José María Sentís Simeón

José María Sentís Simeón (1896–1989) was a Spanish politician, official and military. He is best known as General Director of Prisons for 8 months in 1942–43 and as civil governor of Guadalajara and Palencia, also during the early Francoism. In 1964–67 he served as the Cortes deputy. Throughout most of his life he was an active Carlist, in 1962–65 serving as Secretario General of Comunión Tradicionalista. He retired from the army in the rank of a colonel.

José María Sentís Simeón
Born
José María Sentís Simeón

1896
Riudoms, Spain
Died1989
Cambrils, Spain
NationalitySpanish
Occupationmilitary
Known forofficial
Political partyCarlism, FET

Family and youth
Riudoms (present view)

José María descended from a bourgeoisie Catalan family; his patriline ancestors for 3 generations exercised as physicians. His great-grandfather, Jaume Sentís Master, a native of Ulldemolins, in the late 18th century settled in Botarell, practicing as a surgeon.[1] His son and José María's grandfather, Bernard Sentís Toldrà (1807–1881),[2] moved to Riudoms. He offered not only surgery but also medical advice; the two were licensed separately and he suffered penalty measures, before in 1843 both branches were administratively united.[3] Apart from practicing, Bernard Sentís developed interest in science. From the 1840s till the 1860s he corresponded with the Barcelona Medical Academy, his contributions based on own medical experience.[4] Two of Bernard's sons, the older one Jaime Sentís Gran and the younger one Eusebio Sentís Gran (1853-1921) continued the family tradition, though the former as a doctor and the latter as a pharmacist.[5] Jaime contributed to the organization of Carlists in the province of Tarragona.[6] Eusebio,[7] the father of José María, remained in Riudoms, where he became one of the major taxpayers.[8]

Eusebio married Ramona Simeón Polles (1853–1919).[9] The couple had at least 7 children, born between 1890 and 1899.[10] The Sentís family was fervently Catholic. Another José María's paternal uncle, Caetano Sentís Gran, was vicar[11] and canon[12] of the Tarragona archdiocese, apart from having been a theologian and an intellectual;[13] two of José María paternal cousins[14] also became priests, his paternal cousin Dolores became a nun[15] and his own sister, Dolores, joined the Carmelites.[16] Also José María trained to be a priest;[17] following early education in the Carmelitan college in Riudoms, he entered the Tarragona seminar.[18] To great disappointment of his family he resigned after 6 years, opting for a military career instead. Having made up for missing curriculum in Insituto de Reus he entered Academía Militar of Barcelona, but was close to falling off due to his short-sightedness. He switched to Academia de Intendencia in Àvila, thanks to assistance of some colleagues dodging the health scrutiny.[19] In 1920 Sentís graduated in Toledo as alferez de infantería;[20] he was assigned to Regimiento de Almansa, which at that time was stationed in the Tarragona military district.[21]

Toledo cadets taking oath, 1910s

In 1927[22] José María married Josefa Mariné Sancho (died 1987) from Tarragona;[23] nothing is known about her family and herself. The couple settled in Tarragona and had two children, both of them daughters: Rosa María[24] and María Dolores Sentís Mariné.[25] José María outlived his older daughter; at the moment of his own death he had 6 grandchildren. None of them became a public figure. His first cousin once removed,[26] Carlos Sentís, gained nationwide recognition as a Francoist journalist, in the late 1970s serving as Cortes deputy of UCD and acting in Catalanism, another one was vice-president of CF Barcelona in the 1960s.[27] Son of another José María's cousin once removed[28] is a respected Tarragona physician.[29] The oldest brother of José María, Eusebio, in the 1920s alcalde of Riudoms,[30] was executed by the Republicans in 1936;[31] his sister Dolores managed to escape from the Republican zone and upon her later return to Spain has long served in education.[32]

Military career
troops departing for Morocco (1922)

In 1921 Sentís volunteered to serve in Morocco, where he was assigned to Regimiento de Luchana. In his later recollections he claimed to have served 2,5 years in Africa,[33] but as late as in 1926 he was still reported in the press as serving in the Dark Continent.[34] He completed the colonial experience as lieutenant before returning to his Almansa regiment. Sentís spent the late 1920s on routine garrison service; in 1927 he grew to captain[35] and assumed command of a machine-gun sub-unit.[36] When the Republic was declared Sentís remained capitán; the new military administration did not have much trust in his loyalty, especially that he did not make a secret of his Carlist, ultra-Right outlook.[37] By the end of 1931 he was left with no clear assignment, reduced to the status of "disponibile".[38] It is not clear whether he was reinstated before the new 1933 Right-wing government assumed power, yet prior to 1934 he was already assigned to the 4th Somatenes Division.[39] During the October 1934 revolutionary unrest in Catalonia Sentís commanded troops which seized the building of Tarragona Gobierno Civil, occupied by members of Esquerra Republicana and Estat Catalá, and was vital to thwarting revolutionary attempts in the province. According to one source he assumed "funciones de gobernador Civil y de Orden Público",[40] according to another he was formally nominated the provincial Delegado de Orden Público.[41] In late 1935 he was back with his old Regimiento de Almansa.[42]

Since the mid-1930s Sentís together with Joaquín Bau, later to become his lifelong friend,[43] was engaged in buildup of the Carlist organization network in the province.[44] In 1936 the activity transformed to full-scale conspiracy, including paramilitary training of Carlist requetés and securing arms for their units.[45] He remained engaged in negotiations with Falange[46] and served as a link between the Carlists and the military plotters.[47] On July 18 their plan turned into a failure; despite significant strength of local requetés in Tarragona,[48] poor communication among the conspirators[49] and dilatory stand of the military[50] led to their passive, wait-and-see policy.

Carlist requetés (1936)

Once it became clear that in Catalonia the coup failed, Sentís first went into hiding and then having obtained false French ID papers left Barcelona on an Italian ship. From Genoa he was driven across Southern France and in August he entered the Nationalist zone in Navarre.[51] Immediately reporting to Burgos, he was assigned to an unspecified unit, deployed on the Madrid front. It is there where Sentís got wounded twice; heavy injuries suffered due to enemy mortar fire landed him in the hospital.[52] He spent there at least a few months before in November 1937 he was nominated commander of Tercio de Montserrat, the Catalan battalion-type requeté unit. At the time the Tercio was stationed near Zaragoza, being brought back to strength following decimation suffered during the battle of Codo; Sentís spent just 2 months heading the battalion and did not lead it in combat; in November 1937 he was reassigned to administration duties.[53]

Official: provincial assignments
Guadalajara

Apparently fully compliant with if not enthusiastic about a Carlist-Falangist unification into a new state party, already in mid-1937 he co-drafted a scheme for personal appointments in Catalonia, to be effectuated once the region is conquered; the plan supposedly reached Franco.[54] In December 1937,[55] already in the rank of comandante,[56] he was nominated Delegate for Public Order in Palencia province. According to one source the nomination came largely thanks to his good relations with Severiano Martínez Anido, freshly appointed to head quasi-ministry of Interior;[57] according to himself, the only conditions required for appointment were being Spanish, Catholic and military.[58] Sentís spent 6 months on the job, mostly getting back to health in the Valladolid hospital;[59] he is noted for excellent relations with local religious hierarchy[60] and for administering heavy fines,[61] enforcing morality standards[62] and especially targeting tycoons of local pre-war establishment.[63] In June 1938 he was transferred to the same post in Navarre,[64] where he spent 7 months; in January 1939, upon Nationalist conquest of his native Tarragona province, he returned to Riudoms.[65]

According to one source Sentís worked to land the Tarragona civil governor job,[66] yet in February 1939 he was nominated gobernador civil in Guadalajara;[67] as at the time most of the province was still controlled by the Republicans, he set up headquarters in Sigüenza.[68] His 20-month-term is marked by routine admin tasks; it is not clear to what extent he was involved in Francoist repression.[69] His most lasting achievement was foundation of the Nueva Alcarria weekly;[70] attempts to bring Academía de Ingenieros back to Guadalajara failed, his efforts crowned only with temporary location of the Infantry Academy in the city.[71] Trying to enforce Carlist domination he also clashed with the local Falangist jefatura, the conflict usually centered on administration of supplies and personal composition of local comisiones gestoras.[72] It is not clear whether political strife contributed to Sentís' departure from Guadalajara in the fall of 1940; when leaving he was nominated its hijo adoptivo.[73]

Palencia

Sentís did not seem to fall from grace with the Francoist authorities. In October 1940[74] he was nominated civil governor back in Palencia.[75] He went on with the usual admin work related to supplies, prices or reconstruction,[76] duties which at times assumed somewhat humorous shape.[77] Political conflict with Falange immediately flared again, focused on supplies[78] and personal policy,[79] though it was related also to advancing Carlist symbols over the Falangist ones.[80] Relations with the Falange Jefe Provincial turned into total disaster[81] and Sentís was denounced as "el furibundo enemigo n° 1 de la Falange en esta capital".[82] In early 1941 his position was still firm, as certified by personal audience with Franco,[83] especially that his maneuvers were aimed at ensuring Carlist domination in FET, but not against the FET itself.[84] Later on his position deteriorated, especially because as a friend of Bau he found himself in conflict with Serrano Suñer.[85] In May 1942 Sentís ceased as civil governor.[86]

Official: central assignments
prisoner released (Donostia, 1942)

In May 1942 Sentís was appointed director técnico de Consumos y Racionamiento, a sub-unit of Comisaría de Abastecimientos y Transportes[87] concerned primarily with managing food provisions, at the time in permanent short supply. The role proved a brief one; two months later Esteban Bilbao, the Carlist Minister of Justice, suggested he assumes the role of Director General de Prisiones. According to his later account Sentís hesitated about accepting the job but was sort of forced into it by Franco, who dismissed his doubts and ordered Bilbao to proceed with the appointment.[88] Promoted to teniente-coronel, in parallel Sentís became also president of Comisión Permanente del Patronato Central de Redención de Penas por el Trabajo,[89] supervising the network of Francoist labor camps.[90] At the time the repressive nature of the system was getting somewhat diluted; the prison population kept falling from the early post-war high of 300,000 and reached 124,000 in 1942, to drop to 74,000 in 1943.[91] None of the sources consulted provides any information on Sentís' role except that at earlier stages he demonstrated some compassion for Republican POWs.[92] His term lasted 8 months. When Bilbao ceased as minister, the new one Eduardo Aunós brought in his own men[93] and Sentís was released in April 1943.[94]

1943 marked the end of major Sentís' assignments. Though at the time Serrano Suñer was ousted and the hard Falangist core was getting de-emphasized, this did not work to Sentís' advantage; he was getting gradually sidetracked. At unspecified time and still in military service, Sentís became Secretary of Supreme Council of Military Justice; apparently marginalized in terms of political career, he seemed put up with his bureaucratic role off the limelight and later appreciated the new position;[95] in 1948 he was already coronel de infantería.[96] In public he maintained a low profile; noted in the press usually due to his engagement in religious or ex-combatant feasts, he has never been acknowledged in relation to his military court role, usually even his military rank omitted.[97]

Iberia flight in Guinea, 1940s

Since mid-1940s Sentís performed managerial role in Cámaras Agricolas Pro-Guinea del Café,[98] an organization set during early Francoism to step up exploitation of Spanish Guinea.[99] He landed the job as a trusted man from Bilbao's network of cronies, owing the position to his short-time experience at Comisaría de Abastecimientos.[100] The Pro-Guinea job was very advantageous financially; when it became incompatible with his military assignments, in mid-1950s Sentís preferred to ask for early retirement from the army rather than to resign his Guinea link.[101] It is not clear whether his 1954 audience with Franco was anyhow related;[102] the same year caudillo awarded him with Medalla de Oro of Mérito Penitenciario. In 1957 Sentís was nominated Toledo provincial delegate of Ministerio de Vivienda.[103] He retained the job until 1961,[104] when at the age of 65 he retired.

Carlist: in, out and in again
Carlist standard

Sentís inherited political outlook from his father, who held posts in the provincial Tarragona organization.[105] He is himself first mentioned as active in Carlism the mid-1930s. His Carlist stand during Guadalajara and Palencia assignments is well documented, even though the Tarragona Carlists viewed him as a traitor.[106] In the aftermath of 1942 Carlist-Falangist clashes at Begoña he allegedly penned an anti-Falangist leaflet[107] and was counted among Falcondistas, the intransigent backbone of increasingly bewildered movement. Later on his position changed and in the mid-1940s a Falangist intelligence described him as vacillating between orthodoxy and Juanismo.[108] Indeed, in the late 1940s and early 1950s[109] Sentís' Traditionalism seemed watered-down[110] or reduced to private;[111] as officer in active military service, he was hardly in position to engage in politics flavored with opposition to the regime.[112] In 1957, already retired, he allegedly pondered upon joining the so-called Estorilos, the Carlists who recognized Don Juan as the legitimate king, but re-considered at the last minute.[113] One source suggests that Sentís was beyond the Carlist structures altogether and claims that he re-entered them some time at the turn of the decades.[114] If so, it is not clear whether he took active stand only after he had retired or whether it was the pro-regime turn of Carlism which prompted him into action.

Zamanillo (earlier photo)

At unspecified time though most likely in the late 1950s Sentís engaged in labors of Comunión Tradicionalista, mainstream Carlist organization professing Don Javier as a king. The man with strong Francoist record, Sentís was welcome in the organization, at that pursuing a new collaborative policy. He soon entered Junta Nacional, the Carlist political executive, and was nominated Secretario Nacional de Organización,[115] sort of a party minister of interior. In 1961 he started to appear publicly at clearly Carlist feasts.[116] Hosting the Carlist political leader José María Valiente and the Carlist prince Carlos Hugo in his Madrid house or accompanying the Carlist princess Margarita in tours across Spain,[117] he suddenly emerged among tycoons of the movement, championing the collaborative policy but also promoting a firm stand against Opus Dei, considered a pro-Juanista agency.[118]

In the early 1960s Carlism was undergoing a very peculiar period. Apart from already somewhat abating conflict between anti-collaborationists and pro-collaborationists, a faction of young militants grouped around Carlos Hugo cautiously pursued their own agenda. Focused on social values, it was initially formatted as an offer to the Falangist syndicalist core, but later started to assume an increasingly Marxist tone. The Hugocarlistas were identified as subversive revolutionaries by the old-time requeté leader José Luis Zamanillo, and Sentís was caught in crossfire. Initially he seemed to side with the old guard; in 1962 he joined their new ex-combatant organisation, Hermandad de Antiguos Combatientes de Tercios de Requetés,[119] and entered its Junta Nacional.[120] However, when later that year and enraged by increasing Hugocarlista influence Zamanillo handed his resignation from the post of Secretario General,[121] effectively position number 2 within the party structures, Sentís accepted nomination to his successor.[122]

Carlist: climax
Carlos Hugo and Irene, 1964

Sentís was second only to Valiente, the Jefe Delegado.[123] Though his role was largely technical and theoretically boiled down to co-ordinating work of Junta Nacional, it vested him also with real powers, e.g. those related to handling the party finances,[124] especially that he entered also Comisión Especial de Estudios Económicos and planned the budget for 1963.[125] He entered also Comisión Permanente, another coordinative body.[126] However, the Hugocarlista strategy employed in their bid for control in the organization relied on constant structural changes, with new bodies being created in order to dilute power. A new scheme, effective since 1963, confirmed Sentís as general secretary but tended to relegate Traditionalists to prestigious position of little power[127] and put followers of the prince on key behind-the-stage jobs.[128]

Sentís did not seem aware of the ongoing power struggle. Naturally conservative, he negotiated return of the Siempre group.[129] Loyal to Don Javier he served as a link between him and the increasingly marginalized Zamanillo,[130] though he also denounced the latter suspecting him of secret talks about dynastic reconciliation with the Juanistas;[131] the affair contributed to final expulsion of Zamanillo. The Hugocarlistas considered Sentís a rotten reactionary and "lugarteniente de Valiente",[132] but they needed him to credit their strategy of courting Franco and as a person with links to the regime, especially as Carlos Sentís was at the time the manager of EFE, much needed in Hugocarlista media strategy.[133] Indeed, in 1964 Sentís contributed to public image campaigns promoting Carlos Hugo and his wife Irene,[134] inadvertently strengthening the Hugocarlistas at the expense of Valiente and the Traditionalists. During informal talks with the head of Falange Solís the Hugocarlistas suggested that Sentís be appointed to the Cortes;[135] indeed in 1964 he was nominated member of Consejo Nacional del Movimiento,[136] which ensured a 3-year-term in the parliament.[137]

Carlist gathering, Cerro de Los Ángeles near Madrid, mid-1960s

The year of 1964 marked the climax of Sentís' role in the party. Later that year chief architects of Hugocarlista bid were replaced with new, even more radical leaders, who decided to abandon the initial caution and launch an open progressist campaign. Though Valiente and Sentís were dubbed "jefes nacionales carlistas", in fact it was Carlos Hugo and his entourage who were pulling the strings;[138] they considered the time ripe for purging the party executive from the Traditionalists. Riding another wave of structural remodeling, in 1965 they abolished the role of Secretary General altogether.[139] Dismissal was disguised as sort of an honorary retirement and Sentís was invited to take part in the meeting of Carlist jefes with Don Javier in Puchheim.[140] The claimant addressed Sentís with an effusive letter, thanking him for great contribution and vaguely suggesting the need to make room for the young;[141] this was also the line advanced by the Hugocarlistas themselves.[142] As Sentís remained a rather passive member of the executive[143] his ousting did not come as a big surprise and initially generated little controversy within the organization.[144] Hugocarlistas were cautious to burn his entire correspondence and change the office door locks.[145]

Carlist: demise
Montejurra, 1966

In 1966 the governing structures of Comunión were already purged of the Traditionalists[146] and José María Valiente remained virtually isolated in command layer, dominated by the Hugocarlistas. At this point the rank-and-file resistance against the new progressist course was already mounting.[147] It is not clear whether Sentís, who had just turned 70, realized that he fell victim to the ongoing struggle between the Traditionalists and the Progressists. In 1966 he accepted a post in Consejo Asesor de la Jefatura Delegada, another new body within the organisation. The 36-member council gathered mostly Carlist old-timers and theorists; providing them with prestigious role, it was in fact intended to camouflage the Hugocarlista grip on the organization.[148]

In the public realm Sentís was enjoying the status of a noble veteran; apart from receiving other honors,[149] in 1966 Franco conferred upon him Grand Cruz del Mérito Civil[150] and related homages were organized accordingly in Riudoms.[151] However, when his Cortes term expired in 1967 it was not prolonged; deprived of his deputy mandate and not holding any posts within the regime, Sentís was no longer needed by the Progressists within Comunión Tradicionalista. There is no information on his activity in the party in the late 1960s and he probably slipped into idleness, his prevailing political strategy since the 1940s. In 1970 he moved permanently from Madrid to Tarragona.[152] Unlike some other Traditionalists he did not abandon the organization, turned into militantly left-wing Partido Carlista. In 1971, upon reorganization of the regional Catalan Partido Carlista junta, he became its honorary president;[153] oddly enough, at the same time he was in public proudly confirming his unconditional adhesion to Franco.[154]

In 1972 Sentís seemed already beyond Partido Carlista. He might have been involved in attempts to launch a competitive Carlist organisation based on requeté ex-combatant structures and some even suggested that he becomes its jefe,[155] yet it is not confirmed that the project was agreed with him.[156] In the mid-1970 he limited himself to cultivating his Guadalajara link - featured especially in the weekly he co-founded, Nueva Alcarria[157] - and to supporting financially educational, cultural and religious initiatives in Riudoms.[158] Shortly before turning 90 he noted in a press interview that "les guerres em semblen una barbaritat i sobretot les civils",[159] declared himself a Catalanist and expressed sympathy for Jordi Pujol and Miquel Roca.[160]

Riudoms educational facility

In 1997 the Riudoms ayuntamiento declared Sentís "fill il·lustre" of the town, quoting his contribution to construction of schools and reconstruction of churches in Riudoms and the Baix Camp county;[161] a long street running across the town was also named after him. In 2011 Esquerra Republicana councillors demanded that the decision is reversed; they claimed that the nomination was incompatible with Ley de la Memoria Histórica and that as head of prisons, Sentís was responsible for brutal Francoist repression.[162] Since then various organizations[163] and individuals[164] keep reiterating the claim,[165] alternatively denouncing Sentís as Fascist[166] or ridiculing him as "caudillo de Riudoms por la gracia de Dios" and "hijo ilustre franquista".[167]

See also

Notes
  1. Dr. Jordi Sentís Bonet entry, [in:] Testimonios para la historia service, available here
  2. Edelmira Doménech, Jacint Corbella, Nota sobre Bernat Sentís i Toldrá, cirurgiá de Riudoms en el segle XIX, [in:] Gimbernaut 42 (2004), p. 105
  3. Dr. Jordi Sentís Bonet entry, [in:] Testimonios para la historia service, available here
  4. Doménech, Corbella 2004, pp. 107-108
  5. La Cruz 15.07.06, available here
  6. La Carcajada 08.04.1892, available here
  7. Eusebi Sentís Gran entry, [in:] Geni genealogical service, available here.
  8. Boletín Oficial de la Provincia de Tarragona 11.05.17, available here
  9. Eugeni Perea Simón, Carmelitans fills de Riudoms (s. XVII-XIX), [in:] Lo Floc 214 (2015), p. 15, also Eusebi Sentís Gran entry, [in:] Geni genealogical service, available here
  10. Eusebio (1890), Ramón (1892), Juan (1894), José María (1896), Dolores (1897), Antón (1898) and Carlos (1899)
  11. La Cruz 07.02.19, available here
  12. La Cruz 09.07.10, available here
  13. La Cruz 19.11.35, available here
  14. José Sentís Villanova and Placido Sentís Villanova
  15. Perea Simón 2015, pp. 14-15
  16. Perea Simón 2015, p. 15
  17. the oldest son Eusebio was expected to continue to family tradition and to inherit the pharmacy business; indeed, he graduated in pharmacy in 1909, Diario del Comercio 06.11.09, available here
  18. Joan-R. Corts i Salvat, Josep M. Toda i Serra, Josep M. Sentís: un soldat per Déu i la Pàtria, [in:] Lo Floc 80 (1986), p. 20
  19. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 21
  20. La Epoca 09.07.20, available here
  21. Anuario Militar de España 1921, p. 218, available here
  22. La Cruz 26.11.27, available here a
  23. ABC 08.08.89, available here, ABC 10.12.87, available here
  24. Rosá María Sentís Mariné (died 1985) married Javier Arsuaga Sarasola; their children are Juanjo, Javier, Ignacio and Belén Arsuaga Sentís, ABC 06.12.85, available here, ABC 13.03.05, available here
  25. María Dolores Sentís Mariné (died 2004) married Marcos Ribas Gort; their children are Marcos and José María Ribas Sentís, ABC 18.10.04, available here
  26. José María's father Eusebio Sentís Gran and Carlos Sentís Anfruns' grandfather, Jaime Sentís Gran, were brothers
  27. Ferran Sales, Peticion de dos años de cárcel para el empresario José María Sentís por una presunta estafa, [in:] El País 24.01.86, available here
  28. Jordi Sentís Bonnet, his great-grandfather Jaime Sentís Gran and José María's father were brothers
  29. Dr. Jordi Sentís Bonet entry, [in:] Testimonios para la historia service, available here
  30. La Vanguardia 03.06.25, available here
  31. El Avisador Numantino 19.07.39, available here, also César Alcalá, La represión política en Cataluña (1936-1939), Madrid 2005, ISBN 8496281310, p. 141
  32. she was awarded Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise, Perea Simón 2015, p. 15
  33. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 21
  34. El Telegrama del Rif 14.02.26, available here
  35. La Cruz 17.09.27, available here
  36. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 21
  37. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, pp. 20-21
  38. La Vanguardia 15.12.31, available here
  39. Anuario Militar de España 1934, p. 182, available here
  40. Joaquín Monserrat Cavaller, Joaquín Bau Nolla y la restauración de la Monarquía, Madrid 2001, ISBN 8487863949, p. 79
  41. Joan Maria Thomàs, El Franquisme des de dins: un informe sobre Tarragona, [in:] Butlletí de la Societat Catalana d'Estudis Històrics 9 (1998), p. 152
  42. Anuario Militar de España 1936, p. 189, available here
  43. Monserrat Cavaller 2001, p. 80
  44. together with Joaquín Bau, Enrique Mur Brull, José María Bru Jardí and others, Monserrat Cavaller 2001, p. 78
  45. e.g. the one in Solivella, Robert Vallverdú i Martí, El Carlisme Català Durant La Segona República Espanyola 1931-1936, Barcelona 2008, ISBN 9788478260805, p. 335
  46. Sentís was disappointed that Falange refused to take part if the coup unless on clear orders from own command, Vallverdú i Martí 2008, p. 299
  47. Monserrat Cavaller 2001, p. 79
  48. local Requeté led by Josep Virgili i Roig accounted to 500 men in Tarragona and perhaps 1000 in the province; on July 18 they grouped ready for action and awaited orders from the military, which have never come, Vallverdú i Martí 2008, pp. 328-329
  49. on July 18 as representative of the military Sentís travelled to Benicàssim to co-ordinate the action with Joaquín Bau, who had already left; disoriented, he retutned to Tarragona, Monserrat Cavaller 2001, p. 79
  50. the commanding officer in the Almansa regiment was coronel Martínez Peñalver. He awaited orders from the Barcelona military headquarters and adopted a passive and dilatory tactics, Vallverdú i Martí 2008, pp. 328-329. According to another version, Martínez Peñalver was loyal to the Republic, refused to declare martial law and later in July he led Republican attack on Teruel, José Ramón Sanchis Alfonso, Nuevas aportaciones sobre la guerra civil en la provincia de Teruel a través de la prensa valenciana (julio-agosto de 1936), [in:] memoriacastello service, available here
  51. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, pp. 21-22
  52. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 22
  53. Julio Aróstegui, Combatientes Requetés en la Guerra Civil española, 1936-1939, Madrid 2013, ISBN 9788499709758, p. 692
  54. Sentís and his collaborators, Avellí Trinxet representing Falange and Julio Rentería representing the Alfonsists, worked out an entire personal scheme for all 4 Catalan provinces. In two of them a Carlist was supposed to be the local FET jefe and a Falangist the sub-jefe, in two other provinces the other way round, Robert Vallverdú i Martí, La metamorfosi del carlisme català: del "Déu, Pàtria i Rei" a l'Assamblea de Catalunya (1936-1975), Barcelona 2014, ISBN 9788498837261 pp. 60-63
  55. Domingo García Ramos, Instituciones y vida política durante la Guerra Civil y el franquismo. Palencia (1936-1975) [PhD thesis Univerisad Nacional de Educación a Distancia], Madrid 2003, p. 200
  56. one author suggests he was commandante already when assuming command of the Montserrat battalion in September 1937, Aróstegui 2013, p. 692. However, in November 1937 the press still noted him as capitán, compare El Día de Palencia 30.11.37, available here. He was first mentioned in the press as comandante in January 1938, compare El Diario Palentino 03.01.38, available here
  57. Joan María Thomás, La repressió que no cessava, [in:] Miscellania 24 (1997), p. 22
  58. Domingo García Ramos, Les primeres etapes polítiques de Sentís a Paléncia (1940-1942), [in:] Lo Floc 177 (2005), p. 7
  59. García Ramos 2003, p. 200, Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 23
  60. García Ramos 2003, p. 200
  61. for a number of reasons, e.g. for "promover escándalo en la vía pública", compare El Día de Palencia 03.01.38, available here
  62. one scholar notes he demonstrated "sus cualidades de hombre de mando y moralizador de costumbres" García Ramos 2003, pp. 199-200
  63. e.g. against a local tycoon César Gusano, during the Republic a republican-socialist politician, counting him among "aquellos que hoy están en actitud de conformidad pasiva y ayer se distinguieron por sus propagandas, por sus dádivas y su mal ejemplo", García Ramos 2003, p. 297
  64. García Ramos 2003, p. 201, Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 23
  65. García Ramos 2003, p. 201
  66. García Ramos 2003, p. 201; the scholar claims that alleged Sentís bid was part of the struggle between the Falangists and the Carlists for domination in the Catalan FET structures. The job of Tarragona civil governor went to José María Fontana, who later denounced Sentís as a vehement Falangist enemy. In his recollections Sentís does not mention own designs on the Tarragona civil governor post. Instead, he claims that his military superiors asked him for personal suggestions; he came up with 4, and one of them was allegedly followed, Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 24
  67. on February 20, 1939; according to one scholar, Sentís owed the nomination to Rodezno, García Ramos 2003, p. 201
  68. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 24. The Nationalist troops entered Guadalajara on March 29, 1939, Juan Carlos Berlinches Balbacid, Orígenes de la Guerra Civil en Guadalajara, [in:] Francisco Alía Miranda, Angel Ramón del Valle Calzado, Olga M. Morales Encinas (eds.), La guerra civil en Castilla – La Mancha, Ciudad Real 2008, ISBN 9788484275558, p. 317
  69. the period of heaviest repression fell in 1940, when at least 594 executions were recorded, Compañeros que estan en la fosa no. 1 y fila del antiguo cementerio civil, [in:] Memoria Histórica de Guadalajara service 15.05.17, available here
  70. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 24, also Nueva Alcarria 22.02.58, available here
  71. until the usual Toledo premises of the academy were reconstructed, Nueva Alcarria 30.01.60, available here
  72. Carlists formed between 3,1% (minimum, November 1936) and 7,5% (maximum, January 1939) of all civil governors; there have never been more than 3 Carlists serving as civil governors at the time, Martí Marín Corbera, Los gubernadores civiles del franquismo, 1936-1963: seis personajes en busca de autor, [in:] Historia y Política 29 (2013), p. 288
  73. Nueva Alcarria 19.10.40, available here, see also the Guadalajara town hall official web page, available here Archived 2016-03-07 at the Wayback Machine
  74. on October 24, 1940, García Ramos 2003, p. 202
  75. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 24, García Ramos 2003, p. 199
  76. the initiative which stood out among routine duties was organising courses for public servants, one of the first ones in Francoist Spain, García Ramos 2003, p. 204
  77. see e.g. an official note of Sentís as civil governor, referring to a lost and found cow, Boletin Oficial de la Provincia de Palencia 27.04.42, available here. The note is indicative of dramatic food shortages of the time
  78. Sentís tended to marginalse the Falangist Auxilio Social, instead preferring various Carlist and monarchist organizations as channels of distribution, García Ramos 2003, p. 202
  79. particularly bitter confrontation developed in relation to the Palencia ayuntamiento, García Ramos 2003, pp. 307-308, and diputacion provincial, García Ramos 2003, p. 442
  80. e.g. after the solemn mass of April 1, on Fiesta de la Victoria, attended by all provincial dignitaries, the only music played was the Carlist anthem Oriamendi, García Ramos 2003, p. 203. See also Domingo García Ramos, Les primeres etapes polítiques de Sentís a Paléncia (1940-1942), [in:] Lo Floc 2004, p. 8
  81. the provincial FET jefe of Palencia was Antonio de Arana; when on October 1, 1941 the first Sentís year in office was celebrated he preferred to be away, García Ramos 2003, pp. 312, 395
  82. García Ramos 2003, p. 143; the document read further that "y ver con pena como a enemigos encubiertos de la Falange, como el Sr. Sentís Simeón siguen su carrera ascendente dentro del Estado Nacional-Sindicalista, pues a citado señor debe la Falange Palentina implacable persecución contando como contaba con medios coactivos... Si ahora nuevamente ha de regir los destinos de ésta desde el Gobierno Civil, otro personaje idéntico al Sr. Sentís, entonces esta Falange habrá no concluido ... , pero sí sufrirá un descenso en la fé que la sigue animando..", quoted after García Ramos 2003, p. 205
  83. ABC 15.03.41, available here
  84. Sentís insisted that all nominees to municipal gestoras should belong to FET, García Ramos 2003, p. 312. In 1941 he did not nominate a Carlist, Fernando Junco Calderón, previously secretary of Junta Provincial Carlista de Guerra, apparently because of his intransigent Carlist past, García Ramos 2003, p. 92
  85. García Ramos 2004, p. 8
  86. official news was released on May 25, 1942, García Ramos 2003, p. 547. In Guadalajara Sentís served as civil governor for 20 months, in Palencia for 18 months. The duration of his terms does not differ significantly from average terms of civil governors at the time, though it tends to be slightly below average. In 1939-1943 average term of a civil governor was 20-30 months, in the mid-1940s rising to 50 months and above, Julio Ponce Alberca, Los gobernadores civiles en el primer franquismo, [in:] Hispania LXXVI (2016), p. 252. See also Domingo García Ramos, Conflictos entre FET y de las JONS y el Gobierno Civil en Palencia (1939-1943), [in:] VI Encuentro de investigadores sobre el franquismo, Zaragoza 2006, ISBN 8469009575, pp. 34-47. It might seem that Sentís was dismissed in a hurry; there was no successor agreed and for a few weeks president of the provincial diputactión acted as provisional civil governor, García Ramos 2003, p. 207
  87. García Ramos 2003, p. 205, ABC 08.05.42, available here
  88. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 24
  89. Sentís acted as president of the Patronato between July 25, 1942 and April 11, 1943, José Luis Gutiérrez Molina, Miembros de la Comisión Permanente del Patronato Central de Redención de Penas por el Trabajo (1938‐1950), [in:] Campos de Concentración y Trabajo Esclavo en Andalucía. VI Jornadas, Sevilla 2010, p. 14
  90. for details see Jaume Sobrequés i Callicó, Carme Molinero Ruiz, Margarida Sala (eds.), Una inmensa prisión: los campos de concentración y las prisiones durante la Guerra Civil y el franquismo, Barcelona 2003, ISBN 8484324389
  91. Stanley G. Payne, The Franco Regime, Madison 1987, ISBN 0299110702, p. 223
  92. in 1938 Sentís was using his personal links helping Joaquín Bau to get Catalan Republican POWs out of prisons and labor camps, Monserrat Cavaller 2001, p. 227
  93. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 24
  94. Sentís term of jefe of prisons lasted between July 22, 1942 and April 2, 1943, Clyde L. Clark, Francisco Franco, The Evolution of the Franco Regime, vol. 2, Washington n.d., p. 894
  95. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 24
  96. Nueva Alcarria 07.02.48, available here
  97. Boletín Oficial de la Provincia de Guadalajara 09.03.50, available here
  98. in 1943 Crescendo Gardiazabal, Bilbao's secretary, founded a control body to monitor supplies of coffee from Equatorial Guiney and needed a trusted man, Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 24
  99. Rosa Pardo Sanz, El Franquismo y las Colonias, [in:] Renato Moro, Giuliana de Febo (eds.), Fascismo y Franquismo. Relazioni, immagini, rappresentazioni, Roma 2005, p. 239. Legislation adopted in 1944 and later in 1948 facilitated economic exploitiation of "frutos y productos más necesitados por la economia nacional" and Proguinea del Café was one of the companies controlling the local economy, enjoying "poder monopolistico" on the coffee market, Sergio Suárez Blanco, Las colonias españolas en África durante el primer franquismo (1939-1959). Algunas reflexiones, [in:] Espacio, Tiempo y Forma 10 (1997), p. 328
  100. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 24
  101. the issue is not entirely clear. Sentís referred it as follows: "Hauria pogut ascendir encara més, però em treien d'aquell destí del cafè (entitat PROQUINEA) amb el qual conjuminava el meu destí militar. Llavors m'haurien pogut enviar lluny. Fou per això que vaig demanar la separació als 56 o 58 anys", quoted after Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 24
  102. Imperio 18.03.54, available here
  103. ABC 24.12.57, available here
  104. BOE 16.02.61, available here
  105. Sentís' father Eusebio in 1893 was member of the Carlist Junta Provincial (of Tarragona), El Correo Español 25.01.93, available here, and unsuccessfully represented the party in 1896 elections to Diputación Provincial, Correo de Tortosa 19.08.96, available here. He was active Carlist until death, see note on his 1918 activity, La Cruz 03.02.18, available here
  106. in February 1940 the Carlist youth of Tarragona distributed leaflets, protesting crackdown on requeté and other Carlist outposts; the text read also "¿Dónde están los Prat, los Sentís, los Bau?", Manuel Martorell Pérez, La continuidad ideológica del carlismo tras la Guerra Civil [PhD thesis in Historia Contemporanea, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia], Valencia 2009, p. 216. The Palencia Carlists spoke in his defense, García Ramos 2003, pp. 203-204
  107. Thomàs 1998, p. 152
  108. an internal Falangist document of early 1944 describes Sentís as the one who leads Tarragona Carlists, though hardly a military man and rather a politician with "temperamento terriblemente caciquil". He was named "antifalangista declarado" who together with Bau works to the detriment of Falange. Initially clearly following Falcondismo, in the mid-1940s he was reportedly in-between Falcondismo and Juanismo, Thomàs 1998, p. 152
  109. except one note in Martorell Pérez 2009 no other historiographic work discussing general Carlist history of the 1940s and 1950s mentions Sentís, compare Francisco Javier Caspistegui Gorasurreta, El naufragio de las ortodoxias. El carlismo, 1962–1977, Pamplona 1997; ISBN 9788431315641, Ramón María Rodón Guinjoan, Invierno, primavera y otoño del carlismo (1939-1976) [PhD thesis Universitat Abat Oliba CEU], Barcelona 2015, Daniel Jesús García Riol, La resistencia tradicionalista a la renovación ideológica del carlismo (1965-1973) [PhD thesis UNED], Madrid 2015. There are two works discussing in detail the Catalan Carlism of the Francoist period. One of them does not mention Sentís at all, see César Alcalá, D. Mauricio de Sivatte. Una biografía política (1901-1980), Barcelona 2001, ISBN 8493109797; another one mentions him only in relation to 1937 and 1971, see Vallverdú i Martí 2014
  110. e.g. he took part in feasts flavored with Traditionalism but remaining firmly within the Francoist orthodoxy, see e.g. his 1954 public appearance with Iturmendi, Hoja oficial de la provincia de Barcelona 26.04.54, available here
  111. "el modelo de esa vinculación privada a la causa la tradición", Marín Corbera 2013, p. 289
  112. there is no known case of an officer in active military service engaging in mainstream Carlism in the 1940s and the 1950s. Few cases known, e.g. the one of Jesús Cora y Lira, are related not to mainstream Carlism but to its branch known as Carloctavismo, which enjoyed some sort of support on part of the regime
  113. Javier Lavardín, Historia del ultimo pretendiente a la corona de España, Paris 1976 , p. 121
  114. Rodón Guinjoan 2015, p. 73
  115. Rodón Guinjoan 2015, p. 203
  116. e.g. opening Círculo Vázquez de Mella in 1961 in Siguenza, Flores y abejas 28.02.61, available here
  117. Nueva Alcarria 28.04.62, available here
  118. Sentís was upset about Carlos Hugo courting Estudio General de Navarra, considered an Opus Dei outpost, Mercedes Vázquez de Prada, El final de una ilusión. Auge y declive del tradicionalismo carlista (1957-1967), Madrid 2016, ISBN 9788416558407, p. 125
  119. ABC 06.05.62, available here
  120. Caspistegui Gorasurreta 1997, pp. 118-119
  121. Lavardin 1976, p. 143
  122. during so-called Junta de Hendaya, Vázquez de Prada 2016, p. 171
  123. in 1963 Sentís as secretary general co-signed El carlismo y la unidad religiosa, a document protesting planned new law admitting religious liberalisation; in the document he was listed third, following the claimant Don Javier and Jefe Delegado José María Valiente, García Riol 2015, p. 150
  124. compare controversies related to financing Azada y Asta, Vázquez de Prada 2016, p. 197, or Rodón Guinjoan 2015, p. 276
  125. Vázquez de Prada 2016, p. 178
  126. together with Miguel Fagoaga and José María Codoñ, Lavardin 1976, p. 121
  127. Vázquez de Prada 2016, pp. 196-197
  128. Caspistegui Gorasurreta 1997, p. 80
  129. a group of Traditionalists abandoned Comunión in the very early 1960s and grouped around a review Siempre. Sentís acted as intermediary working to facilitate their return to Javierismo; as it was in no interest to Hugocarlistas to admit their opponents back, the contacts were slashed, Caspistegui Gorasurreta 1997, p. 77
  130. e.g. when Don Javier asked Zamanillo to step down from leadership of Hermandad, allegedly not to provide the impression that Hermanded was an official Carlist outpost, it was Sentís chosen to deliver the request and work on Zamanillo, Vázquez de Prada 2016, p. 189
  131. in 1963 Zamanillo, Fagoaga, Del Mazo, Arauz and others dined together in a restaurant; Sentís and Massó denounced the meeting as smelling of potential dynastical talks. Soon the episode was used as one of many arguments for expulsing Zamanillo, Vázquez de Prada 2016, p. 187
  132. Lavardin 1976, pp. 188-189
  133. Lavardin 1976, pp. 184, 190. The Carlists did their best to dodge censorship and sneak into the official discourse, sometimes with success. In 1964 Carlos Sentís penned a piece which ended rather typically with venerating homage to Franco, but the closing passages were by no means typical; they wished for "an adequate succession to caudillo in form of a dynasty which personifies Catholic, popular, social and representative monarchy", a clear reference to the Borbón-Parmas, Nueva Alcarria 24.07.64, available here
  134. Nueva Alcarria 19.09.64, available here, for Sentís courting "infanta doña Cecilia de Borbón-Parma" see Nueva Alcarria 06.04.63, available here
  135. in June 1964 Comunión people suggested to Solís that Sentís, Ramón Massó, Pedro Echevarría and José María Zavala get nominated to the Cortes, Vázquez de Prada 2016, p. 236
  136. Marín Corbera 2013, p. 288
  137. see the Sentís entry at the official Cortes site, available here
  138. Lavardin 1976, p. 199
  139. Caspistegui Gorasurreta 1997, p. 96, Rodón Guinjoan 2016, p. 280
  140. García Riol 2015, p. 50
  141. García Riol 2015, p. 53
  142. Lavardin 1976, p. 252
  143. Lavardin 1976, p. 251
  144. Lavardin 1976, pp. 251-252
  145. see Carta de Doña Maria Amparo Munilla, Archivo Familia Borbón Parma, 30.10.1967, transcribed here. Munilla suggests that "they [Hugocarlistas] feared something from him [Sentis]".
  146. José Luis Zamanillo, Juan Sáenz-Díez, Arturo Marquéz de Prado, Miguel Fagoaga, José María Codón and Sentís himself were either expulsed or marginalised already
  147. Vázquez de Prada 2016, p. 259
  148. Caspistegui Gorasurreta 1997, pp. 99-100
  149. in 1954 Sentís was awarded Medalla de Oro al Mérito Penitenciario, ABC 23.01.54, available here, in 1963 he received Comendador con Placa of Orden de Africa, ABC 01.10.63, available here, in 1968 pope Paul VI conferred upon him Encomienda de la Orden Ecuestre de San Gregorio Magno, Nueva Alcarria 07.09.68, available here, in 1971 Bau conferred upon Sentís Medalla de Trabajo, Nueva Alcarria 23.10.71, available here
  150. ABC 01.04.66, available here
  151. ABC 25.11.66, available here
  152. Nueva Alcarria 14.11.70, available here
  153. Vallverdú i Martí 2014, p. 221
  154. Nueva Alcarria 23.10.71, available here
  155. in 1972, when José Arturo Márquez de Prado tried to launch a new Carlist organization based on ex-combatant structures, many Carlists proposed him as jefe; however, Márquez de Prado suggested Sáenz-Diez or Sentís as leaders of the organization, Caspistegui Gorasurreta 1997, p. 231
  156. Caspistegui Gorasurreta 1997, p. 233
  157. Nueva Alcarria 17.02.73, available here
  158. e.g. he boasted contributing to construction of a library, a museum and a school, apart from assisting in reconstruction of many churches in the area; for the latter he was awarded the papal order, Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, pp 24-26; he also donated pipe organ to the Riudoms church, Nueva Alcarria 25.11.67, available here
  159. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 25
  160. Corts i Salvat, Toda i Serra 1986, p. 26
  161. see Moció que presenta el grup municipal d'ERC-AM al ple de l'ajuntament de Riudoms (2015), available here
  162. see Proposta de moció per deixar sense effecte el nomenament de Josep. M. Sentís i Simeon com a fill illustre (2011), available here
  163. Nota de prensa denuncia Sentís como Hijo Ilustre franquista. 4 octubre 2014, [in:] Unidad y Orden service, available here
  164. Ricard Gili, Josep M. Sentís, caudillo de Riudoms por la gracia de Dios, [in:] ricardgili.cat service 10.10.14, available here
  165. Moció que presenta el grup municipal d'ERC-AM al ple de l'ajuntament de Riudoms (2015), available here
  166. "no somos fascistas, ni por asomo. No podemos decir lo mismo de Sentís Simeón. El sí lo era", Nota de prensa denuncia Sentís como Hijo Ilustre franquista. 4 octubre 2014, [in:] Unidad y Orden service, available here
  167. Gili 2014, Nota de prensa denuncia Sentís como Hijo Ilustre franquista. 4 octubre 2014, [in:] Unidad y Orden service, available here. For a fairly animated internet forum debate on Sentis Simeon see Sobre el carlista Jose Maria Sentis Simeon, [in:] Tapatalk service, May-June 2016, available here

Further reading
  • Joan-R. Corts i Salvat, Josep M. Toda i Serra, Josep M. Sentís: un soldat per Déu i la Pàtria, [in:] Lo Floc 80 (1986), pp. 20–26
  • Josep M. Sentís Simeón (1896-1989). Lluitador constant pels seus ideals, [in:] L'Om 328 (1997), pp. 3–30
  • Domingo García Ramos, Instituciones y vida política durante la Guerra Civil y el franquismo. Palencia (1936-1975) [PhD thesis Univerisad Nacional de Educación a Distancia], Madrid 2003
  • Domingo García Ramos, Les primeres etapes polítiques de Sentís a Paléncia (1940-1942), [in:] Lo Floc 177 (2005), pp. 6–9
  • Martí Marín Corbera, Los gubernadores civiles del franquismo, 1936-1963: seis personajes en busca de autor, [in:] Historia y Política 29 (2013), pp. 269–299
  • Joan Maria Thomàs, El franquisme des de dins: un informe sobre Tarragona, [in:] Bulletí de la Societat Catalana d'Estudis Històrics 9 (1998), pp. 149–156
  • Mercedes Vázquez de Prada, El final de una ilusión. Auge y declive del tradicionalismo carlista (1957-1967), Madrid 2016, ISBN 9788416558407
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