page_title: Manuel Fal Conde
section_title: Early public career
hierarchical_section_title: Manuel Fal Conde / Early public career
caption_attribution_description: Español: Procesión de la Virgen de la Esperanza de Triana en el Altozano, Semana Santa de Sevilla, año 1915.
context_page_description: Manuel Fal Conde, 1st Duke of Quintillo was a Spanish Catholic activist and a Carlist politician. He is recognized as a leading figure in the history of Carlism, serving as its political leader for over 20 years and heading the movement during one of its most turbulent periods. Initially he led the belligerent faction pressing anti-Republican insurgency; during the Spanish Civil War he joined the Nationalists; later on he championed anti-Francoist strategy.
context_section_description: It is not clear whether there were any Carlist antecedents among the ancestors of Fal; some authors claim there were none, while others quote his family as exemplary case of Carlism having been transmitted from generation to generation as sort of a genetic code. It is known that Fal's father was a devout Catholic, but none of the sources consulted provides clear information what exactly his political outlook was. It is possible that Traditionalist views were if not reinforced then implanted in the young Fal during his education. At the turn of the centuries the Jesuits were clearly sympathizing with Ramón Nocedal and his Integrist vision of religion and Traditionalism; it is likely that his Villafranca years affected Fal accordingly. He admitted juvenile fascination with address delivered to the college audience by Manuel Senante, at that time one of key Integrist politicians. Militant Catholicism of Manuel Sanchez de Castro is likely to have contributed further on, forming the young Fal as an energetic Catholic activist, possibly along the intransigent and ultra-reactionary Integrist lines.
  Fal commenced his public assignments already during the academic years in Seville; he joined Asociación Escolar Sevillana and soon grew to be its president; the organization remained a fairly typical student grouping, though politically it tended towards "catolicismo político y social", flavored by Traditionalism in general and by pro-German World War I stand in particular. Following his return from Madrid he started contributing to local Catholic periodicals. In the 1920s he excelled, however, in various Catholic organizations, ranging from educational associations to charity groupings to trade unions to penitentiary circles, like Congregación de los Luises, Conferencias de San Vicente de Paulo, various Hermandades de Penitencia, the Jesuit-sponsored Patronato para Obreros, the Franciscan-sponsored Compaña de las Hermanas de la Cruz and a number of others. He also launched some initiatives himself, like the 1924-inaugurated Romería de la Peña de la Reina de los Angeles. Exposure to a variety of structures provided Fal with experience and confirmed his enormous capacity as organizer.
  It is not clear whether during late Restoration or during the Primo de Rivera dictatorship Fal was active in the Integrist ranks. When discussing his post-1931 activity, present-day scholars almost unanimously refer to him as to a former Integrist or even more explicitly as to "antiguo militante del Partido Integrista", though none provides detailed information on his engagement in any party initiatives of the 1920s. When reporting on Fal's activities in 1930, the Integrist daily El Siglo Futuro referred to him as "queridisimo amigo nuestro de Sevilla", which suggests that he might have indeed co-operated with Integrism in general and the newspaper in particular also earlier on, especially that he displayed a particular knack for journalism: he is known to have contributed to various press titles before 1923, launched his own daily later and was correspondent of El Siglo Futuro in the early 1930s.
caption: Semana Santa, Seville, around 1915
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