Written under the pen-name of "Manuel de Santa Cruz", it covers the history of Carlism between 1939 and 1966 and is considered a fundamental work of reference for any student of the movement in the Francoist era.

Galarreta is also moderately recognized as a periodista, who contributed to numerous right-wing periodicals; for almost 40 years he was the moving spirit behind a Navarrese weekly/bi-weekly Siempre P'alante.

[1] One branch settled in the Navarrese hamlet of Zudaire in Sierra de Urbasa; they got their hidalguia confirmed in the late 16th century and re-confirmed a number of times later.

[4] His great-grandson and the grandfather of Alberto, Felipe Ruiz de Galarreta Dombrasas (died 1926)[5] was also born in Estella, but some time in the 1870s he moved to Pamplona, where in 1875 he married Pilar Maestu (in some spellings Maeztu)[6] Navarro.

[12] He entered into commerce and traded in grain and seeds; at Camino de la Estación in Pamplona he operated a large warehouse[13] and travelled on business to Guatemala[14] or Argentina.

[21] They spent their childhood in San Sebastián;[22] none of the sources consulted provided information on his early schooling and fate during the civil war, though one notes that he “vividly remembered those years of terror and heroism”.

[30] Their son José Ignacio Ruiz de Galarreta Hualde was a Jesuit theologian[31] and author of numerous popular books revolving around religious topics.

[57] Galarreta did not receive a professional education as an historian, though from the onset he was tempted by historiography; his academic dissertation was dedicated to the history of medicine[58] and focused on José Gómez Ocaña.

In 1979 as "Manuel de Santa Cruz"[62] he issued the first volume of what became a massive series, titled Apuntes y documentos para la historia del tradicionalismo español.

Though the backbone of each volume are excerpts from or complete written sources, reproduced literally,[68] they are enveloped in the author's narrative which sets the background and advances an interpretative perspective.

First he tried to re-launch a series of dinners known as Cenas de Cristo Rey; they were designed as measures of countering the new currents and advocated the Integrist vision of religion and public life.

[86] In the 1980s Galarreta engaged in the movement of so-called Uniones Seglares, grass-root organizations set up to oppose secularization and promote religious values.

In the 1960s he joined forces with Eugenio Vegas Latapié, who represented a competitive branch of monarchism, to found Ciudad Católica, and kept contributing to this prestigious intellectual review during the decades to come.

In the early 1980s Galarreta was the moving spirit behind founding Siempre P’alante,[97] a popular Navarrese periodical strongly flavored with the Integrist vision of culture and religion;[98] at the same time he was writing for a prestigious intellectual monthly Verbo.

[105] When serving in the navy (in 1954 he was capitán,[106] in 1964 comandante,[107] and in 1974 teniente coronel[108]) he was hardly in a position to voice genuine political preferences, and none of the works dealing with Carlist history during early Francoism note his direct engagement in the movement.

[109] The first notes on Galarreta's links with the Carlist political organization come from the early 1960s, when he formed the intellectual entourage of the then Jefe Delegado, José María Valiente.

[110] In 1963 he was the co-author and the moving spirit behind El Carlismo y la Unidad Católica, a document issued by the Comunión Tradicionalista, signed by Valiente and 18 regional leaders.

[118] Following the death of Traditionalist pundits Rafael Gambra (2004), Alvaro d’Ors (2004), Francisco Canals (2009) and Juan Vallet de Goytisolo (2011), Galarreta emerged as "el úlitmo carlista histórico".

[121] Until the end of Francoism Galarreta remained unknown to wider public; he published under nick-names, did not engage in politics and did not hold any role in Carlist structures.

Though until the mid-1980s Apuntes... were greeted with almost total silence in the world of professional historiography and Carlism alike, things changed when the Fundación Larramendi took over publishing the series.

[123] As a result, on both accounts in the 1990s Galarreta emerged among patriarchs of Traditionalism, especially in its Carlist version, and in the early 21st century he was viewed as “el úlitmo carlista histórico”,[124] celebrated as the authority on history and doctrine.

Since the turn of the century he was recognized by some academic historians like Ricardo de la Cierva, José Luis Comellas and Javier Tusell, who considered working on joint projects.

[128] Following his death Galarreta is recorded chiefly as the author of Apuntes..., widely viewed as a continuation of a sort of the “official” Carlist history by Ferrer.

[135] Many point to his Integrist[136] or “en clave neointegrista” outlook, which allegedly plagues Apuntes..., though others limit themselves to noting “parcial óptica ideológica”[137] and Galarreta's nature of "combatiente idealista" and "doctrinario".

[138] This stance made him see the decline of Carlism not in terms of dynastical turmoil, social change, doctrinal deviation by prince Carlos Hugo, or Francoist repression, but as the result of "defección de la Iglesia después el Concilio Vaticano II".