José María Zavala Castella (1924–1992) was a Spanish politician,éMarí active in particular during late Francoism and during transition to democracy. In 1966–1979 he was Secretary General to mainstream Carlist organizations, first Comunión Tradicionalista and since 1971 Partido Carlista. In historiography he is presented as the chief architect of an attempt to transform Carlism from a far-right traditionalist movement into a far-left radical socialist party.
Family and youth
The Zavala family originated from Gipuzkoa. The one who brought it to prominence was Domíngo de Zavala y Martínez de Arremendía; he commanded Spanish warships, took part in the Battle of Lepanto, rose to contador of Felipe II and in the late 16th century set up a landholding, which became the family nest for generations to come. The Zavalas got very branched; some lines provided many officials and military commanders. One source suggests that José María descended from Juan de Zavala y de la Puente, very briefly the prime minister of the First Republic in 1874, but the information is not confirmed elsewhere and genealogical data hardly match. It is not clear what was the branch José Mariá's father, Miguel Zavala Lara (1883–1973) descended from. He was born in the Andalusian town of Bailén (Jaén province), yet nothing is known of his family. He also opted for the military career, though in its medical branch; in 1911 he graduated as farmacéutico segundo and was posted to the garrison of Vitoria.
In 1915 Zavala Lara married Concepción Castella y García Duarte (1889–1966), an Andalusian girl from Baena (Cordoba province); she was daughter to an established bourgeoisie family and granddaughter to Eduardo García-Duarte, professor of medicine and rector of the Granada University. The couple shuttled across Spain and Morocco following military assignments of Zavala Lara, including Larache (1916), Seville (1920), Granada (1922), Guadalajara (1923), again Seville (1929), again Larache (1932), Canary Islands (1932) and Burgos (1935). Zavala Lara rose to the rank of farmacéutico mayor. When he retired in 1939, his wife became sort of a public figure. In 1936–1950 and as Concepción Castella de Zavala she published some 15 novels; currently viewed as second-rate literature, they combined action and romance with praise of traditional values and patriotic virtues.
The couple had 6 children, all of them sons, born between the mid-1910s and the mid-1920s; José María was the youngest one. Born when his father served in Guadalajara, he commenced schooling during his parents' spell in Tenerife and then in Burgos, in both cases in schools run by the religious. At outbreak of the civil war the family lived in Burgos; at least one older brother volunteered to Carlist troops. In 1937 as a 13-year-old José María escaped from home and also joined a Navarrese requeté unit; no details are available. In the 1940s he lived with his parents in Madrid and having completed school education he commenced work in an unspecified insurance company. In parallel, he pursued evening studies in law, but it is not clear if and when he graduated. In 1949 he married Maruja Díaz García-Moreno; nothing is known of her or of her family. They had one child, Jesús Zavala Díaz; neither he nor his descendants became public figures. The best known Zavala's relative was his older brother Juan Zavala Castella, a career officer; moderately known as military historian and Carlist propagandist, during late Francoism he became director general de prisiones.
Early Carlist engagements (until mid-1950s)