José María Valiente Soriano (1900-1982) was a Spanish politician. He commenced his career in Acción Nacional and gained recognition as leader of Juventudes de Acción Popular, the youth branch of CEDA. In 1935 he joined Carlism; his political climax fell on the period of 1955-1967, when he was leading the mainstream Traditionalist organisation. After 1971 he unsuccessfully engaged in buildup of conservative monarchist groupings. He served in the Republican parliament during two terms between 1933 and 1936; between 1967 and 1977 during two terms he held a mandate in the Francoist Cortes. In 1937-1942 he was member of Consejo Nacional of Falange Española Tradicionalista.
Family and youth
None of the sources consulted provides information on Valiente's distant ancestors; it is known that his paternal grandfather José Valiente was related to a Murcian town of Yecla, but it is not known what he was doing for a living.Valiente Soriano, José María entry, [in:] Diccionario de Catedráticos Españoles de Derecho at UC3M service, available here His son and Valiente's father, also José Valiente (died 1938),Movimiento Nobiliario 1938/2 in the late 1870s frequented the local Yeclan Colegio de los Padres Escolapios, and obtained “bachillerato de arte” in 1881.Expediente académico de José Valiente Soriano, [in:] Archivo General Region de Murcía service, available here He then studied law at an unspecified university and at least since the mid-1890s served as a notary in Yecla.Boletín Oficial de la Provincia de Murcia 27.08.96, available here He married Micaela Soriano e Ibáñez; nothing is known either about her or her family except that her parents were also the natives of Yecla.Valiente Soriano, José María entry, [in:] Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte service, available here The couple had 3 children; José Maria was only son.Movimiento Nobiliario 1938/2 They initially settled in the Valencian town of Chelva, where Valiente served as a notary.Mercedes Vázquez de Prada, José María Valiente Soriano: Una semblanza política, [in:] Memoria y Civilización 2012 (15), p. 250 In 1900 the family moved to Valencia, where Valiente was admitted to the local notary corps.El Diario de Murcia 16.11.00, available here He served in the Levantine capital for some 20 years; in 1920in 1919 José Valiente still served as a notary in Valencia, El Debate 25.10.19, available here or 1921 he moved to Madrid and kept practicing as a notary.La Libertad 23.08.21, available here
The young José María was brought up in Valencia; in the mid-1910s he was frequenting the local Colegio de San José, run by the Jesuits,Enrique Lull Martí, Jesuitas y pedagogía: el Colegio San José en la Valencia de los años veinte, Madrid 1997, ISBN 9788489708167, p. 634 and was doing well;Las Provincias 05.06.16, available here in 1917 he obtained bachillerato at Instituto de Valencia.Valiente Soriano, José María entry, [in:] Diccionario de Catedráticos Españoles de Derecho at UC3M Following preparatory courses in MurciaValiente Soriano, José María entry, [in:] Diccionario de Catedráticos Españoles de Derecho at UC3M he then enrolled at law in Universidad Central in Madrid and followed the licenciatura curriculum between 1917 and 1921.Valiente Soriano, José María entry, [in:] Diccionario de Catedráticos Españoles de Derecho at UC3M Sometime in the early 1920s Valiente Soriano moved to Italy to pursue his academic career in Università di Bologna, where in 1923 he passed the Esame di Laurea in Giurisprudenza.Valiente Soriano, José María entry, [in:] Diccionario de Catedráticos Españoles de Derecho at UC3M It is not clear whether back in Spain Valiente was further related to Universidad Central, as he got his title of licenciado en derecho confirmed by the Madrid alma mater in 1927.Valiente Soriano, José María entry, [in:] Diccionario de Catedráticos Españoles de Derecho at UC3M In the late 1920s he commenced work as auxiliary professor at Central; at the same time he practiced as abogado.El Tiempo 20.01.28, available here
In 1933El Sol 25.05.33, available here Valiente married a girl from Santander, Consuelo Setién Rodríguez (died 1986);ABC 15.02.87, available here she was descendant to a family of noble Cantabrian landownersBoletin Oficial de la Provincia de Santander 11.12.74, available here, also Boletin Oficial de la Provincia de Santander 26.05.75, available here and would later claim the title of Marqués de Pelayo.BOE 48 (1975), available here The couple settled in Madrid at calle General Castaños 4BOE 37 (1993), available here and had at least 3 children, born in the 1930s; Lucía,Revista Hidalguia 234 (1992), p. 613 Rosa BlancaBOE 37 (1993), available here and José Ignacio Valiente Setién.Diario de Burgos 24.12.36, available here None of them became a public figure, which is also the case of Valiente's grandchildren. Among other relatives the best known is his nephewin 1934 Valiente's sister got married in Onis José Ramón Prieto Noriega, La Epoca 14.09.34, available here Alfredo Prieto Valiente, who was an important Asturian politician and in the years of 1977-1979 served as the Unión de Centro Democrático deputy to the Constituent Cortes.Alfredo Prieto Valiente entry, [in:] Oviedo Encyclopedia service, available here, also Prieto Valiente, Alfredo entry, [in:] Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte service, available here One more Valiente's sister married into the aristocratic Toll-Messia familyLa Correspondencia de Valencia 09.03.27, available here and his another nephew, Fernando Toll-Messia y Valiente, was the XIII. Conde de Cazalla del Río.BOE 35 (1953), available here
In Christian organizations (1924-1935)
In his youth Valiente's father was a liberal,in the 1890s he was member of Comité republicano-progresista, El Pais 13.09.92, available here though in the 1920s he moved to more conservative positions and supported the Primo de Rivera dictatorship.La Voz 07.12.26, available here The first information on Valiente Soriano's political engagements comes from 1922: he entered the Madrid branch of Confederación Nacional de Estudiantes Católicos.and as the entry lecture delivered analysis of Italian fascism, El Debate 02.11.22, available here In 1924 and jointly with Gil Robles he co-founded Vanguardia Social Popular, designed as a youth branch of Partido Social Popular.José Ramón Montero, Entre la radicalización antidemocrática y el fascismo: las Juventudes de Acción Popular, [in:] Studia Historica 5 (1987), p. 49 In 1927, Valiente set up Juventud Católica de España, the ostensibly apolitical grouping concerned with defence and dissemination of Catholic values among the youth;Antonio Fontán, Los católicos en la universidad española actual, Madrid 1961, p. 42 in 1931 it was federated with Acción Católica, a broad organization of lay Catholics led by Ángel Herrera Oria. Later the same year, once the militantly secular course of the Republic began to take shape, he moved to politics by co-founding Acción Nacional (which in 1932 changed its name to Acción Popular), a broad though heterogeneous conservative alliance, and became the vicepresident of its first National Committee.Vázquez de Prada 2012, p. 251 Since Acción Catolica banned its members from holding political party leadership roles, Valiente had to resign from the JCE leadership.José R. Montero, La CEDA: el catolicismo social y político en la II República, vol. 2, Madrid 1977, ISBN 9788474340297, p. 520
In 1933, Valiente proceeded to build the Acción Popular youth organisation, Juventudes de Acción Popular, and became its president.Vázquez de Prada 2012, p. 251 Soon afterwards AP transformed itself into Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas. JAP, now forming a juvenile branch of CEDA, retained its name and structure; Valiente continued to lead the organisation and became one of the national CEDA chieftains.Joaquín Arrarás, Historia de la segunda República Española, Madrid 1964, p. 309 Under his guidance, Juventudes became an aggressively anti-Lefist and pro-authoritarian group,detailed discussion of JAP under Valiente's guidance and afterwards in Montero 1987, pp. 47-64 though falling short of a typical "shirt organization" and denying similarity to Fascism.some scholars suggest that JAP was perhaps the most radical section of CEDA and it embraced certain vestiges of fascistoid culture, see Stanley G. Payne, Spain's First Democracy: The Second Republic, 1931-1936, Madison 1993, ISBN 9780299136741, p. 171. Other authors note that Valiente, though clearly anti-liberal, was hugely skeptical about fascism, and declared that “para nosotros ... el Estado ha de reconocer la familia, el municipio, la libertad de enseñanza, la libertad de prensa seriamente regulada, y, sobre todo, la libertad humana, entendida como la entiende nuestra teología y no al modo liberal”, quoted after Vázquez de Prada 2012, p. 251 During the 1933 elections to the Cortes, Valiente, thanks to his Cantabrian family links, negotiated a place on the local Unión de Derechas Agrarias list of candidatesJulián Sanz Hoya, De la resistencia a la reacción: las derechas frente a la Segunda República (Cantabria, 1931-1936), Santander 2006, ISBN 9788481024203, p. 158 and was comfortably elected from the Santander-Cantabria district.see his mandate at the official Cortes service, available here
In early 1934, Valiente at least twice secretly travelled to France to speak with Alfonso XIII.Vázquez de Prada 2012, p. 251 His aim was to negotiate the terms of modus vivendi between the monarchists and CEDA, and specifically to ask that for the deposed king refrains from any statements that might impair CEDA's political fortunes.Martin Blinkhorn, Carlism and Crisis in Spain 1931-1939, Cambridge 1975, ISBN 9780521207294, p. 131, Vázquez de Prada 2012, p. 251 It is not exactly clear to what extent this mission was agreed with the party leader José Gil-Robles, since the two gave conflicting accounts of the incident, but it is usually accepted that the latter was at least approvingly aware.Vázquez de Prada 2012, pp. 251-252 When the news of the Fontainebleau talks leaked to the press CEDA, the party which despite repeated declarations of loyalty towards the Republic was customarily accused of anti-Republican designs by the Left, found itself cornered and embarrassed. Eventually, the official version adopted by CEDA presented the incident as a monarchist plot within the organization. Valiente, apparently with his consent, was made a scapegoat and was expelled from the party.detailed discussion in Vázquez de Prada 2012, pp. 251-257 It is not unlikely that the militancy of JAP, perceived by the more acquiescent cedistas as compromising, might have contributed to the harsh line taken against Valiente. He had to leave JAP as well, replaced as its leader by José María Perez de Laborda.Historia contemporánea, Bilbao 1994, p. 87
Carlist: Republic and War (1935-1939)