[16] Following outbreak of the civil war and in circumstances which are not clear the Massó family left the revolution-engulfed Barcelona and somehow made it to the Nationalist zone;[17] they settled in San Sebastián.

In the 1960s José Luis, acting as co-owner and CEO, turned it into Comercial Química Massó Sociedad Anónima, which expanded into new market sectors and remains active until today;[27] he was also known as engaged in the Barcelona football club, RCD Español.

[35] Hence, it is not clear what mechanism was at work when Ramón, at the time a 9-year-old, during the wartime exile years in San Sebastián joined the Carlist juvenile organisation, Pelayos.

[48] In 1952 for the first time he had the opportunity to meet the Carlist claimant Don Javier; Massó took part in a banquet which accompanied the Eucharistic Congress in Barcelona, where the pretender made some political declarations.

[53] Disturbed by rumors of possible reconciliation between the Alfonsist and Carlist claimants, in early 1956 they met Don Javier en transit in Bilbao; during extremely emotional encounter[54] they tried to dissuade him from a dynastical union.

[55] At the 1956 annual Montejurra rally Massó as AET representative spoke for the first time, and against somewhat reserved and vague monarchism of the likes of Zubiaur,[56] he openly hailed "Rey Javier".

[57] However, disappointed with claimant's ambiguity, the Massó-led aetistas have already decided to focus on his eldest son Hugues,[58] with whom the group found common ground during his earlier brief stay in Madrid.

[68] Nonetheless, he continued along the same path; during the 1958 Montejurra in another Massó-written address Hugues reiterated vaguely pro-Francoist themes, combined with focus on social issues.

[70] During the AET congress in 1959 Massó advocated his strategy of limited collaboration, enveloped in a vision of renovated, socially sensitive Carlism;[71] it failed to get him a place in the executive.

[73] At the turn of the decades he took place and organized numerous public Traditionalist acts mobilizing support,[74] including address at the 1960 Montejurra[75] or lecture during Semana Nacional de Estudios the same year.

[77] He convinced the prince to settle permanently in Madrid; the latter still wanted him to head his secretaría política, but because of opposition on part of his Opus Dei superiors, Massó initially declined.

They posed as allies of the regime and seemed aligned with Valiente's collaborative approach; the strategy partially worked and the carlohuguistas were allowed to launch an array of periodicals; Massó published especially in Azada y Asta,[83] though he edited also Información Mensual.

[87] He claimed to have been a renovator of Carlist orthodoxy and avoided open confrontation with Traditionalist core of the movement; his memoranda which advocated change focused rather on technical, not ideological issues.

[92] The ideological catch-phrase advanced across Spain was "monarchy of July 18",[93] but Massó formatted the 1961-1964 public campaign in favor of Carlos Hugo rather as a series of "golpes de efecto",[94] a communication strategy engineered to target the emerging consumer society.

Apart from touring Spain in various engagements,[95] the prince was portrayed as a miner in Asturias,[96] attendee of a parachuting course,[97] or mozo running with the bulls in Pamplona;[98] his sisters, all in their 20s, were also exploited mediatically.

[100] Massó hoped to win Franco and the Spanish public opinion against prince Juan Carlos;[101] at this point, however, the regime propaganda machine was firmly ordered to backtrack.

[108] Though he did not speak in 1965, this year the carlohuguistas almost abandoned their declared allegiance to tradition and voiced praise of socialism at unprecedented levels;[109] the event is at times dubbed as the "swan song" of the secretaría.

[114] It came as a shock to most in the Comunión when in 1965 Massó declared that he was about to leave the secretariat and move from Madrid to Pamplona,[115] where in the autumn[116] he was scheduled to take a teaching post in Universidad de Navarra, a newly created Opus Dei institution.

[117] There are various motives quoted in historiography; some claim he got disillusioned with the prince and his wife, who demonstrated a bourgeoisie mentality,[118] but most scholars tend to agree he realized the project of launching Carlos Hugo failed,[119] that the regime would never grant him Spanish nationality and mediatic campaign would not overweight Franco's political preferences.

[125] He limited himself to labors in the local Navarrese milieu, e.g. in 1966 he helped to secure a place of the new El Pensamiento Navarro editor-in-chief for a young progressist, Javier Pascual Ibañez.

[127] In the spring of 1967 Massó was busy preparing another annual Montejurra ascent in May, but shortly afterwards he and a number of his collaborators from the former secretaría published a widely reproduced[128] open letter.

[138] Having settled in Pamplona in the mid-1960s Massó commenced work as academic teacher in Estudio General de Navarra, founded by Opus Dei and recognized as a private university; none of the sources consulted provides detailed information on his exact teaching role.

[147] In 1973 he was already recognized as an expert in the field of advertising, marketing, communications and media, and featured in the press when presiding over international conferences related,[148] two years later speaking along world-recognized gurus like Marshall McLuhan.

In 1989 Massó co-founded the Barcelona-based Institut de Comunicació Integral, an independent college specializing in marketing, brand communications and public relations, and became its president.

[170] Otro rey para España (2004)[171] was more of an account from his Carlist episode, while Navegando por el cachondeo de la historia (2012)[172] approached an autobiographic format.

Since the 1990s Massó renewed his links with carloshuguista groups, e.g. during prince Carlos Javier visits to Spain,[176] during conferences,[177] or extensively briefing PhDs hopefuls, who were writing their dissertations on Carlism of the 1960s.

[188] Depending upon political preferences of partisan authors, Massó might be presented as an evil spirit who contributed to destruction of the grand movement[189] or as a man who steered Carlism back to its socialist roots.

Above all, it is not clear whether Massó intended to instaurate the Carlist dynasty by means of new social mobilization or whether he tried to promote profound ideological transformation using Carlos Hugo as an agent of change; anyway, the two threads became intertwined.

[192] Some claim that he consciously launched the process of redirecting Carlism towards a progressist, socialist formula,[193] while some maintain that initially he did not aim for revolutionary change, and that cumulative radicalization emerged as an unintended collateral phenomenon.

[209] However, some heirs to the carloshuguista current, mostly related to prince Carlos Javier, cherish his memory as the advocate of "a renewing proposal for a progressive Monarchy as a guarantee of a system of concrete freedoms"[210] and an example of loyalty to the dynasty.