"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."
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
The Spanish Martyr:
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
Just a few days after the Falange had formed, its first member was killed. José Antonio had asserted that violence would be necessary, and he was absolutely realistic. Many attempts were made on his life, including once when a bomb was thrown at his vehicle. Jose Antonio reacted by getting out of his car and attempted to shoot the assailants. He did not shudder at the price of freedom of speech. Night after night there were reports of "suspect Fascists" being arrested or gunned down. In the speech of the founding of the Falange Jose Antonio declared, "We are not going to that place [the Cortes] to squabble with the habitues over the insipid scraps of an unclean feast. Our place is outside…our place is in the open air, under the clear night sky, sword in hand and stars above".
"One achieves true human dignity only when one serves. Only he is great who subjects himself to taking part in the achievement of a great task."
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
In early 1936 José Antonio was elected to the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes. Being a legally elected official mattered little to the leftist/Red coalition that ruled the government in Madrid, to them José Antonio was a symbol of everything they feared, patriotism, discipline, morality and spirituality. There was no possibility they would ever allow the Falangists to gain any kind of power in Spain, legitimate or otherwise.
José Antonio was an intense intellectual and studied the works of philosophers and political thinkers such as Spengler, Keyserling, Marx, Lenin, Ortega, Mussolini, and Trotsky. He went to the University of Madrid to study law and after military service he began a career as a lawyer in 1925. When his father’s memory was being made a mockery of in the Cortes (parliament), he became involved in politics gave speeches defending the policies of his father and finally decided to run for parliament. The more they attacked and ridiculed his father, the more antagonistic he became toward their insistence on middle-class liberal democracy and parliamentary forms. His disdain for the political realm would inspire in him a theory for a political system that would retain the positive aspects of his father’s regime and create others that would fix the faults. José Antonio also edited the right-wing journal, El Fascio. After it was shut down by the Republican government he wrote for the periodical ABC.
A crackdown on the Fascists was implemented. Fearful of what he might impress his followers to do, the left/red coalition that controlled the so called "Republican" government kept him in jail for several months. In his Last Will and Testament José Antonio notes that it was not until five to six days before he wrote this statement that he was informed of the charges upon his indictment. On November 20, 1936, José Antonio Primo de Rivera was marched out of his cell in Alicante prison and with a crucifix in his hand and "prayer on his lips" for forgiveness for the enemies about to murder him, was executed by a firing squad. José Antonio died like a Man, he died a Hero, a Martyr and a Saint. His death was not reported until one year later and where his remains were was unknown
