Rafael Gambra Ciudad

The Gambras made their name fighting the French in 1809.

His son and Rafael's father, Eduardo Gambra Sanz (1878-1964), became an architect.

Key Gambra's works are offices of Sociedad Gran Peña along the Gran Vía and refurbishment of Palacio del Marqués de Miraflores, marked by attempt to re-capture the splendor of historical Spanish architecture.

In 1915 he married Rafaela Ciudad Villalón (died 1947), born in Seville though raised in Madrid.

Rafael Gambra Ciudad (21 July 1920 – 13 January 2004) was a Spanish philosopher, a secondary education official, a Carlist politician and a soldier.

In philosophy he is considered key representative of late Traditionalism; his works fall also into theory of state and politics.

He is best known as author of books focusing on secularisation of Western European culture in the consumer society era.

She came from a distinguished family of civil servants; her father José Ciudad Aurioles in the early 20th century was a Cortes deputy, until the early 1920s a longtime senator, and in 1917-1923 served as President of Tribunal Supremo.

The couple had only one child.

Born and raised in Madrid, Rafael spent much of his childhood in Valle de Roncal and later cherished his Navarrese heritage; in historiography he is referred to as a navarro rather than as a madrileño, sometimes dubbed "maestro navarro", "arquetipo navarro", "buen navarro" or "vasco-navarro roncalés".

He was brought up in profoundly Catholic ambience; politically his father sympathized with Carlism and his mother, though coming from a Liberal family, also displayed a conservative penchant.

He was first educated at the Madrid Marianist Colegio del Pilar; already during his schoolboy years he was attracted to letters and read books while his colleagues played football; during his early adolescent years he was engaged in Asociación Católica Nacional de Propagandistas.

Rafael Gambra was married to María del Carmen Gutiérrez Sánchez (1921-1984), translator, scholar and as Miguel Arazuri author of fairly popular novels.

She was also the founder and manager of Fundación Stella, an independent radio venture.

The couple had three children.

Of their two sons, Andrés Gambra Gutiérrez is professor of medieval history and the university official, while José Miguel Gambra Gutiérrez is scholar in philosophy, both in Madrid.

Rafael's grandfather, Pedro Francisco Gambra Barrena (died 1930), married descendant to a distinguished Carlist military Sanz family; himself he rose to high positions in Ministry of Economy.

In July 1936 the Gambras were spending their summer holidays in Roncal, where they were caught by the military coup.

As a 16-year-old Rafael volunteered to the Requeté unit of Tercio de Abárzurza, in few days time taking positions at Alto de León pass and attempting to break through Sierra de Guadarrama.

José Ulíbarri, the Catholic parish priest from Úgar and temporary commander of the unit, remained Gambra's friend and sort of mentor for life.

He spent the next 2 years at the stationary frontline in the Sierra, until in July 1938 he left to attend alférez provisional training.

In February 1939 he was seconded to Tercio del Alcázar, commanding a platoon in the 4.

Infantry Company.

Having reached Lliria at the moment of Nationalist victory, he was decorated with many military awards.

In 1939 Gambra enrolled at the faculty of letters and philosophy at Universidad Central.

Already in the early 1940s Gambra assumed teaching at the Madrid Academia Vazquez de Mella, a semi-official Carlist educational and cultural enterprise; he was giving lectures on Traditionalist theory of philosophy, state and politics.

Influenced by Manuel García Morente and Salvador Minguijón Adrián, he graduated in 1942.

One year later he entered Cuerpo de Catedráticos Numerarios de Institutos Nacionales de Enseñanza Media.

In 1943 he moved to Pamplona, where he was employed by Instituto Príncipe de Viana, a cultural outpost of Carlism managed by the provincial authorities.

Promoted to Inspector Nacional de Enseñanzas Medias, in 1945 Gambra obtained his PhD laurels as Doctor en Filosofía, his thesis dedicated to post-Hegelian approach to historiographic methodology.

The work, promoted by Juan Zaragüeta y Bengoechea, boiled down to highly critical review centred on Marx and Feuerbach and was published in 1946.

During the next 12 years Gambra served in the Institute as professor of philosophy, in the early 1950s apparently hoping to join a would-be Universidad del País Vasco-Navarro, a high-education establishment advocated at the time.

In the mid-1950s he returned to the capital, engaged in governmental attempt to re-shape the secondary education structures.

However, when Universidad de Navarra materialized as a private Opus Dei enterprise in 1952, Gambra did not enlist; he rejected also an opportunity to pursue research and possibly scholarship in England.

He assumed teaching in newly created "centros modelos de segunda enseñanza", first in Instituto Miguel de Cervantes and in the mid-1960s moving to Instituto Nacional de Enseñanza Media Lope de Vega, becoming its vicedirector later on.

As education official he was anxious to prevent "erosión de la espiritualidad", and in the early 1960s he opposed technocratic changes, proposed and eventually introduced in education.

He co-operated also with Universidad Complutense, particularly with the associated San Pablo CEU college, run by ACdP.

As a politician he is acknowledged as a theorist rather than as an active protagonist, though after 2001 he briefly headed one of the Carlist branches.

Rafael's paternal ancestors for generations have been related to Valle de Roncal; until today Casa Gambra and Casa Sanz are iconic mansions of the area.

The two are active Traditionalists, the latter leading the sixtinos Carlists since 2010.