Although
¡Una, Grande y Libre! was the most widespread motto under Franco's dictatorship,
una Patria, un estado, un caudillo is another tripartite motto which was used extensively between 1936 and the beginning of 1940. The motto was spread by the Franco's confidant, founder of the Spanish Legion,
José Millán Astray, who profoundly admired the
Caudillo. In the first few months of the Spanish Civil War, when Franco was still a member of the
Junta de Defensa, Millán Astray traversed the nationalist-controlled areas, particularly the provinces of Castille and Navarra, serving Franco's personal cause and convincing the troops and officers of Franco's indisputable claim as the leader of Spain. After creating the motto
¡Viva la muerte! (Long live death!), Millán Astray adapted the
Nazi Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer (one people, one empire, one leader) in order to create the motto
Una patria, un estado, un caudillo. When the
Junta de Defensa became the
Junta Técnica del Estado and Franco was named as the head of state, it became compulsory for all newspapers and postcards in the Nationalist-controlled zones to include this motto in their header.
Significance of the tripartite motto Many Francoist slogans were purposely designed to be
tripartite mottos in clear reference to religious symbolism (the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit). This implicitly compares Spain to the defining characteristics of the Roman Catholic Church; "Catholic" (meaning universal), "Apostolic" (meaning chosen) and "Roman" (meaning united). These comparisons must be viewed in the context of National Catholicism, an essential aspect to the Francoist ideology. Although National Catholicism was not a key component of Falangist ideology (and was sometimes even opposed by the Falangists), it was used by the Falange as a rhetorical device. Throughout history, ideas and concepts have often been incorporated into and expressed as tripartite mottos. It is believed that this occurrence originated with Indo-European populations, who worshipped three gods as one. The social classes of these populations were also split into three categories, in a similar way to those of medieval societies and the
Ancien Régime. Other tripartite mottos include "
Liberté, égalité, fraternite" (liberty, equality, fraternity), created during the French Revolution; "
Dios, Patria y Libertad" (God, Motherland and Freedom), used in the Dominican Republic; and "
Dios, patria, rey" (God, Motherland, King) which dates back to
Carlism, a traditionalist, right-wing Spanish ideology. In addition to mottos, examples of other tripartite classifications are the Falange's categories of "natural units of political life" ("Family, town council, trade union"). Furthermore, in the philosophy of absolute idealism, the dialectical method of Hegelian theory (thesis, antithesis, synthesis) is also composed of three parts. On some occasions, these three-part classifications have been linked to a "western" or "patriarchal" way of viewing the world, which contrasts with the two-part "eastern" or "matriarchal" point of view (yin and yang). A song written in Catalan by
Joan Manuel Serrat (Temps era temps) refers to the postwar period as the "time of the
¡Una, Grande y Libre!" ==
¡Arriba España! (Up with Spain!) ==