How was Xavier Pastor, according to his friend: “He wanted to be Peter Fonda, he has great passion for motorcycles and adventurous life”

PalmaOnce upon a time there was an island of deserted beaches and crystal-clear waters; with mountains to hike and find absolutely no one. It's hard to imagine, but once, in the Palma bullring, there were only low buildings and vacant lots, and adventurous 12 and 13-year-old pre-teens who went camping alone on the other side of Mallorca. Nowadays, in fact, camping on the island is strictly forbidden. But those days existed, and that island, when kids wanted to dance and dress like Elvis Presley, and The Beatles had all their dreams to fulfill. Today's protagonist "wanted to be the Mallorcan Peter Fonda", was "a very good racetrack rider (motorsport discipline) and had a childhood "tied to the street and nature". He is Xavier Pastor (Palma, 1950), one of the great references of environmentalism in the Balearic Islands, and a childhood friend and lifelong friend, Santiago Bonnín, tells us about him.

Santiago remembers a happy childhood: "We lived without mobile phones, without constant news... We were street people. We were in the midst of a dictatorship, they scolded us for speaking Mallorcan and as very young children we had to go to mass in a suit and tie. But we were children: we jumped over the walls of vacant lots and corrals in the bullring, kicked a ball around... we entertained ourselves with anything. We collected matchboxes that had the faces of football players on them. But Xavier, it's true, was never much of a footballer".

Santiago says that “his world was excursions”. He says that at just 12 or 13 years old, they would set off with a backpack and a tent from Palma to Llucalcari, or Can Picafort, or Lluc. “Nobody told you anything. We swam, we dived...”. He believes that it is in that early contact with the sea and the mountains that the origin of Xavier's ecological vocation can be found, who years later, in his seventies, became involved in GOB, an organization he would eventually chair, and from there he made the leap to international activism. He was one of the key figures in the establishment of Greenpeace in Spain, at a time when the organization did not yet have its own structure.

The children who kicked the ball grew into adolescents. Over time, they formed a nice group with whom they would go on weekends to have a vermouth in a bar on Sant Jaume street, after going to mass. They also met at each other's houses, and he remembers that Xavier's house had space: “We listened to Elvis, the Beatles... and also Spanish groups. We did impersonations of Dúo Dinámico, with a white shirt and a red bib”. He also mentions performances at the Líric and a modest but intense cultural life, in an era marked by censorship.

In 1969, Easy Rider premiered, and the figure of Peter Fonda marked Xavier Pastor, who had a “strong passion for motorcycles” and “an adventurous life” – which he has ultimately had. The leap to university took them to Barcelona. “They were the best years of our lives”, says Santiago. Five friends went there to share an apartment. “It was a very lively time: long hair, revolts, running from the police, strikes... Franco hadn't died yet”.

According to his friend, Xavier was, as a young man, “an restless, curious person eager to learn. He has been very adventurous, he has traveled a lot, especially by sea”. And he also describes him as “equilibrated, who talks just enough”. He has been a person who has maintained contact with his lifelong group of friends. “With the pandemic, we got back together, and when we meet, once a month, we never stop telling stories”, he explains. And he makes a confession: “I have always admired him greatly, he was up to date with everything: music, languages, what was happening in the world... I was more into football, but he had this constant curiosity”.