page_title: José Luis Zamanillo González-Camino
section_title: Dissenting Nationalist (1937-1939)
hierarchical_section_title: José Luis Zamanillo González-Camino / Dissenting Nationalist (1937-1939)
caption_attribution_description: Español: Título original: Desfile de la 5ª Bandera en Tolosa (15/19) Localización: Tolosa (Guipúzcoa)
context_page_description: José Luis Zamanillo González-Camino was a Spanish Traditionalist politician. He is best recognized as leader of Carlist paramilitary Requeté structures during the Republic and as champion of Carlist collaborationist policy during mid-Francoism, though in the 1940s he maintained a firm anti-regime stand. He is also known as representative of the post-Francoist hard core in the course of early transition to parliamentary democracy. He served in the parliament in two strings of 1933-1936 and 1961-1976; in 1961-1976 he was also a member of the Francoist Consejo Nacional. In 1972-1976 he was a member of Consejo de Estado.
context_section_description: While Fal complied with the military ultimatum and left the Nationalist zone for Portugal, within the Carlist command Zamanillo formed the faction of his most staunch supporters. Already in early January 1937 he met Dávila in vain seeking to ensure Fal's return, yet at the time the lot of Jefe Delegado was getting gradually eclipsed by rumors of amalgamating Carlism into sort of a new state party. Zamanillo took part in the February session of Carlist heavyweights in the Portuguese Insua, which confirmed him as member of the strict 7-member executive. During the following session, held in March in Burgos, he and Valiente acted as chief Falcondistas and displayed most skepticism about would-be unification, confirming that attacks against Comunión hierarchy were unacceptable; nevertheless, the junta vaguely and unanimously agreed that political unity was a must. The same month he denounced political maneuvering and presented the military with Don Javier's letter advocating the return of Fal; though Zamanillo remained on amicable terms with Mola, he was viewed increasingly unfavorably in Franco's entourage. In the final meeting of Carlist executive in Burgos of early April 1937 he assumed a hard line, protesting alien intervention in Carlist affairs.
  In the aftermath of Unification Decree, on April 19 enraged Zamanillo resigned from all functions; he was so disgusted with apparent bewilderment among the Carlist executive that he concluded that Fal's exile worked to his advantage, allowing Jefe Delegado to maintain an honorable position. A number of sources claim that embittered, Zamanillo enlisted to combat requeté units, though none provides any details of his service. He might have enlisted to Tercio de Navarra or Tercio de Palencia, where his brothers served, though scarce information does not allow to tell which Zamanillo was meant in the reports. In May 1937 he was still noted in Pamplona, when dodging unification process he was issuing antedated requeté promotions. Also later Zamanillo kept sabotaging unification; in November 1937 and still in Pamplona he assisted Carlist volunteers who deserted from Falange-dominated units and re-directed them to newly formed Navarrese tercios.
  Once Cantabria had been taken over by the Nationalists some young local Carlists started to form anti-unification resistance groups. The dissenters, dubbed "Tercio José Luis Zamanillo", were eventually prosecuted; it is not clear to what extent Zamanillo was involved and whether he held any posts in the new Nationalist administration of Santander. There is almost no information on Zamanillo's whereabouts during 1938, except minor pieces related to occasional Carlist feasts. In early 1939, shortly before the end of the war, he co-signed a document named Manifestacion de los Ideales Tradicionalistas, a memorandum of key Carlist politicians; delivered to Franco, it contained a lengthy discourse arguing that once the war was about to end, it was time to introduce the Traditionalist monarchy. The document was left with no response.
caption: requeté gathering, 1937
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