[2] Rafael's grandfather, Pedro Francisco Gambra Barrena (died 1930),[3] married descendant to a distinguished Carlist military Sanz family;[4] himself he rose to high positions in Ministry of Economy.

[29] José Ulíbarri, the Catholic parish priest from Úgar and temporary commander of the unit, remained Gambra's friend and sort of mentor for life.

[35] Rafael Gambra was married to María del Carmen Gutiérrez Sánchez (1921-1984), translator, scholar[36] and as Miguel Arazuri author of fairly popular novels.

[48] Promoted to Inspector Nacional de Enseñanzas Medias,[49] in 1945 Gambra obtained his PhD laurels as Doctor en Filosofía, his thesis dedicated to post-Hegelian approach to historiographic methodology.

[52] Already in the early 1940s Gambra assumed teaching at the Madrid Academia Vazquez de Mella, a semi-official Carlist educational and cultural enterprise; he was giving lectures on Traditionalist theory of philosophy, state and politics.

During the next 12 years Gambra served in the Institute as professor of philosophy,[55] in the early 1950s apparently hoping to join a would-be Universidad del País Vasco-Navarro, a high-education establishment advocated at the time.

[56] However, when Universidad de Navarra materialized as a private Opus Dei enterprise in 1952, Gambra did not enlist; he rejected also an opportunity to pursue research and possibly scholarship in England.

[66] In the press referred to as "catedrático",[67] he was active in once-off conferences, also beyond Madrid,[68] and in periodical Catholic cultural-scientific initiatives, like Conversaciones Intelectuales de El Paular[69] or sessions organized by Hermandad Sacerdotal.

[70] In the mid-1960s he commenced engagement in Madrid-based Centro de Estudios Históricos y Políticos General Zumalacárregui, a think-tank set up to disseminate Traditionalist thought and counter progressist designs on Carlism.

[75] Defunct In terms of general inspiration Gambra is broadly defined as fitting within the Platonic tradition[76] but indebted mostly to St. Thomas Aquinas and occasionally referred to as member of the neo-scholastic school.

[84] A man is perceived primarily as a social – not autonomous[85] – being, expressed mostly by his role in society; similarly, life is about contributing to common good, incompatible with individualism or liberalism.

[91] According to Gambra social self of a human is best expressed by tradition, viewed as accumulated and irreversible evolution that provides a principle governing historical societies[93] and incompatible with revolutionary patterns of change.

He held Maritain and Teilhard de Chardin responsible for undermining Christianity[106] and turning it into a "new humanist religion",[107] admitting defeat in 150-year-old struggle[108] against secular Revolution.

[125] La monarquía, together with almost simultaneously published similar work of Elías de Tejada,[126] became a cornerstone of Traditionalist theoretical vision, while Eso que llaman was widely discussed in the press of the era;[127] both earned Gambra prestigious standing in scholarly discourse.

[131] The first two centred on secularization of Western polities; they confronted Christian-Democratic vision[132] and Vatican II alike,[133] explored roots of perceived cultural decline, tried to re-define tradition versus progress[134] and strove to demonstrate how multifold advances of the last centuries have given man a false sense of mastery.

[137] Apart from translations,[138] booklets,[139] compilations[140] and single though some of them original historical attempts,[141] most of 775 titles in digitalized version of Gambra's writings, released in 2002, are contributions to reviews and daily press.

He supplied a number of Carlist reviews and bulletins:[146] Siempre p'alante, La Santa Causa, Montejurra and Azada y Asta, gradually eradicated from the last two by their progressist management.

[159] In the late 1940s he gained weight within Navarrese Carlism; in the early 1950s he was already listed among "dirigentes locales"[160] who "tenían en el país vasconavarro una indudable influencia";[161] in 1953 he formally entered Junta Provincial.

[163] Uncompromising towards another collaborative branch, the Rodeznistas,[164] in the early 1950s he concluded that Don Javier should reinvigorate the movement by terminating the regency and declaring his own claim to the throne.

When this eventually happened in 1952, Gambra was co-author[165] of Acto de Barcelona, a proclamation issued by the pretender and viewed also as major re-definition of the Carlist dynastical reading.

[169] Once Carlism changed its strategy towards cautious rapprochement, Gambra stuck to his guns and lambasted the official collaborationist path of the new leader, José María Valiente.

Appreciating him as a young Catalan easily communicating with the crowd,[176] at the turn of the decades Gambra collaborated with Massó and others;[177] he did not realize that they exploited Mellist and federalist threads[178] but considered him a rotten reactionary[179] and approached his teaching highly selectively.

In 1963 Gambra co-founded Centro de Estudios Históricos y Políticos General Zumalacárregui;[181] though affiliated with Movimiento Nacional,[182] it was intended as a think-tank disseminating Traditionalism and countering progressist vision of the Huguistas.

[185] As supporters of Don Carlos Hugo were gaining momentum,[186] Gambra was leaning towards rapprochement among all Carlist branches separated from the party during the last 20 years: Rodeznistas, Carloctavistas, Sivattistas and the recently expulsed politicians like José Luis Zamanillo or Francisco Elías de Tejada.

The latter lambasted his accord with "ultra-fascist line" of El Pensamiento Navarro[192] and his "posición ultramontana";[193] Gambra mobilized Traditionalists to challenge progressist grip on Carlism and prior to the 1976 Montejurra gathering, which effectively produced fatal casualties, called for "asistencia masiva de los verdaderos tradicionalistas, que acallará gestos y voces, 'declaraciones' y 'manifiestos', sencillamente inadmisibles, intolerables".

[201] He remained on the sidelines of politics; when mushrooming Traditionalist grouplets united in Comunión Tradicionalista Carlista in 1986 Gambra focused rather on youth Carlist organizations,[202] his spotlight on cultural heritage and education.

[207] Assuming political leadership of the sixtinos Carlists, the 81-year-old considered his elevation another cross to bear, though as an octogenarian Gambra remained fairly active; his last public appearance took place during the Cerro de los Ángeles feast in 2002.

[226] In some manuals he appears in entries dealing with Traditionalism, though featured as a secondary theorist who failed to provide original contribution and was rather a renovator[227] of earlier thought.