worker"], and the working masses suffer the nightmare of unemployment like never before, the amount of profits obtained by the beneficiaries of the present order, the magnates of the banking system, is extremely high. Hence the urgent task of the producers is this: To destroy the liberal system, putting an end to political cliques and to the sharks of the banking establishment. But in order to bring this about two possibilities open up: the communist route or the path of National Syndicalism ("Nacional-Sindicalismo"). There are no other ways out. The two aspire to pulverize this order of things; the two want a new order. On the Right of Women to Vote: (February 14, 1936. Interviewed by reporter Luisa Trigo in the newspaper La Voz, Madrid) I have no faith in the vote of women. However I don't trust the efficacy of the vote of men either. The inaptitude for the poll is the same for her as for him. The universality of the vote is useless and harmful for the peoples who wish to decide their political and historical future by means of voting. I do not believe, for example, that the masses own an opinion on the convenience or inconvenience of some international allegiance or on the maritime policy to follow, or at most, more of an opinion than very few of their representatives. Mr. Antonio Maura made voting compulsory. And what for? In the best of cases the men elected are gentlemen without a will of their own, subordinates of their party, lacking the expertise to solve with unhurried deliberation the toilsome and substantial affairs of the state. Those who are elected are not elected for being the most suitable to the country, but because they are the most accommodating to their superiors, and they have little concern for the laws which once enacted will take the nation down a particular path. On the Soviet Union: (Ibid.) "Rightist," "leftist," they are words with little relevancy. The Russian state is the most rightist of all in Europe and the Soviet populace is the most leftist ideologically ... He wrote the occasional poem and left behind eight extant rhymes composed before the start of his parliamentary career in 1933. The Prophecy of Magellan is an epic one-hundred and five verses long. In the following stanza the teenage author puts on the lips of the Portuguese admiral his own fervent wish to see Portugal and Spain reunited eventually. Toast is a tongue-in-cheek celebration of the virtues of the wine from the small town of Orbaneja del Castillo. The sonnet was printed on the back of the menu at a restaurant in Madrid located a short walking distance away from Primo de Rivera's law office; very possibly the restaurant where he ate lunch. Primo de Rivera dedicated this next poem to the girl whom his sister Pilar Primo de Rivera dubbed "his true love," teenaged Maria del Pilar Azlor de Aragon y Guillamas, 18th Duchess of Villahermosa (1908–1997). The fourth poem is strikingly short, effective. --> == Genealogy ==