Ramón Massó Tarruella

Ramón Massó Tarruella (1928–2017) was a Spanish media and communications expert, known also for his role in Carlism of the 1960s. He gained nationwide recognition in the 1970s and 1980s, when as academic, theorist and brand communications specialist he published numerous books and co-ran a media agency. In historiography he is moderately recognized for his role in politics of mid-Francoism. He was leading the group of young Carlist activists who challenged the Traditionalists and eventually ensured domination of the progressist current. However, his bid to promote Prince Carlos Hugo as a future monarch and as an alternative to prince Juan Carlos failed.

Family and youth

Massó descended from a well-to-do Catalan bourgeoisie family. His grandfather Ramón Massó Marcer (died 1936) originated from Sant Pere de Ribes. In 1885, during rapid expansion of the Catalan textile industry, he moved to Barcelona to set up his own business. He started a company which specialized in production of textile dyes; fairly successful, in 1902 it was turned into R. Massó y Cía, Sociedad Colectiva. His son, Juan Massó Soler (died 1975), developed the business into a diversified chemical company. Massó Soler also owned real estate in the then suburban Barcelona zone of Pedralbes. He was member of many Catalan commercial and trade institutions. At unspecified time, though probably in the mid-1920s, he married Nuria Tarruella Riu; the couple lived in Pedralbes, in the late 1930s moving into a luxury mansion at Avenida Pearson.

Juan and Nuria had 8 children, 3 sons and 5 daughters, all raised in deeply Catholic and moderately conservative ambience. For barely 2 years Ramón frequented Colegio Nelly in Barcelona. Following outbreak of the civil war and thanks to a huge bribe, the Massó family was allowed to leave the revolution-engulfed Catalonia and made it to the Nationalist zone; they settled in San Sebastián. After the end of hostilities the family returned to Barcelona, where Massó Soler resumed his chemical business. Ramón resumed education in a Jesuit college in Sarrià, where he obtained baccalaureate in 1945. Diagnosed with tuberculosis, he spent 1946-1947 mostly in sanatoria. In 1948 he entered Opus Dei and until 1949 was undergoing its formative courses in Seville and Cádiz. He commenced law in Barcelona, but in 1951 was called to military service. When released he abandoned law, moved to Madrid and enrolled at Filosofia y Letras in Central. He got a degree in philosophy with a thesis on "temas pedagógicos de innovación educativa"; the year of Massó's graduation is not clear, though it was likely 1954. In the mid-1950s he moved to Bilbao to commence teaching at Colegio Gaztelueta, a school founded few years earlier by Opus Dei and the local high bourgeoisie of Getxo.

In 1968 Massó married Carmen Bigas Rovira, a woman from another Catalan high-bourgeoisie family; the couple had no children. His brothers José Luis and Juan Antonio joined the family company. In the 1960s José Luis, acting as co-owner and CEO, turned it into Comercial Química Massó Sociedad Anónima, which remains active until today; he was also known as engaged in the Barcelona football club, RCD Español. The youngest brother Juan Antonio left the world of business and commenced studying canon law; he was ordained as a priest in 1965. Following his transfer to Australia he later became the Regional Vicar of Opus Dei, the position retained until his death. Another known Massó's relative was his distant paternal uncle, Ramón Oliveras Massó; in the early 1930s he was director of the Barcelona-based Escuela de Ingenieros Industriales and taught there until 1936.

Early Carlist engagements (until 1955)

Massó's father politically was related to moderate Catalanist conservatism and held minor posts in Lliga Regionalista. Later in Francoist Spain he approached and possibly even joined Carlism, but until the civil war there were no Carlist "antecedentes familiares". Hence, it was mostly by accident that Ramón, at the time a 9-year-old, during the wartime exile years in San Sebastián joined the Carlist juvenile organisation, Pelayos. When in aftermath of political Francoist amalgamation it was merged with the Falangist youth branch Flechas Massó withdrew. As a boy he took part in the 1937 anti-unification demonstrations, shouting "death to Franco" and "death to Falange". Having returned to Barcelona he remained active in informal Carlist youth structures and attended Carlist rallies; according to his own later account it was during the 1945 Montserrat '' aplec'' that he became determined to act whatever it takes.

During his academic years in the early 1950s Massó found himself part of a wave of young Carlist students, active in Madrid. They were increasingly irritated by what they perceived as complacent, somnabulic atmosphere of Carlist círculos. He was neither impressed by theoretical works by Traditionalist pundits like Rafael Gambra, which he found intellectually refined, but of little practical value. He was rather fascinated by José Ortega y Gasset and his vision of politics as action; he formatted his Carlist vision as activism pushing the limits of what was possible. He did not attend courses of the Carlist Academia Vázquez de Mella, though he joined Agrupación de Estudiantes Tradicionalistas, a technically illegal though tolerated Carlist student organization.

Enraged by increasing marginalization of Carlism within Francoist Spain, Massó developed his childish anti-Falangist sentiments into a firm anti-Francoist outlook. In the early 1950s together with other AET activists he engaged in leafleting campaigns against Sindicato Español Universitario, the official and the only legal academic organisation; he took part also in rallies and minor skirmishes against the SEU members, which eventually produced dismissal of the SEU president, Jorge Jordana de Fuentes. 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. He gradually emerged among the Madrid AET leaders. In 1954 (according to some sources in 1955) the Carlist political leader, Manuel Fal Conde, nominated him Delegado Nacional de la AET, the leader of the organisation.

Launch of Carlos Hugo (1956-1961)

In the mid-1950s Massó served as a link between AET members in Bilbao and Madrid. 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 they tried to dissuade him from a dynastical union. 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, he openly hailed "Rey Javier". However, disappointed with claimant's ambiguity, the Massó-led aetistas have already decided to focus on his eldest son Hugues, with whom the group found common ground during his earlier brief stay in Madrid. Settled in Bilbao, since late 1956 the prince was being introduced to Carlism by the Massó-led team until he made a public debut during the annual Montejurra amassment in 1957. The entry, repeatedly rehearsed, meticulously planned and pre-agreed with the Carlist leadership, turned out to be a masterpiece of public appearance. Massó and his team ensured that ''La Proclama de Montejurra'' gets propagated in Carlist circulos across Spain.

The address of prince Hugues sounded like an offer to Franco. Massó crafted it as part of "colaboracionismo táctico", a strategy of ill-willed collaboration with Francoism in order to gain room for further action; it was opposed to "colaboracionismo puro", promoted since the mid-1950s by the new Carlist leader, Valiente, who sincerely hoped for some sort of prudent partnership between Francoism and Carlism. However, the fiercely anti-Francoist AET rank-and-file did not distinguish between such subtleties and in late 1957 Massó was deposed from leadership of the organisation. 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. The same year the prince asked Massó to settle in Paris and run his future political secretariat, the proposal he declined.

During the AET congress in 1959 Massó advocated his strategy of limited collaboration, enveloped in a vision of renovated, socially sensitive Carlism; it failed to get him a place in the executive. He shifted attention from AET to building a following for prince Hugues, with ambitious plan of "intentar la conquista del Estado" in the background. At the turn of the decades he took place and organized numerous public Traditionalist acts mobilizing support, including address at the 1960 Montejurra or lecture during Semana Nacional de Estudios the same year. He was also behind the action of re-positioning prince Hugues as "Carlos Hugo", with reference to iconic Carlist name. 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. It was only in 1961 that the prince took up residence in the capital; Massó quit his job in Bilbao, also moved to Madrid and as ''secretario particular'' he became "sombra inseparable" of Carlos Hugo.

Head of ''secretaría'' (1961-1965)

Massó became head of Carlos Hugo's ''secretaría política'', a team composed mostly of people in their 20s. The group, dubbed "camarilla", focused primarily on promotion of the prince as the would-be king of Spain; the campaign was clearly calibrated against prince Juan Carlos, who at the time was gradually emerging as potential Franco's successor and the future monarch. 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'', though he edited also ''Información Mensual''. and collaborated with '' Montejurra''. The group used these titles as platforms for advocating what they presented as a new, progressist version of Carlism. They were posing as faithful partisans who either merely sought "agiornamento" of the doctrine, or who focused on the genuine, socially-minded basis of the movement.

Already in the early 1960s Massó-led ''secretaría'' found themselves suspected of nurturing subversive, progressist, anti-Traditionalist ideas. 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. In 1962-63 Massó skillfully outplayed his chief opponent, José Luis Zamanillo, and got him expelled; he also worked to isolate other groupings, like ''Siempre''. A series of prince-supported reorganizations in the party followed; they diluted power in the top party layer. In 1963 the Massó-led ''secretaría'' effectively took control of the main office; though not holding any post in the executive, he became of the key party decision-makers. From this moment on the carlohuguistas spelled out their vision of Carlism more openly; in 1964 they published a progressist ideological lecture, ''Esquema doctrinal''.

The ideological catch-phrase advanced across Spain was "monarchy of July 18", but Massó formatted the 1961-1964 public campaign in favor of Carlos Hugo rather as a series of "golpes de efecto", a communication strategy engineered to target the emerging consumer society. Apart from touring Spain in various engagements, the prince was portrayed as a miner in Asturias, attendee of a parachuting course, or ''mozo'' running with the bulls in Pamplona; his sisters, all in their 20s, were also exploited mediatically. The greatest media scoop, however, was the 1964 wedding of Carlos Hugo with princess Irene of the Netherlands. Massó hoped to win Franco and the Spanish public opinion against prince Juan Carlos; at this point, however, the regime propaganda machine was firmly ordered to backtrack. Franco grew increasingly anxious that the popularity of Carlos Hugo might get him cornered when it comes to an inescapable dynastical decision. National media played down the event. Apparently unabated, Massó kept working to obtain Spanish citizenship for the prince.

Disengagement (1965-1967)

In the mid-1960s the Massó-led ''camarilla'' appeared largely in control of the Comunión, dubbed its "parallel executive". The isolated traditionalist leader, Valiente, approached Solis for the Cortes mandate for Massó and considered him his potential successor. When speaking at the 1964 Montejurra gathering Massó delivered "one of the most vehemently critical speeches pronounced up to then in a public event in Spain". 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; the event is at times dubbed as the "swan song" of the secretaría. According to some historians there might have been some cracks within the group, with José María Zavala reportedly representing "sector popular" against the moderated faction represented by Massó, but others tend to treat carlohuguistas as fairly homogeneous. In 1965 the secretaría was at its peak, and Massó assessed that the balance of power between the progressists and the traditionalists was 90:10.

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, where in the autumn he was scheduled to take a teaching post in Universidad de Navarra, a newly created Opus Dei institution. There are various motives quoted in historiography; some claim he got disillusioned with the prince and his wife, who demonstrated a bourgeoisie mentality, but most scholars tend to agree he realized the project of launching Carlos Hugo failed, that the regime would never grant him Spanish nationality and mediatic campaign would not overweight Franco's political preferences. In early 1966 he met Don Javier in Hendaye

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