José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquess of Estella, , often referred to as José Antonio, was a Spanish lawyer, nobleman, politician, and founder of the Falange Española , later Falange Española de las JONS. He was the eldest son of military dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera. Imprisoned before the start of the Spanish Civil War, he was accused of conspiracy and military rebellion against the Government of the Second Spanish Republic and was sentenced to death and executed during the first months of the war.
The image of José Antonio was revered during the war by the Nationalist faction and, after the establishment of Francoist Spain, he was regarded as a martyr, his figure being a tool of the Francoist propaganda apparatus. The inscription of "José Antonio ¡Presente!" could be found in many churches all across Spain.
Stanley G. Payne, Falange: A History of Spanish Fascism (1961), p. 31.
“Life is not a firework to be let off at the end of a party.”
Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (2006), p. 111.
