Montejurra (magazine)
Its launch was related to Carlism adopting a conciliatory position towards Francoism; following first ambiguous and then increasingly critical stand, since the mid-1960s the monthly suffered from censorship interventions, eventually to be forcibly closed by administration.
Montejurra was set up as a private monthly, though it is not clear whether its owner, Eugenio Arraiza Vilella, from the onset acted as a front-man for semi-legal Carlist structures; at later stages ownership was transferred to a dedicated company.
[3] Until November 1964, the magazine remained under the control of the group led by Tomás Martorell; as late as in mid-1963 Arraiza suggested to the then Carlist political leader José María Valiente that a parent company to publish the review be set up as sociedad anónima.
[8] Both sympathetic to the Progressist faction within Carlism they ensured that the competing Traditionalists have never managed to gain control of Montejurra, as it happened in 1970 with the Pamplona Carlist daily El Pensamiento Navarro.
Published on 35x25 cm sheets, the issues contained almost none to few photographs or pictures of rather poor quality, with text layout usually in two columns and the number of pages growing from 4 to 12.
The sheet size was broadened to 42x32 cm, covers contained a full front-page photo, layout became more dynamic, red color was introduced in headings and graphics and photographs started to be omnipresent; the number of pages was ranging from 8 to 14.
It was re-sized to the original 32x25 cm, full color was introduced to cover and some inside photos, and text was structured in as many as 4 columns; layout gained even more dynamics, with boxes, in-text graphics and introduction of new fonts.
As the review was to be based in Pamplona,[13] formally its appearance on the market was made possible by verbal permission from civil governor of Navarre, a decision no doubt consulted earlier with appropriate central authorities in Madrid.
[19] None of the sources consulted provides any information on financial standing of Montejurra, its commercial performance or business-related issues in general; hence, all opinions are based on speculations.
Overall circulation of Montejurra remains unclear; in 1960 it was published in 5,000 copies,[22] but later at one point the review targeted 20,000 subscribers,[23] in Spanish market conditions of the time a rather satisfactory result for a specialized political monthly.
The former group included Francisco López Sanz, Ignacio Romero Raizábal, Antonio Segura Ferns,[31] Inocencio Zalba Elizalde, Antonio Maria Solís García and Ramón Rodon Guinjoan,[32] except the last one all members of older generations who lived through the Civil War; they either died before prince Carlos Hugo sealed Progressist domination by setting up Partido Carlista or refused to join it.
There were fixed components: editorial, letters from the readers[33] and periodically various columns and rubrics dedicated to history, literature, social issues or other topics, usually penned by the same authors – e.g. Clemente run the Página literaria section.
Few pages were usually acknowledging recent events within the movement, though popular gatherings and Borbón-Parma activities were clearly preferred to closed meetings of party leaders.
One act attracted particular attention: the Carlist gathering in Montejurra was invariably discussed extensively in one or two spring issues, at later stages with major photo coverage.
The single thread which clearly dominated throughout the entire Montejurra lifetime and which dwarfs all other subjects was exaltation of the Borbón-Parma family, with veiled perspective of prince Carlos Hugo assuming the Spanish throne constantly in the background.
Every single issue contained omnipresent references to family members; as the monthly assumed more technologically advanced format, photographs of the Borbón-Parmas were increasingly dotting the pages.
[44] Massive coverage of Carlos Hugo's wife and sisters, all in their 20s, demonstrates that Montejurra editors were conscious that photos of young females rendered the content more attractive to many readers.
[54] From the very onset Montejurra devoted attention to social issues like minimum salary,[55] a thread barely characteristic for Carlism so far; particular focus was on the rural milieu and some authors advocated even "expropriación forzosa de los latifundios".
[60] However, indeed also later the monthly seemed equidistant towards capitalist and communist models, publishing articles which denounced both penetration of US capital in Spain of the late 1960s[61] and breakdown of steered economy in Poland of 1970.
Questions of agrarian reform, discussed mostly by Zabala and Olcina, earned a dedicated rubric and appeared regularly; these theoretical schemes were increasingly boasting of social justice, the working people, their rights and defense against exploitation.
[64] Montejurra was clearly a monarchist monthly and within limits permitted by the Francoist censorship it constantly exploited officially adopted auto-definition of Spain as "monarquía", invariably in relation to the Borbón-Parma dynasty.
Finally, since 1969 "democracy" became a dominating theme featuring 23-25 times per issue,[70] already clearly as an objective pursued; if qualified, it appeared no longer as "orgánica" but rather as "carlista", "autárquica", "nueva", "social", "directa", "del pueblo" and similar.
[77] In practical terms it amounted to tacit endorsement of the new outlook;[78] in 1969 the key theoretical pundit of Montejurra, Zabala, claimed openly that "religious liberty is the first fundamental right of a man".
Unwavering loyalty to Carlist kings, constantly underlined as a key virtue, remained instrumental in consolidating the ranks behind the Borbón-Parmas; fidelity to the legitimate dynasty played major role in the Progressist strategy of taking control of the movement.
Though Montejurra avoided open confrontation with the Traditionalists this time the editorial board stroke back; characteristically, the monthly posed as representative of orthodoxy against heterodoxes, not the other way round, and used loyalty to the claimant as a yardstick gauging fidelity to the doctrine.
[92] Fairly popular among the young and mid-age generation of party militants,[93] together with other periodicals set up at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s - like La Encina, Información Mensual, Azada y Asta and Esfuerzo Común – it served as key information channel within the movement.
Other scholars remain more cautious and though they consider the monthly indeed vital for the Carlists, they note that it did not set the tone but merely followed political direction marked by other party periodicals, especially Información Mensual.
