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The beret, according to fashion designers, is an iconic garment – a favored fashion accessory with political and artistic significance. It holds a distinctive role, symbolizing bravery and resistance against unjust power. The inimitable Christian Dior deemed the red beret a timeless classic.
The beret, called bonnaid and buinne in Gaelic, and boneta in Basque-Altonavarra and Aquitanian, is an ancient garment with a noble and ancestral lineage. In Neolithic archaeological sites in Sardinia, elite tribal members were found buried with their enduring berets and weapons. Persian kings are also depicted with berets before battle. Artaxerxes set trends in court, donning distinctive chapelas, as shown on various friezes during lion hunts in regulated communal reserves. A reader once commented in surprise, “How fascinating: Persian Carlism!” Interestingly, the admirable traditional organization of communal lands in classical Persia or its lively beer festivals were not unlike those of our traditional European society – now disrupted by joyless, inhumane globalism.
The distant origin of this warm wool cap, like the umbrella, is a natural solution mimicking the circular cap of mushrooms, which protects the release of spores from rain for dispersal. The red beret closely resembles the cap (pileus) of the exquisite and regal Amanita caesarea mushroom, highly valued in the Basque-Pyrenean and Mediterranean regions since ancient times.
The royal and noble use of the beret is affirmed by numerous queens, professors, and esteemed individuals who appreciated it. Queen Margarita of Navarra (wife of Enrique II of Navarra, “the Sangüesino”) wore a broad, black beret five centuries ago, as did her illustrious husband. Renowned painters of the time, such as Hans Holbein the Elder, portrayed figures of high birth wearing berets identical to those worn today.
The beret is a protective crown against rain, wind, and chill. The wide-brimmed chapela is thus highly valued by Basque mountaineers, rebellious Scots in the Jacobite Highlands, and the native Bretons and Vendeans, enduring constant rain and fierce gales.
In 1920, the silent film Pour Don Carlos, with a Carlist theme, premiered, where the fierce and beautiful margarita Musidora set trends by wearing a stylish red beret tilted backward. Immediately, French designers popularized red berets in Paris and Hollywood, embraced by film directors between the wars.
My spirited mother, Margarita, may she rest in glory, recounted that as a child in the 1920s, her hat-making uncles from Valladolid gifted her a vibrant red beret, which she wore devoutly to Holy Mass. The traditional and legendary red dye used, which ought to be revived, came from the crimson roots of the Rubia tinctorum plant, native to and cultivated in many Spanish lands, like the Castilian Cerrato. This striking traditional red hue was highly prized in Asturian and Guipuzcoan markets and was also used to create the brilliant red caramel on typical fair apples.
Indeed, the Carlists popularized red berets, as well as other colors – white, blue, and black – crafted by artisans from the so-called Beret Belt, including localities with legitimist heritage: Tolosa (Elósegui), Valmaseda (La Encartada), Oloron (Bonetería Auloronesa), Pradoluengo (six firms), and Ezcaray (three firms), forming a flourishing wool industry. By the 1930s, Pradoluengo and Ezcaray alone produced four million annually, now closed but once supplying all of Spain, and particularly cherished by Argentinian gauchos, who came to include it as a traditional garment. With the urban push of 1950s Francoism and the wave of modernism, the beret, like other traditional garments, fell into undeserved disregard.
This emblematic piece, associated with the military (particularly the red beret for paratroopers, as it is easily located and doesn’t get lost), boasts practical qualities of versatility and secure head placement, making it especially useful in intense battles. The military application is now prevalent, and the remaining manufacturers primarily supply armies worldwide.
In northern Spain, the red beret held noble and festive significance – a mark of glory, vibrant color, worn on Sundays, for grand occasions, and in battle, always as a symbol of distinction. This is why the Carlists chose it as one of their dearest emblems.
Furthermore, the red beret held strategic value. It could be seen from above and within dense forests, where local brave factions needed to hide but not from below, where well-equipped liberal forces lurked. There is a bird deep in the Pyrenean-Cantabrian forests, the black woodpecker or picaguacero, adorned with a red feathered beret. This beautiful woodpecker, whose vibrant call or irrintzi echoes through the mountain forests, bears the nickname “Carlism’s woodpecker” due to its striking red head contrasted with jet-black feathers. In this way, it communicates with its kin in the treetops without being spotted from below – exactly what Carlist guerrillas needed, imitating the bird’s call before attacking foreign invaders.
When the beret became a symbol of Carlism, the wicked Espartero banned the garment for all individuals, military or civilian, in 1838, imposing severe fines. The liberals sought to eliminate it, directing all possible attacks in their defamatory pamphlets, portraying Carlists with berets and umbrellas as symbols of poor provisioning against well-equipped foreign troops funded by public coffers. However, over time, the beret returned, even surpassing the factory worker’s industrial cap.
The red beret, with its flattering style, vibrant color, and meaning, continues to be worn by many in the traditional Hispanic community as a symbol of identity against the depersonalizing and invasive forces of globalism. To resist them, there is no better way than to wear this beautiful and flattering garment, as the endearing Carlist song says:
How beautiful you are, how well it suits you,
the white beret and the red one, too!
Juan Andrés Oria de Rueda y de Salgueiro
Translated by the Gremio San Jerónimo
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