Alejandro Utrilla Belbel (1889–1963) was a Spanish cavalry officer. In the early Francoist period and with the rank of general he held posts of military governor in the provinces of Mallorca, La Coruña and Valladolid; his career climaxed in the early 1950s, when he briefly headed the VII Military Region. He is best known for his instrumental role in anti-Republican conspiracy of early 1936 in Navarre, when as the local requeté commander he co-engineered swift takeover of the region and contributed to rebel advances in Gipuzkoa and Aragón. Politically he supported the Carlist cause. Apart from leading the Navarrese militia, in the mid-1940s he briefly served in the national party executive. Later he abandoned the mainstream Javierista current and sided with the dissenting Traditionalist faction, known as Regencia de Estella.
Family and youth
The family of Utrilla was initially related to Northern Spain; in the Middle Ages its representatives were related to Villaviciosa in Asturias and to the mountainous area North of Burgos. One branch moved south during the Reconquista and as hidalgos settled in the town of Guadix, in the then Reino de Granada. Its first descendant known by name, a Miguel de Utrilla, in the late 16th century took residence in Alcalá la Real, a town built around an ancient fortress in what would become a province of Jaén, in Eastern Andalusia. He commenced a line of its prestigious citizens, which included local jurados, regidores and other officials. In the modern era the family grew to wealth, owned some 500 ha in the neighboring county and later built numerous houses in Alcalá.
Over time the family got branched; some of its less affluent descendants took state jobs, also in the uniformed services. This was the case of Alejandro's father, Juan Utrilla y Utrilla, owner of a modest house in Alcalá; nothing closer is known about him, except that in the early 20th century he served as head of postal services in Jaén. At unspecified time though probably prior to the early 1880s he married Francisca Belbel Tapia (born 1860), a girl from another well-known local family. It is not clear how many children the couple had; some authors claim that Alejandro had one brother and two sisters. He frequented local schools and at one point, perhaps influenced by military traditions of the family, he opted for career in the army. In 1907 he was admitted to Academía Militar de Avila, an intendancy and administration school; however, already in 1908 he was listed as a first-year-student at Academía de Caballería in Valladolid. His cavalry education progressed according to schedule; Utrilla graduated as segundo teniente in 1910.
At unspecified time and most likely in the late 1910s Utrilla married Consuelo León Brezosa (1895-1984); born and raised in Madrid, she was daughter to a physician from Andalusia. They had 5 children, born between the early 1920s and the 1930s: Consuelo, Mercedes, Matilde, Alejandro and Jaime Utrilla León None of them became a public figure, though Alejandro was loosely active in Carlism and in the 1970s he was related to a late- and post-Francoist think-tank ANEPA. Among the grandchildren the best known are members of the Utrilla Palombi family, as Partido Popular activists holding various posts in self-governmental bodies related to Madrid; Elena de Utrilla Palombi was councilor of the Madrid town hall and deputy to the regional chamber, Asamblea de Madrid. Antonio Lizaur Utrilla grew to army colonel, while others landed jobs in medicine or business.
Junior officer
In 1910 Utrilla obtained his first service assignment, namely to Regimento de Caballería Dragones de Santiago, at the time stationed in Barcelona. The garrison duty did not last longer than a year; in 1911 he was posted to Cazadores de Taxdirt, a combat unit deployed in Morocco. At the time the Spanish troops were involved in operations against Berber tribes around the outpost of Melilla. The fighting soon escalated into a so-called Kert Campaign, fought along the Melilla perimeter; during the crossing of the Kert river Utrilla commanded a machine-gun section. In 1912 he was promoted from sub-lieutenant to lieutenant (teniente primero) and with this rank in early 1913 he was transferred to the Cazadores de Alcántara regiment. The same year he was moved from the line to the rear and assumed duties at Cuadro Eventual de Larache, a replenishment centre of the unit.