Jesús Evaristo Díaz-Casariego y Fernández-Noriega (7 November 1913 – 16 September 1990) was a Spanish writer and publisher, popular especially during the early and mid-Francoism. Among some 60 books and booklets he wrote most are popular and semi-scientific historiographic works, though he was known chiefly as a novelist, especially as the author of Con la vida hicieron fuego (1953). In the early 1940s he managed a vehemently militant Francoist daily El Alcazár, yet in his youth and older age he was active as a Carlist. Today he is considered the author of second-rate literature, occasionally recognized as expert on Asturian culture and history.
Family and youth
The best known of Casariego's ancestors was an admiralGonzalo Méndez de Cancio-Donlebún; for genealogical details see Genealogía de la familia Cancio-Donlebún y sus entronques con otros linajes, [in:] Xenealogia.org service, available here who in the late 16th century served as governor of Florida.it is believed that it was him who in the early 17th century brought the first maize transport to Europe, M. Menendez, Casariego custodia el arca que trajo el primer maíz de América, [in:] El Comercio 19.12.11, available here The family got very branched in course of the following centuries, yet none of its members rose to similar honors; one of its arms, the Casariegos, have always been related to Western Asturias. The paternal grandfather of Jesús Evaristo, Evaristo Díaz-Casariego y López-Acevedo (1849-1930),Jesús E. Casariego, Transmigraciones asturianas. Asturianos en el descubrimiento de América, [in:] Boletín del Instituto de Estudios Asturianos 120 (1986), p. 1321 served in the navy; he held various posts in Spain and overseas and fought in the Spanish–American War.Casariego y López Acevedo entry, [in:] vivirasturias service, available here Though not exactly a writer he developed some knack for letters and published a number of navy-related manuals.titled Vocabulario Hispano-Anglo-Franco-Aleman para uso del oficial de la Marina, Plan de vigilancia para las costas de Cuba and Señales maritimas y salvamiento de náufragios He married Carmen de Pazos y Rodríguez-Varela;Región 05.12.39, available here the couple had only one child, Jesús Díaz-Casariego Pazos, born in Aviles.Castropol 10.03.09, available here He opted for a civilian career and practiced as a dentist, first in LuarcaCastropol 10.10.10, available here and then in Gijón.J. E. Casariego, veinte años, [in:] Voluntad 23.09.10, available here In 1913Senén González Ramírez, Centenario del natalicio de un tinetense universal, [in:] Tineo 2012, p. 43 he married Ramona Fernandez Noriega from Tineo,Castropol 10.03.17, available here daughter to a local fiscal municipalhis maternal grandfather was Baldomero Fernández Castaedo (?-1915), Castropol 20.09.15, availavle here; for his fiscál municipal role see Boletín Oficial de la Provincia de Oviedo 15.10.15, available here and former indiano.Castropol 05.08.59, available here The couple settled in Luarca and had 6 children, Jesús Evaristo born as the oldest one.the children were named Jesús Evaristo, Carmen, Josefina, Maria Antonia, Ramón and Rafael, Región 05.12.39, available here; some sources claim that Casariego was born in 1913, compare ABC 18.09.90, available here; the confusion was caused by Casariego himself, who intended to obscure his status of extra-marital child, González Ramírez 2012, p. 43
As a child Jesús Evaristo was brought up mostly by his paternal grandparents, who pursued a very traditional education model;every day the boy and his grandparents prayed for all defunct members of the family - listed one by one - and unknown ones; another rosary was intended for all travellers and mariners; before going to bed the boy kissed hands of his grandparents, Gonzalo Anes y Alvarez-Castrillón, Casariego historiador. Introducción, [in:] Jesús Evaristo Casariego: Biografía, antología y critica de su obra, Gijón 1983, , p. 36 as a mature man he later applauded them for childhood "con estilo antigue y virtuoso en el santo temor de Dios y en fidelidad constante a los grandes ideas de mi raza".Jesús Evaristo Casariego, La Verdad del tradicionalismo: aportaciones españolas a la realidad de Europa, Madrid 1940, p. v He spent early years in Luarca and Tineo,J. E. Casariego, veinte años, [in:] Voluntad 23.09.10, available here and obtained bachillerato in an unnamed institution in Tineo.Pérez de Castro 1983, p. 14 At unspecified time in the late 1920s he enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the University of Oviedo; he graduated in the early 1930s in Madrid.Jesús Evaristo Casariego entry, [in:] Oviedo Enciclopedia online, available here Though educated to be a lawyer, during his academic years Casariego was tempted by letters, especially that apart from his grandfather also other of his ancestorse.g. Ramón María López Acevedo (1785-1826), Xose de Noriega, Ramona Fernández Noriega y carlismo, [in:] Os de Noriego blog 10.07.11, available here and some distant relativesJosé María Casariego co-operated with the Carlist daily La Esperanza and crusaded against Mendizabal and Rousseau, Casariego, José María M. entry, [in:] vivirasturias service, available here tried their hand in literature. The young Jesús Evaristo started to follow the Filosofía y Letras curriculum in Madrid;one source mentions Casariego in 1936 in relation to "dos carreras universitarias", J. E. Casariego, veinte años, [in:] Voluntad 23.09.10, available here in the mid-1930s he also studied history in Germany."en 1934 hizo estudios especializados en Berlín", Anes y Alvarez-Castrillón 1983, p. 39; one source claims that Casariego graduated in Oviedo, Madrid and Berlin, see Jordi Rodríguez Virgili, El director de periódicos en la Ley de Prensa de 1938: el caso de Jesús Evaristo Casariego en El Alcázar, [in:] Juan A. García Galindo, Juan Fco. Gutiérrez Lozano, Inmaculada Sánchez Alarcón (eds.), La comunicación social durante el franquismo, Málaga 2002, , p. 89 Already in 1929 he started contributing to the local Asturian daily Región,Hoja oficial de lunes 21.07.85, available here in the early 1930s to Madrid-based La Nación and El Siglo Futuro,El Siglo Futuro 10.02.32, available here and other periodicals.like Gracia y Justicia, Pérez de Castro 1983, p. 15, El Carbayón and Tradición Astur of Gijon, Cepeda 1983, p. 95
In 1935La Nación 03.10.35, available here Casariego married María Paz Aguillaume Cadavieco, granddaughter to a Frenchmannamed Etienne Juste Aguillaume, see Víctor Guerra García, Manuel Aguillaume Valdés. Un Diputado Socialista natural de Tremañes, [in:] Tremañes, diario de una aldea blog 14.03.13, available here who in the late 19th century arrived in Asturias building a railway network. His son and Casariego's father-in-law Manuel Aguillaume Valdesborn 1881, died 1942, Guerra García 2013 held various post office managerial jobs in Asturias; a militant free-thinker, socialist and UGT activist, he was promoted by the Republican administration holding high postal jobs in Oviedo and Toledo, but charged with 13 crimes allegedly committed during the Civil War, he was later trialed and eventually executed during early Francoism.Aguillaume Valdés, Manuel entry, [in:] Fundación Pablo Iglesias service, available here Jesús Evaristo and María Paz settled in Madrid, they had 4 children, all of them daughters: Carmen,she was born before July 1936, J. E. Casariego, veinte años, [in:] Voluntad 23.09.10, available here María Paz,she was between 1936 and 1940, Región 05.12.39, available here Margarita and Julia.some sources mention just 3 daughters, González Ramírez 2012, p. 44 None of them became a public figure, though three were active in culture contributing to belles-letters, film and historiography.for Margarita see La Sacroissance entry, [in:] Documentaldecrecimiento service, available here, for Julia see La Abuela entry, [in:] Musicalenapepe service, available here
Early Carlist militancy
Casariego was born to family of Carlist heritage. Some of his distant paternal relatives contributed to legitimist press during the Isabelline period,Casariego, José María M. entry, [in:] vivirasturias service, available here some fought in the First Carlist War;Casariego, José, ‘El Estudiante’, [in:] vivirasturias service, available here and some the paternal grandfather joined the legitimists as "jefe de estado mayor de la columna carlista", Julio Antonio Fernández Lamuño, Jesús Evaristo Casariego, Tineo, villa y concejo, Oviedo 1982, p. xvi in the Third Carlist War. It is not clear what sympathies prevailed among Casariego's parents, as his father is not known for political engagements and his mother came from a militantly Liberal family;Baldomero Castanedo served in Republican militia during the First Republic, José Luis Pérez de Castro, J. E. Casariego: el hombre y la obra, [in:] Jesús Evaristo Casariego: Biografía, antología y critica de su obra, Gijón 1983, , p. 13 however, Casariego credited paternal grandparents for implanting his Traditionalist outlook.Jesús Evaristo Casariego, La Verdad del tradicionalismo: aportaciones españolas a la realidad de Europa, Madrid 1940, p.v It turned out to be more that a juvenile sentiment, as during academic years in the early 1930s he openly declared himself the follower of the Carlist claimant Don JaimeEl Cruzado Español 31.07.31, available here and member of Partido Católico Monárquico.Región 10.10.31, available here In 1932 he helped to set up the Oviedo branch of Juventud Tradicionalista and engaged in the Madrid section of Juventud Carlista, growing to its vice-president soon.Jesús Evaristo Casariego, escritor y periodista, [in:] El País 19.09.90, available here Within the party he made himself known in 1933, when Casariego published a brief treaty on Traditionalist doctrine; it was preceded by a foreword by the Carlist political leader, conde de Rodezno.exact title of the work is not clear. One version known is "El Tradicionalismo como doctrina política", compare J.B. [Jacek Bartyzel?], Jesús Evaristo Casariego y Fernández-Noriega. 20. rocznica śmierci (16 IX 1990 – 16 IX 2010), available here. Another is "El Tradicionalismo como doctrina de derecho político", Jacek Bartyzel, Ostatnia Krucjata karlistów, [in:] legitymizm service, available here; see also a title of his lecture, La Nación 08.03.33, available here
Since 1932 Casariego worked for a conservative daily La Nación, running the crónica política column and acting as a correspondent;La Nación 28.12.34, available here around the same time he started contributing to the central Madrid Carlist daily El Siglo Futuro, initially as an Oviedo correspondentEl Siglo Futuro 10.02.32, available here and since 1936 as member of the editorial board. He covered the Asturian Revolution and recognized as reactionary journalist, in Madrid was subject to violence himself.La Nación 22.10.35, available here He was active in Carlist propaganda, e.g. organizing homages to requetés fighting the revolutionaries in Asturias in 1934,El Siglo Futuro 08.12.34, available here though it is not clear whether he engaged in Carlist anti-Republican plots. One source vaguely suggests that Casariego did conspireMaría del Carmen Alfonso García, Llamas y rescoldos nacionales: Con la vida hicieron fuego, novela de Jesús Evaristo Casariego (1953) y película de Ana Mariscal (1957), [in:] Arbor 187 (2012), p. 1088 and another one notes that he was many times detained.Jesús Evaristo Casariego, escritor y periodista, [in:] El País 19.09.90, available here Most specific information is that Casariego led some 160 Carlist paramilitary when training warfare near Oviedo, engaged in Sanjurjada and briefly sought refuge in Portugal.José Antonio Cepeda, Articulos y Narracines. J. E. Casariego, Peridoista y Soladdo, [in:] Jesús Evaristo Casariego: Biografía, antología y critica de su obra, Gijón 1983, , p.94