Jaime del Burgo Torres

Jaime del Burgo Torres
File:Jaime del Burgo Torres drawing.jpg
Born	Jaime del Burgo Torres 1912 Pamplona, Spain
Died	2005 Pamplona, Spain
Nationality	Spanish
Occupation	public servant
Known for	Politician
Political party	Comunión Tradicionalista, FET

Jaime del Burgo Torres (Pamplona, 1912 – Pamplona, 2005) was a Spanish Carlist/Traditionalist soldier, politician, author and public servant

Family and Youth

Sanfermínes 1930

Jaime del Burgo Torres was born in a Navarrese family of a long conservative heritage. Son to Eusebio del Burgo Pascual and Paula Torres Jacoisti, he had 3 brothers and 4 sisters, all brought up in a fervently antidemocratic atmosphere. Treated to the Carlist literary tradition from his early childhood, Jaime tried to contribute on his own as early as at the age of 15, with a poetic essay En Pos. Throughout the 1930s he was publishing dramas set in the episodes from the Carlist history, played in the local party circulos. Early 1930s he commenced economic studies in Pamplona.

Active in Juventud Jaimista, in 1930 he became the secretary of the organization. In 1931 helped to set up a national student Carlist association, Agrupación Escolar Tradicionalista, and was its leader until 1936. Tried his hand as a journalist, writing to the local Traditionalist titles El Pensamiento Navarro and La Esperanza. In 1934 started issuing his own student weekly, a.e.t. After the Civil War married to Maria de las Mercedes Tajadura Goñi. The couple had three children, Mercedes, Jaime Ignacio and Maria Antonia. Upon his death he left 3 children, 13 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. His son Jaime Ignacio del Burgo Tajadura is a conservative politician and was the Prime Minister of Navarre (president of Diputacion Foral de Navarra) in 1979-1984.

Requeté

File:Proclamación de la II República.jpg

Republic announced, 1931

Following the proclamation of the Republic del Burgo got engaged in the Carlist militia Requetés, at that time organized in 10-man squads known as decurias and headed by Eugenio Sanz de Lerín. Along with Generoso Huarte he soon became one of the field instructors, focusing on the Pamplona area. Busy trafficking arms, also participated in street brawls against socialist groups. Together with his father and other militants was arrested following the fatal clashes of April 1932. Charged with illicit gun imports was acquitted for lack of evidence, but remained behind bars until November. Released, became one of the most active Requeté operatives in Navarre, especially under the new Frente Nacional de Boinas Rojas scheme, the leadership of Antonio Lizarza and a new, strictly military organization.

Early 1934, together with Mario Ozcoidi, del Burgo led two Pamplona sections 70 men each. As part of their preparations to overthrow the Republic, April to May 1934 he and 14 other Carlists travelled to Fascist Italy under the false Peruvian identities; at the Furbara air base they underwent specialist military training, focusing on usage of machine guns and granades, infantry tactics and urban warfare. Back in Spain, del Burgo wrote Tactical Rulebook with rigorous instructions as to group alignment and positioning, fire drills, march and engagement distances etc., all calibrated for small groups and mostly urban combat. Promoted to lieutenant, he broadened his training to the Carlist NCOs. Early 1936 Pamplona could already present 3 companies of some 250 men each; del Burgo was leading one of them. Too young to take part in political negotiations, he became one of the key commanders of the Navarrese military organization at the outbreak of the Civil War.

Somosierra, summer 1936

Bilbao's Iron Belt bunker

During the first days of the rebellion del Burgo was instrumental to organizing the provincial Requeté units; he left Pamplona on July 19 as captain, heading the 1st company of the Tercio del Rey battalion. Fought in the Sierra de Guadarrama, unsuccessfully trying to break through the socialist defence lines at Somosierra Pass towards Madrid. Later transferred to the Northern front helped to organize the Vizcayan battalion of Tercio de Nuestra Señora de Begoña. Leading the conquest of Guernica was reportedly shocked by the destruction of the city and engaged in a related fistfight against an army officer. Fearing the Falange militants might cut down the symbolic oak, he led a platoon of Requeté guarding the tree. Commanding a company during the onslaught on the Bilbao's Iron Belt, he was heavily wounded when battling for Santo Domingo Pass mid-June 1937. Evacuated to the hospital, he has never returned to the frontline.

Politician

the Carlist standard

Initially following the guidance of older Jaimist politicians, early 1930s del Burgo started to emancipate. Together with young Navarrese Carlists he despised the parliamentary activities of the party elders and especially accommodation with the Alfonsists. In 1934 del Burgo and the young, who declared themselves fed up with legality, accused the old junteros of 3 years of inactivity, their only achievement having been the alliance with caciques and debris of the Alfonsine monarchy. Instead, they advocated violent vengeance on the Left, to be treated with bomb, dagger and fire. The intemperate tone of the first two a.e.t. issues shocked the Navarrese Carlist authorities and made them call for moderation. Little wonder that Del Burgo did not regret Conde Rodezno’s resignation as the party chief and welcomed the appointment of Manuel Fal Condé. Under his leadership, del Burgo was later allowed to edit Ideario Tradicionalista, published 1937 and styled as a concise handbook of Traditionalist doctrine.

File:Karl Pius Habsburg.jpg

Karl Pius Habsburg

Del Burgo and a.e.t. departed from the orthodox Traditionalist line on social issues, commiserating with enormous mass of miserable beings pitted against the priviledged section of politically dominant potentates; they advocated limitation of private wealth and regularization of profits. Opposed to Carlist landowners like José Lamamié, the students fervently supported the Agrarian Reform, obstructed by the feudal egoism of the odious grandees of grain. The group called for a Carlist Revolution, aiming at a good clean-up of society. Their declaration we are revolutionaries was greeted with amazement and horror by the older Carlist generation. This apparently radical stance was however formulated along vaguely Christian lines, not to be confused with the loathed socialist ideology.

Following the death of Alfonso Carlos in 1936 and the ensuing dynastical controversies within Carlism, from early 1940s del Burgo sided with the followers of Karl Pius Habsburg, who announced his claim in 1943. Styled as Carlos VIII, the claimant was only 3 years del Burgo’s senior and equally radical; the two have forged a close relationship and exchanged a lengthy correspondence over the years. Del Burgo became vicepresident of his Royal Council and one of the leaders of the carloctavist Comunión Católico-Monárquica. At times the royal prospects of Karl Pius seemed even brighter than those of the Bourbon rivals, but his unexpected death in 1953 left del Burgo without clear dynastical allegiances.

the FET standard

Towards francoism Del Burgo remained circumspectly co-operative. Lacking any enthusiasm, he has nevertheless complied with forced amalgamation of the Carlist structures into the FET. Promoted to colonel, served as a military mayor of Pamplona from 1942 to 1944 (setting off el chupinazo in 1943 and 1944) and as a provincial delegate for communication and transport starting 1943. Though he entered the Consejo Nacional of the Falange, due to his growing criticism he was gradually sidetracked from politics to education, culture and tourism. When offered the posts of civil governor of Lerida and Lugo provinces by José Arrese, he declined. Nevertheless, he agreed to enter the francoist Cortes twice, both times from the Consejo Nacional segment. In 1958 he was elected from Navarre, in 1961 delegated. As an author, he glorified Carlism rather than the official francoist doctrine.

Public Servant

key Navarrese point of El Camino

For almost half a century del Burgo was heading the library system in the Navarre province. In 1939 he founded and organized Biblioteca General de Navarra, appointed first director and remaining at its helm during the next 43 years. In 1950 became the provincial delegate of Ministry of Information and Tourism. At this position he acted as head of the local francoist censorship office; he is remembered for censoring The Mark of Zorro, the hero originally advertised, somewhat ambiguously, as El Zorro, friend of the poor, feared by tyrants. In 1964 del Burgo left the ministry and assumed the job of Director de Turismo, Bibliotecas y Cultura Popular de la Diputación Foral de Navarra. Becoming head of the library network in the province, in course of his service he opened 65 public libraries across the region. Having been responsible for cultura popular, he edited and published around 400 popular brochures - writing some of them himself - and organized hundreds of cultural events. Most of them highlighted conservative values at the expense of the democratic ones (he still continued the censorship assignment). As head of tourism del Burgo promoted the province across Spain, developed the Navarrese pilgrimage path section of El Camino de Santiago and drafted the Ordenación Turística for the entire trail. Throughout many years he was also director of Escuela de Artes y Oficios in Pamplona. Resigned from all public posts in 1982, a month before his 70th birthday.

Author

Real Academia de la Historia HQ

Del Burgo’s writings fall chiefly into history and literature. His key historical work is the monumental Bibliografía de las guerras carlistas (1953-1966), the opus which cost 25 years of work. Second to be listed is Historia General de Navarra (1992), a massive synthesis of the region’s past. Then come detailed works related to the history of Carlism and Navarre, most prominent of them being Carlos VII y su tiempo (1994) and La sucesión de Carlos II (1967). Del Burgo is also the author of Conspiración y guerra civil (1970) and a number of minor publications. As a historian he is praised for sound referential basis; the critics usually point to his Carlist bias. He is particularly criticized for an attempt to recalculate the number of victims of the Rightist terror in Navarre; other historians support 4 times higher figures. This controversy coincides with the fact that del Burgo was personally accused of war crimes, the charge he has always denied.

File:Jaime del Burgo book covers.JPG

del Burgo's books

Del Burgo commenced his literary career with poetry (En Pos, 1927) and drama (Lealtad, Cruzados, Al borde de la traición), published during the 1930s. Later on he switched to prose, producing novels and stories throughout 1940s and 1950s. Most of them are set in the history of Carlist wars, designed as a praise of patriotic merits and presented in the traditional, narrative style, by critics labeled as melancholic and sentimental; key examples are El valle perdido, and Huracán. After a break of 1960s and 1970s, dedicated mostly to historical research, del Burgo returned to drama with Llamada sin respuesta, by the end of his life resuming the career of a poet with Soliloquios: en busca de un rayo de luz perdido (1998) and of a novelist with La Cruz del fuego (2000), an adventurous intrigue from the times of Henry I of Navarre.

Apart from history and literature, del Burgo also wrote tourist guides related to Navarre. Altogether he published 67 works. Correspondent of the Royal Academy of History, his career was crowned with the National Literary Prize in 1967. Received a number of other honors, like the Bayonne-Pamplona International Competition Award (1963), Fundacion de Larramendi Award (1993) and Badge of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise (1997), awarded by the Ministry of Education and received in Pamplona in May 1999 from the then Minister of Education and Culture, Mariano Rajoy. However, del Burgo has never received the Viana Cultural Prize, set up in 1990 and awarded by the Government of Navarre.

See also

democratic Navarrese Civil War vision

Catholic Navarre

• Carlism
• Requeté
• Spanish Civil War
• francoism

References

• Julio Aróstegui, Jordi Canal, Eduardo Calleja, El carlismo y las guerras carlistas, Madrid 2011, ISBN 9788499700557
• Julio Aróstegui, Eduardo Calleja, La tradición recuperada: El requeté carlista y la insurrección, [in:] Historia Contemporanea 11, 29-53
• Martin Blinkhorn, Carlism and Crisis in Spain 1931-1939, Cambridge 1975, ISBN 9780521207294
• Jordi Canal, Banderas blancas, boinas rojas. Una historia política del carlismo, 1876-1939, Madrid 2006, ISBN 9788496467347
• Eduardo Gonzales Calleja, Contrarrevolucionarios, Madrid 2011, ISBN 9788420664552

External links

• Jaime del Burgo Torres at Geni
• a Carlist war song (movie)
• obituray
• del Burgo in euskomedia
• friendly account
• unfriendly account
• war account by del Burgo
• del Burgo and the Guernica oak
• del Burgo and his father as conspirators]
• cla
• Carlist military build-up 1930s
• Cortes deputies index
• democratic account of the Civil War in Navarre
• further reading on del Burgo
• requete propaganda (movie)
• the greatest victory movie(1937)
• Carlist war cry]
• a call from far far away