His political career climaxed at the turn of the decades; in 1937–1938 he held a seat in the first Falange Española Tradicionalista executive Junta Política and in 1937–1942 during two first terms he was member of another top party structure, Consejo Nacional.

[1] The branch which José María descended from was related to the municipality of Ramales, located in the mountainous Cantabrian hinterground area known as Sierra de Rozas.

[4] Prior to 1897 (exact year unknown) Mazón Gómez assumed the pharmacy in Haro, at that time a mid-size Riojan town in the province of Logroño.

To pursue secondary education in his early teens he moved to the Alavese capital Vitoria, where he started frequenting the local Instituto; in 1913 he was noted for excellent marks.

[20] Among the children from the first Mazón’s marriage Eugenio during late Francoism became director general of Correos y Telecomunicaciones[21] and of Obra de 18 Julio;[22] he was moderately engaged in Traditionalism and served in the Cortes in 1971–1976.

[28] However, first information on his public activity is related to primoriverrista structures and generic Catholic circles; in 1923 he was noted as a member of Somatén[29] and in the mid-1920s as a speaker at Cultural Harense, a local Christian ateneo.

[32] As member of comision de instrucción he tried to oppose secular education,[33] protested changes of street names in line with the new Republican fashion, and worked to retain traditional flavor of local popular feasts.

[38] During the anarchist rising of January 1933 Mazón and right-wing concejales re-appeared in the town hall, declaring the need to ensure law and order; they were ridiculed by the mayor.

[53] He was first noted as taking part in nationwide executive structures on March 22, 1937, when all provincial comisarios de guerra gathered in Burgos to discuss the threat of would-be amalgamation into a state party.

[54] Within the strongly divided body Mazón was among the Rodezno-led faction which supported compliance with the military pressure; they prevailed and he formed part of a 5-member delegation tasked with communicating the news to Franco.

[57] On April 4 Mazón took part in the Pamplona sitting of the Navarrese Junta Central, the foci of unification faction; the present devised a last-minute plan of a directorio of the future state party.

[61] On April 19 the Franco headquarters issued the Unification Decree, which declared merger of Falangists and Carlists into the new state party, Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS.

[63] Thanks to his loyalty to Rodezno within the period of one month Mazón converted from one of 20-odd provincial Carlist comisarios de guerra, barely known beyond his native Logroño province, into one of 10 leaders of the monopolist emergent state party,[64] who might have appeared as the most powerful politicians in the Nationalist Spain.

[65] In June 1937 Mazón suffered major though not life-threatening injuries during a car crash;[66] he spent two months under intense treatment and returned home in August.

All Carlist members of Junta Política attempted to remain on correct terms with the regent-claimant Don Javier and declared that within Falange Española Tradicionalista they worked to ensure Traditionalist domination in the state party structures.

[70] In 1938 Mazón remained engaged in FET organization work[71] and mass rallies nationwide;[72] his wife was active in the Frentes y Hospitales section.

[74] Quite the opposite; Mazón demonstrated full alignment with the Falangist domination and unlike most other unificated Carlists he sported an all-black uniform “de los falangistas más radicales”.

[75] Eventually Fal Conde and Don Javier concluded that Mazón and other party members who engaged in buildup of the Francoist regime went off limits; in July 1938 they were expulsed from Comunión Tradicionalista.

In March 1939[78] he accepted Franco’s nomination to Tribunal Nacional de Responsabilidades Políticas, a judiciary body set up to deal with top-placed Republicans who fell into the Nationalists’ hands.

[83] In the autumn of 1942, when the term of II Consejo Nacional came to the end, he was consulted by the Franco’s entourage whether he would like to go on; however, Mazón declared he wanted to leave politics.