He was born in a deeply Catholic family of Bilbao. His parents were Hermenegildo García Sanz (1850–1929) and Cándida Verde Delgado (1860–1932). His father was a member of the Integrist Party and one of the most important promoters of El Siglo Futuro.[2][note 1] An important and wealthy local figure, García Sanz had founded three Catholic schools for poor children at the Province of Soria.[4] Hermenegildo was a staunch traditionalist and a great admirer of Ecuadorian president Gabriel García Moreno, considered a founding figure of Catholic Integralism. He educated his children in strict Catholic discipline and transmitted his political beliefs to them.[5][6]
His family had lived in Argentina, where they held some businesses, and García Verde would travel to the Americas frequently.[7] García Verde lived in Bilbao for most of his childhood,[8] but would travel every summer and autumn to Soria and Derroñadas, the birth town of his father.[9]
After his family moved to Madrid, José María García Verde was chosen as leader of the youth wing of the Integrist Party at the capital city,[10] standing out as an organizer of public propaganda meetings.[11]
He worked as an engineer during his youth years, but left his profession to move to the Cordoban countryside and become a rancher.[12]
In 1934 he was designated as regional chief of the Traditionalist Communion for West Andalusia as a successor to Manuel Fal Conde, and organized the traditionalist youth wing of the region.[14]
Along with Juan José Palomino and José María García de Paredes he promoted the traditionalist press at Andalusia, serving as director to 6 newspapers of the Impresora Bética group.[15]
After the war he kept holding the position of regional chief clandestinely.[15] In February 1947 he took part in the first general assembly of the regional authorities of the Traditionalist Communion after the Spanish Civil War, and submitted a request to General Francisco Franco asking for a regime change in favour of a traditional monarchy.[18]
In his obituary, Fal Conde stated that Carlist cardinal Pedro Segura had found in him the "best collaborator in the propagation of his holy ideals" and that the Traditionalist Communion had never had such a "loyal Carlist to the chief's plans, either in conspirations, recruitments, propaganda and loyalty to the king".[15]
Family
His siblings were Cándida, Hermenegildo, Carmen, Pilar, Tomasa, Celestino, Mercedes, Manuel, Ricardo and Ramón García Verde.[19] In 1922 he married Mercedes Hernández-Ros y Codorniú, granddaughter of Ricardo Codorniu and cousin of Juan de La Cierva,[20] with whom he had seven children: Mercedes, José Luis, Ramón, Rafael, Fernando, Ana María y Carmen García-Verde Hernández-Ros.[21]
Hermenegildo and José Ramón García Llorente, sons of his brother Hermenegildo García Verde, became prominent political figures of late 20th-century Carlism;[27][28] the former was an important figure for the reconstitution of the Traditionalist Communion in 1975 [29] and the latter became a close collaborator of Sixto Enrique de Borbón in the decades of 1980 and 1990.[30]
Notes
^His father was such an important figure for El Siglo Futuro that he was buried with an edition of the newspaper.[3]
^Bernáldez, José María (1985). El patrón de derecha: (biografía de Fraga). Plaza & Janés. pp. 176–177. ISBN84-01-35123-5.
^"Sixto Enrique"(PDF) (160). Cuadernos para el Diálogo. 28 May 1976: 19. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^"X aniversario José Ramón García Llorente, Juan Manuel Muskett". Agencia FARO. 24 January 2011. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^"Declaración de la Junta Nacional de Requetés". Fuerza Nueva. 8 December 1973: 14–15. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)