[4] A frequently repeated account holds that the Palominos have been since then busy with "cultivo del viñedo y crianza de vinos"[5] in the region, though documents confirm this starting the year of 1483.

None of the sources consulted provides information on what particular branch the ancestors of Juan José belonged to, apart that they have emerged as large landowners in Campiña de Jerez and continued to grow wine.

Their son and the father of Juan José, Francisco Palomino López,[8] at unspecified time married María del Rosario Jiménez García[9] (died after 1933);[10] there is no closer information available either on her on her family.

In October 1930 he was active in Partido Católico Nacional, an Integrist organisation created after the fall of Primo; Palomino entered the local Junta Directiva and became its secretary, apparently on excellent terms with the party leader in Western Andalusia, Manuel Fal Conde.

[36] During the first Republican electoral campaign of June 1931 he co-financed the Jerez branch of Acción Nacional, a broad conservative alliance “dominated by an energetic group of middle-class Integrists”.

[41] In the summer of 1932 some high army officers, perturbed by a series of Republican reforms targeting the military and outraged by contemptuous stand of Manuel Azaña, decided to stage a coup and topple the Madrid government.

At 8 PM on August 9, few hours prior to the agreed start of the rebellion, local Unión de Derechas Independientes leaders gathered during a one-hour meeting; Palomino was among them.

[42] During the night the civilians involved who owned cars, including Palomino, used their machines to transport Guardia Civil members from county village posts to Jerez.

In September Palomino and 161 inmates involved in the coup, soon to become known as Sanjurjada, were transported from Cádiz to Villa de Cisneros, a Spanish military outpost in Africa.

[51] It is the first confirmed information about his activity within Carlism, though numerous historians claim that already when deported, he had been zealously engaged in the movement[52] and even led the Cádiz Junta Regional.

[80] Jerez was easily seized by the rebels and Andalusian Carlism enjoyed its days of triumph, but in late 1936 Palomino was scarcely noted for his party activity, recorded rather during religious services to the fallen requeté.

He was present during the crucial Carlist meeting in Insua of February 1937, when regent-claimant and the movement leaders discussed the threat of forced amalgamation into a unificated state party.

[88] In the late 1930s the company was entirely aligned with Palomino's Carlist political preferences; its beverages were named “Margaritas”,[89] “Tradicionalista”,[90] “Requeté”[91] and “Carlista”;[92] some of these products were marketed until the early 1940s.

[95] He was also opening branches across the country, with regional offices in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, Oviedo, Palma, Santander, Logroño, Burgos and Zaragoza.

[96] At that time P&V offered a wide range of products, principally brandy (Tres Racimos,[97] Vencedor, Centurion,[98] Eminencia) and various types of sherry: cortado (Bulería), fino (Tío Mateo),[99] oloroso (Los Flamencos)[100] and amontillado (John Peter).

[107] On the other hand, it seems that Palomino was gradually losing control over the business, as constant need of capital and investments led to increasingly dispersed ownership of the company.

None of historiographic works dealing with Carlism of the so-called primer franquismo mentions his name;[117] the only episodes identified refer to religious activities and are vaguely flavored with Traditionalism, like his 1940 co-founding of a Catholic publishing house[118] or a 1946 pilgrimage to Rome.

[123] Palomino was noted mostly for ceremonial roles in the party, e.g. in the late 1950s he entertained the Carlist infante Don Carlos Hugo[124] or in the early 1960s he played host to infanta María de las Nieves during their tours to Seville and around.

[125] It started to change with mid-decade approaching; in 1963 he co-signed “El Carlismo y la unidad católica”, an official party document which voiced against the perspective of introducing religious liberty in Spain.

[126] One year earlier he was nominated to a 6-member Comisión Especial de Estudios Económicos, a party body entrusted with sanating the ailing CT budget, always in dramatic shortage of cash.

[129] In 1965 he was eventually appointed the carlist jefe in all of Andalusia;[130] his public activity was about opening new party círculos or presiding over grand requeté ex-combatant rallies.

It is not clear whether Palomino engaged in rivalry between the two factions, though his unswerving loyalty to the dynasty, shared with his close friend Fal,[132] rendered him a potential ally of the Huguistas.

[137] In 1967 the Huguistas were almost fully in control of the party; the last obstacle to total domination was the movement leader Valiente, eventually manoeuvred into dismissal later this year.

[143] In terms of internal power struggle, Palomino is currently considered a representative of the Carlist “old wave”, people whose elevation gave comfort to the Traditionalists, but who were ready to accept the new trends.

In public statements Palomino confirmed this policy to the full; he declared that Comunión Tradicionalista would act within the legal framework, which allows some competition of ideas united by the “spirit of 18 July”, and would work towards the crowning of their claimants.

[148] However, while Palomino declared no major change to general concilliatory policy of the movement, the Huguistas were already bent on “linea de dura oposición política al Régimen”.

[152] In the summer of 1968 he entertained the infant Don Carlos Hugo and his wife Doña Irene on their tour across southern Spain[153] and in November that year he hosted infanta Maria Teresa in Cadiz and around.

[156] Don Carlos Hugo and the Huguistas were adopting an increasingly challenging stand towards Francoism; the process climaxed when the prince and most of his family were expelled from Spain in late 1968.

In return, official press published an open letter from a group of requeté ex-combatants aligned with the Juanista claim, who declared that "negamos a esa Junta el derecho a hablar en nombre del Carlismo".

The traditionalists were increasingly alarmed by progressist, left-wing course adopted by the movement leaders; already in 1968 Palomino started to receive letters protesting implementation of new proto-socialist threads and demanding that he cracks down on subversive currents.