On April 20, 1937, in Spain, in a civil society appeal, just five months had passed since the death of José Antonio Prima de Rivera before the execution of a picket in Alicante prison. In the country that left on July 18 before, General Franco has absolute power in the zone under the rule of the Second Republic and makes and destroys his brother.
Practicing endlessly, Caudillo signs on the day this story begins decree that unites the Spanish Falange —the fascist court party that José Antonio led from its foundation in 1933 until its merger on November 20, 1936 by the hands of those loyal to the Popular Front — with conservator hasta la saciedad Comunión Tradicionalista. Disaparecido Primo de Rivera, A phalanx that has been reduced to a mere paraphernalia of an archaic regime whose violent establishment did not contribute to its leadership.
The journalist was able to do that José Antonio Martin Otín with on the book The Secret Diary of José Antonio (Espasa), in that reveal manual notes that the protagonist was returned from the coast in March 1936, the month in which he was arrested by the Republican government, accused of “unlawful association”how his own fortune is shaped in the notebook kept by Martín Otín — known as Petón — lit.
José Antonio did not contribute to the increase of the sector of the army and other reactionary groups against the Popular Front, in power since the elections of February 1936. The French regime was busy manipulating its figure for its own benefit after the civil war. On fusillamento at the hands of the red enemy, nothing more to facilitate the challenge to the dictator.
Franco, of course, whom Primo de Rivera met on the ship of the future Falangist Serrano Suñerocuñadísimo of the general. In another context, Franco’s counterpart pointed out that the “evasive” and “divergent” feature of this I told José Antonio “very disappointed”.
¿José Antonio, coup plotter? Yes. But not in the version distributed by the Franco regime. We go to the stories that our main character tells in his secret diary.
The last day of freedom
March 13, 1936 was the last day of freedom for the young Falangist politician and outcast in the army. Martín Otína to learn the diminuta letra dueño notebook that José Antonio had “romantic adventure” before the endthough the identity of the beloved is unknown due to her having her lover’s name.
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
Esa jornada, en Madrid, dos iglesias fueron incendiadas, una de ellas en la calle Montera. Tras enterarse, José Antonio, católico devoto, “despliega a la Falange por los barrios” de la capital. Al caer la noche “llama al Viejo y le ofrece sus fuerzas ‘por si algo pasa'”, cita Martín Otín.
El Viejo es Manuel Portela Valladares, político republicano liberal que hasta el anterior 19 de febrero había presidido el Consejo de Ministros. Con la victoria electoral del Frente Popular, otro Manuel, Azaña, lo sustituyó al frente del Gobierno.
“Esa noche del 13 de marzo, con los templos calcinados [Portela Valladares] he says no.” Martín Otín cites the memoirs of his own Portela, who on the night he received an emissary from José Antonio, the Falangist Fernández-Cuesta. “Don’t think about it because it’s a joke”cites a quote from Portela that ends: “I ask you the favor of José Antonio to send me again to Fernández-Cuesta to decide that nothing will happen, then I advise you”.
The subsequent free historiography took place in FebruaryIt happened just after the election when Franco and other soldiers came to Portela to not accept the truth about the ballot box. Thus it was possible to connect José Antonio with Franco and the July 1936 putschists.
And this connection was forced by the one who, between the wars, took a portrait of José Antonio as Caudillo “from the walls of the schools”, including “a shack where he pointed to his things, in the middle of a walk, the leader of the metro”. National-Catholic-flavored Primo de Rivera, “sexless seraph” – followed by José Antonio’s own notebook, which records other relationships such as the one I had with the British aristocrat Elizabeth Asquith – and he died at the age of three and three, on the day of Jesus Christ.
José Antonio recounts the detention
“A little bit before. They bring a policeman to my house and hold me. Go to the security, where you will find enough cameras…”. This is the story of the night of March 13, when you entered the prison, so as not to return to freedom. Two days later, on March 15, the notebook will be added: “De matruda they brought us to the Juzgado de Guardia.” The calabozos here are clean, with white tiles, not like the infected ones from the directorate”.
He will also be interned in a model prison in Madrid with several of his companions, including Julio Ruiz de Alda. And in June he will be the Falangist leader taken to prison in Alicante, where a month later you will be surprised by a military sublevation, which will subsequently serve as a damning sentence in a trial to which the justice of the republican ban will be considered in November.
The Secret Diary of José Antonio reproduce in his notes at the end a card from José Antonio in militancyshipped from Carcel Modelo in June, before its final move to Alicante. Related are considerations of “apparent personal antipathy” to Calvo Sotelo. Title “Rear View”, accusing the ultra-conservative forces of following the Falange so that their men would be nice to the coup who mocks the republic.
On October 12, 1936, the gunmen of the Spanish Falange from JONS formed up in front of the Basilica of Our Lady on a Pillar in Zaragoza.
“But what are these people to do? “Is the Falange a carnival where they should carry the weight of so many or so many men?”No blood should be given to any camaraderie with dark plots and more or less obscure machines this knowledge does not follow the normal behavior of our orders”.
The last meeting I had with José Antonio in his newspaper, which he noted in his diary, was on March 12, the day before his arrest. At a partner’s a Falangist named Marciano Durruti, Hermano de Buenaventura, a famous anarchist leader. Martín Otín notes that Durruti in a blue shirt at the beginning of February 36 “travels to Barcelona and prepares the meetings that José Antonio is looking for with Ángel Pestaña and the cameraman Diego Abad of Santillán”.
Another interesting review palabras Buenaventura Durruti about his brother’s jefe, he recalled a few days before his fusilamiento. Martín Otín reports: “I consider it foolish and a great mistake to condemn and bring Jose Antonio down at these times.”which is a story of “a serious error in political tact”. “To condemn José Antonio,” the anarchist leader continues, “the People’s Tribunal irreparably condemned many anti-fascist Spaniards from the Free Zone.”
Durruti and José Antonio Felecieron por herida de bala. One for receptions in the struggles of the university city of Madrid; the other for firing squad shots in Alicante. Both, November 20, 1936, a few hours apart.
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