page_title: Claro Abánades López
section_title: Carlist: dictatorship, republic and Francoism
hierarchical_section_title: Claro Abánades López / Carlist: dictatorship, republic and Francoism
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Koninginnedag, in tuin Paleis Soestdijk&#160;; Prinses Irene met Prins Hughes Charles
context_page_description: Claro Abánades López was a Spanish journalist, publisher, historian and a Carlist activist. His career of a journalist lasted over 70 years, though he is rather known as author of studies on history of Alcarria and as editor of monumental multi-volume series of Juan Vázquez de Mella works.
context_section_description: Unlike most Mellistas who left the party to pursue their career elsewhere, Abánades was one of the few faithful and remained also a personal friend of Mella, who withdrew from politics. This boiled down to his political isolation during Primo de Rivera dictatorship; Abánades was active neither in semi-official Carlist structures nor in official primoderiverista institutions. In 1931–1932 together with many already orphaned former Mellistas he reconciled with the new Carlist king Alfonso Carlos and joined the united Carlist organization, Comunión Tradicionalista. He did not assume major posts, merely forming part of Junta del Círculo Tradicionalista de Madrid. His contribution to the cause consisted mostly of propaganda activities: press articles, books, booklets and semi-scholarly lectures. Second-row speaker, he was usually not mentioned in press headlines. His modest personal victory was getting elected to Madrid educational board, hailed by conservative press as “triumph of the Right”.
  It is not clear whether Abánades was involved or aware of the forthcoming coup of July 1936; none of the sources consulted provides also any information about his whereabouts during the Civil War and the very first years of Francoism. A single author claims he joined those Carlists who estranged the intransigent regent-claimant Don Javier and aligned themselves with the partido unico amalgamation line; indeed in 1943 he is noted as paying homage to founders of Falange and involved in the Francoist propaganda, especially El Alcazar. On the other hand, at the same time he was recorded as active in Academia Vazquez de Mella, a semi-official Carlist cultural enterprise; In the 1940s he joined supporters of Karl Pius, styled as the Carlist claimant Carlos VIII, though at that time he was engaged mostly in religious projects, culminating in crowning of Virgen de la Hoz as Reina de Molina de Aragón. 
  Once Carlism abandoned its opposition strategy in the mid-1950s Abánades was awkwardly involved in a new internal power struggle. At that time a young generation of socially minded activists, grouped around prince Carlos Hugo, launched their bid to take control of Carlism. It was they who benefitted most from the new rapprochement policy towards Francoism, as javieristas controlled many new Carlist institutions, now officially permitted by the regime. One of them was Círculos Culturales Vázquez de Mella, soon formatted by the socialist youth as means of disseminating their vision. Not yet ready for open challenge, they invited older Carlists as front-men, supposed to provide them with Traditionalist credentials. Abánades was probably not aware of the plot when elected president of Junta Nacional de los Círculos Vázquez de Mella in 1959, later becoming the honorary president. In the early 1960s - officially reconciled with the Javierista Carlists - he was celebrated by Carlos Hugo and his faction, awarded orders, presiding over official homages to de Mella, quoted as authority on his writings and receiving flattering letters from the prince. In 1969 he published his last article identified, printed in the Carlist periodical.
caption: Carlos Hugo, 1968
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