[6] In 1915[7] Zavala Lara married Concepción Castella y García Duarte (1889–1966), an Andalusian girl from Baena (Cordoba province); she was daughter to an established bourgeoisie family[8] and granddaughter to Eduardo García-Duarte, professor of medicine and rector of the Granada University.

In 1936–1950 and as Concepción Castella de Zavala she published some 15 novels;[20] currently viewed as second-rate literature, they combined action and romance with praise of traditional values and patriotic virtues.

As a young teenager José María inherited the Traditionalist outlook, which triggered the episode of his escape from home and joining Carlist militia in 1937, though some much later accounts played down his zeal and presented him as one of "jóvenes atrapados en las contradicciones y los horrores de la guerra".

They were critical as to what they perceived somnabulic Carlist structures, and they also remained somewhat skeptical as to grand Traditionalist theories developed by pundits like Gambra or Elías de Tejada; they were principally interested in action.

[42] In the mid-1950s the Massó-led group, including Zavala, focused their attention on the young prince Hugues de Borbón-Parma, son of the Carlist regent-claimant Don Javier.

Some thought that he should build his position beyond lethargic Carlist structures and offer some sort of alternative; Zavala was among these who argued that the prince should act from the inside, "within the old Comunión, of which he was a natural leader, and transform it".

[52] Its importance changed from a minor youth faction into an influential, well-organized team when the prince, now assuming the name of Carlos Hugo, settled permanently in Madrid in the early 1960s.

The same year produced a wave of personal changes in technical and apparently minor positions in the organisation; Zavala became a liaison officer between the party executive and the France-based Don Javier.

Guided by Massó and Zavala, in 1965 he dissolved old governing structures and nominated new Junta de Gobierno, theoretically the key party executive, composed either of traditionalists or fence-sitters.

[64] Though formally a technical body intended to run the daily party business, in the increasingly diluted governing structure it turned into the nucleus of power within the organisation, the unit which controlled nominations, agendas, meetings and finances.

[65] Even José María Valiente, Jefé Delegado and as such nominally the political leader of the organisation, acknowledged the change and in matters of internal policy delegated to Zavala.

Massó concluded that the campaign to get Carlos Hugo nominated by Franco as the future king was lost and decided to withdraw from politics; he agreed to stay only temporarily.

[69] There are historians who maintain that the Zavala-led part of the camarilla have already abandoned the monarchic bid and concluded that their best policy was "to try to carry the Carlist majority with them by accelerating the pace of ideological change".

Some local organisations were abandoned by orthodoxes discouraged by new progressist course,[85] electoral campaigns produced protests against his dictatorial leadership,[86] and recognized personalities published statements naming him the new Maroto, a traitor to the cause.

[91] He faced little challenge from Junta de Gobierno, composed mostly of elderly people; increasingly bewildered, they stuck to loyalty to the dynasty as their last-resort guideline.

[99] Some historians suggest that the 73-year-old Palomino was either acquiescent or disoriented,[100] others count him among promoters of the new left-wing course;[101] most agree that in fact, power was left in hands of Zavala and Carlos Hugo.

[104] The year of 1968 marked a fundamental change in Carlist stand versus Francoism; with expulsion of Carlos Hugo from Spain the policy of cautiously courting the regime crashed, and from this moment the party adopted an openly hostile and increasingly radical left-wing course.

The same year Zavala launched a campaign of cursillos,[105] party-organized classes supposed to educate a new generation of leaders; they advanced socially radical message which combined Marxism, gauchisme and monarchism.

[120] He was no longer a grey eminence: in name of the party he was giving press conferences[121] and since 1970 he was delivering key addresses during the prime annual Carlist event, the Montejurra celebration.

[128] At the turn of the decades Zavala became a chief engineer of a maneuver intended to transform the movement into a modern, fighting mass party, founded on the principles of socialism, self-management and federalism.

[130] The second of them produced transformation into Partido Carlista, formally presided by Carlos Hugo; Zavala was elected as general secretary[131] with great powers[132] and he immediately proceeded to enforce the radical socialist course across all local Carlist jefaturas in Spain, demanding that these doubting the change step aside and make room for the new generation.

[138] Traditionalist opposition in the party was reduced to a relatively small group of older veterans, some of them quite prestigious; trapped between bewilderment and fatigue they sort of complied but eventually resolved to campaign of open letters, intended to bypass Zavala and address the Borbón-Parmas.

However, the strategy backfired as heavy-handed leadership and ideological zeal produced resignation of few party-aligned procuradores, like Auxilio Goñi and José Angel Zubiaur.

[146] Once in 1976 Junta Democrática merged into Platajunta, Zavala entered its co-ordination board;[147] he viewed the body as a way towards a federation of socialist parties, including Partido Carlista.

[148] He spoke against gradual transformation; he viewed it as a smartly engineered manipulation of Francoist oligarchy[149] and saw the Suarez government as part of a plot, intended to ensure continuity of the regime.

[152] His 1977 book, Partido Carlista, was a Marxism-inspired[153] manifesto of "self-managing socialism"[154] and formed part of so-called "clarificación ideológica", intended to build a new Carlism.

At the time political strength of Partido Carlista remained unknown; some speculated it might emerge as a significant force and Zavala might become one of key Spanish statesmen.

[158] The cabinet had some apprehensions about potentially disruptive capacity of PC[159] and the party was among the few which were not legalized prior to the 1977 general elections;[160] its candidates ran on makeshift electoral lists and Zavala himself did not stand.

[181] He is generally presented as one of key party militants who contributed to emergence of the progressist group, which challenged the Traditionalist ideological core and at one point dominated Carlism.

Named "hombre clave en la evolución ideológica y política del Carlismo"[182] or leader of the group which inspired ideological evolution,[183] depending upon political preferences of partisan authors he is presented either as an evil spirit who contributed to destruction of the grand movement[184] or as a far-sighted politician who steered Carlism through purification process from reactionary grip back to its socialist roots.