What Carles Rebassa was like, according to his teacher: "He didn't look for a fight, but if there was one, he found it."

PalmThe teacher, who was a smoker, left the students in her 4th grade class alone for a moment because she had to go down to speak with the administration. On the table, she left a video camera, which she had used on the study trip they had returned from just a few hours earlier. Upon re-entering the classroom, she found the students recording each other, imitating the teachers. “They imitated me smoking with one hand in the back pocket of their pants.” There was one student who led all the mischief, an adorable leader who was liked wherever he went. Today, he is a recognized novelist and poet. It doesn't surprise her that he has reached where he has. We are talking about Carles Rabassa (Palma, 1977) with his former teacher, Bàrbara Terrassa.

 They met when Carles was just ten years old. He was in fourth grade at the Anexa de Palma Practice School: “I taught them Catalan, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences; in those days, we teachers did a bit of everything.” She says that Carles was physically smaller and shorter than the others then, and had an “angelic face.” But it wasn't just his face: the presence of that little boy was already special when he was just ten years old. “He was a very sweet, very loving child. He was endearing. Moreover, he was very bright in class, especially in Catalan. But I remember he also asked questions in Mathematics and Natural Sciences.” He was a child with infinite curiosity, always wanting to know more things. In fact, he was so participative that sometimes they had to tell him: “Carles, let the others speak!”

Carles spoke about Bàrbara in 2017 in a text titled ‘Llegir fa tornar grans’, published in the digital magazine Catorze. He explained the same thing the teacher recounts today: “I taught them Catalan on Fridays from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., after a Physical Education class. They arrived hyperactive, they were ten years old… That was torture for a teacher! So I decided that for the last half hour of class, I would read them El zoo d’en Pitus.” Bàrbara still remembers with some surprise how all the students were intrigued by the story, especially Carles: “He couldn't wait for the following Friday to know what happened. He was curious and intrepid about everything around him.”

She also remembers that, at the young age of ten, he was a “much more critical” person and, at the same time, “with a sense of justice”: “He expressed the things he liked and gave his opinion whenever he could, in a natural and polite way”. Bárbara thinks they must have stimulated him a lot at home, because he was a child who “loved to learn”. He liked things to be clear: if there was a rule and someone didn't follow it, he would ask why. All the teachers found it very amusing and were very fond of him, she says. Likewise, she clearly states that he “was no saint either…”: “He was a leader in the classroom, much loved by his classmates. He didn't look for a fight, but if there was one, he found it. He was mischievous and ran the show”.

Later, Carles went to high school. It wasn't until he reached the Universitat de les Illes Balears that he reconnected with Bárbara through a mutual friend: Professor Antoni Artigues: “Since we were both friends with Antoni, we would sometimes meet at the bar, and we would chat. For me, it was very heartwarming to reconnect with Carles as an adult”. She thought it had turned out very well. “Really, I think Carles has managed to do what he wanted to do. He has been very loyal and faithful to what he thought his life would be, and he is a person with many principles. I wasn't surprised that he succeeded in this way; even as a child, you could see a trail, an aura about him, and you thought: This boy will achieve whatever he wants”.