At an unspecified time, though probably in the late 1920s, Zubiaur Salazar was interned in the psychiatric hospital in Bermeo; in 1926 his wife and son left Bilbao for San Martin de Unx,[14] where Jose Ángel passed most of his childhood;[15] though a Vizcaino by birth, he developed a strong Navarrese identity.

The oldest one, José Ángel Zubiaur Carreño, held high administrative and economic offices in the Navarrese self-government and represented Navarre in various central EU bodies;[23] a longtime UPN politician, he left the party in 2013[24] and assumed more right-wing positions.

He presided over local feasts to honor the Traditionalist fallen,[49] called for the Carlist kings to be buried at Escorial[50] and at the Navarrese border officially welcomed remnants of general Sanjurjo, to be laid to grave during a solemn funeral ceremony in Pamplona.

[54] Supposed to embody "the spirit of July 18",[55] according to later accounts they were intended as dissident manifestations of genuine patriotism, opposed to Francoist distortion of "espíritu de la Cruzada".

[60] According to his own later accounts Zubiaur remained loyal to the Carlist regent Don Javier[61] and indeed in 1946 he was recorded as touring rural Navarre, busy reviving the semi-clandestine Javierista organisation.

[62] Prior to first local elections staged in the Francoist Spain Zubiaur engaged in the open Carlist propaganda campaign and was soon appointed as a candidate to the Pamplona city council himself.

[74] He was noted delivering intransigent harangues at Montejurra rallies[75] and in 1954 was engaged in launch of a clandestine party bulletin, El Fuerista;[76] according to some authors he was its "redactor principal".

[86] When the aging Navarrese jefé Joaquín Baleztena was about to resign, in 1957 the hardliners mounted a scheme to get him replaced by Zubiaur,[87] yet the job eventually went to Valiente's man of confidence, Francisco Javier Astraín.

[88] In 1958 he called to join ranks behind Don Javier and the Borbón-Parmas against any temptations of reconciliation with the Juanistas;[89] speaking at Montejurra in 1959 he demanded unreserved support for Carlos Hugo.

[90] In the early 1960s Zubiaur was one of the best recognized Navarrese Carlists;[91] at increasingly massive Montejurra rallies he was the second most frequent speaker after Valiente[92] and in absence of the prince used to read manifestos on his behalf,[93] occasionally delivering addresses also beyond Navarre.

[95] He did not join skeptics who started to leave the Comunión, kept bombarding Valiente with letters urging re-organisation of the party,[96] published articles demanding total loyalty to the Borbón-Parmas,[97] welcomed the new model of Catholicism forged at Vaticanum II,[98] supported the new policy of consulting the Carlist rank-and-file about the party course[99] and saturated his own public addresses with new phraseology focused on "liberties" and "human personality".

[104] He fully endorsed changes in the Comunión introduced in 1966 as doing away with centralized structure and infusing the fuerista spirit into the organization; in fact, they were intended to fragment power and facilitate Hugocarlista takeover of the party.

[105] However, the prince and his entourage did not trust Zubiaur; though they thought him "more modern" than Valiente and the likes,[106] in the mid-1960s they still considered it necessary to manipulate written versions of his public addresses to make them appear more progressive.

[108] In 1967 the Francoist legislation introduced partial and semi-free elections to the Cortes; less than 20% of all deputies, a so-called tercio familiar, were to be chosen by direct vote of heads of families and married women.

In Navarre Zubiaur[109] and Auxilio Goñi stood as unofficial Carlist candidates[110] and decisively defeated contenders supported by the administration;[111] they have eventually formed a 4-member informal Traditionalist minority in the chamber.

[112] The following 4 years turned to be the period of their hectic parliamentarian activity; it was aimed at dismantling at least some dictatorial features of the regime, opposing new syndicalist designs and promoting more democratic legislation.

Zaubiaur's bid for entry into Comisión Permanente of the diet failed,[113] but he and other Carlist deputies[114] immediately launched public campaign to change the role of the Cortes from "producción de leyes" – i.e. rubber-stamping drafts prepared by administration – into a platform of "effective dialogue" between the people and the government.

[115] He then proceeded to suggest a number of changes in internal Cortes rules,[116] almost openly denounced current representation scheme as fictitious, condemned excessive centralism[117] and demanded more weight for tercio familiar.

[123] In 1968 Zubiaur and few other deputies campaigned against the draft law on state secrets;[124] outvoted, they opposed the launch of constitutional process for Equatorial Guinea claiming that access to information related was severely restricted.

[134] Perfectly aware of his minoritarian position Zubiaur – dubbed "el viejo zorro carlista"[135] – approached the legislative exercise as means of stirring public opposition and using the rules of the regime to dismantle it from within.

[139] He got appointed to a 4-member Consejo Real,[140] was hailed by Hugocarlista press as embodiment of a "spirit of dialogue",[141] toured Carlist princes across Spain,[142] remained in the Navarrese party executive[143] and saw off expulsed Don Javier to the French border.

[150] At the time when Hugocarlistas were increasingly embracing socialist rhetoric, in 1971 Zubiaur tried to mediate during strike at the Pamplona Eaton Ibérica plant and accepted by the workers, was rejected by the management.

[157] This did not amount to total breakup; in 1972 Zubiaur defended in court the Hugocarlista youth from the terrorist GAC organisation, charged with attempt to sabotage Franco's radio address.

[158] However, he did not take part in massive rallies staged in Southern France as "congresses of Carlist people", which led to transformation of Comunión Tradicionalista into Partido Carlista.

Pointing to the so-called "double legitimacy theory" the document denied Don Carlos Hugo any Carlist credentials and marked Zubiaur's ultimate political breakup with the Borbón-Parmas.

[175] In 1979 together with other centre-right politicians[176] Zubiaur set up Unión del Pueblo Navarro, a party focused on protection of Navarrese self against the Basque nationalism and on loyalty to Christian values against the secularization tide.

[179] Zubiaur was also among key men forging the electoral strategy, which included rejection of alliances with other parties; with some 15% of votes[180] UPN emerged as the third political force in Navarre.

[187] The government directed the case to the Constitutional Tribunal,[188] which in 1984 declared Zubiaur's appointment invalid[189] and opened path for election of a socialist counter-candidate, Gabriel Urralburu.

His position within the party was this of a prestigious patriarch, though at times he got involved in an increasingly visible confrontation between the intransigent Jesús Aizpún Tuero and the more conciliatory Juan Cruz Alli Aranguren;[197] Zubiaur supported the latter and he was counted among members of "plataforma renovadora".