The Mallorca of the future will be Spanish-speaking

There are times when, in order to grow, it's necessary to kill the father, that's how it is. Not out of hatred or contempt, but out of liberation. Mallorcanism must do it, and quickly. Because whether we like it or not, it still functions with ideas inherited from the Transition. A time when it seemed everything was possible... and then it wasn't so much. We keep repeating rituals that give us a false sense of coherence—what demonstrations we organized! What speeches!—while the real country falls apart in our hands.

And the first thing we must do, if we want to rethink ourselves as a movement, is start from an uncomfortable truth: the Mallorca of the future will speak Spanish. This is no exaggeration. Right now, only a third of Mallorcans use Catalan regularly. Just a third. And according to experts, by 2050, this figure could drop to 20%. A minority in our home. Are we becoming extinct? Perhaps we are. Perhaps we aren't. But if we don't start from this reality, we will be wrong in our analysis and, therefore, in our solutions.

While all this is happening, (almost) no one dares to say out loud who is behind it all: Spain.

The State, with all its structures at the service of the powerful, has been assigning a very clear role for decades: smile at tourists, wait tables, and clean rooms. And if possible, in Spanish. Our culture? Let it not be a nuisance, let it remain as postcard decoration. They don't want us as a lively and critical people, but as something folkloric, docile, and divided. Meanwhile, we happily collaborate, arguing about rent, tourism, the environment, and immigration, while thinking we are free in a cage.

Let me digress on this issue of "immigration." It's now fashionable to blame "overpopulation" for the situation of Catalan. El Pi says it, people from Obra Cultural say it, some from MÁS say it. As if the future of the language depended on people arriving from abroad... But that's not the case. You know perfectly well that the vast majority of Mallorcans—regardless of the language they speak—view Catalan as a second-class language because, after all, "we are Spanish and Castilian is the common language." This is the big problem.

We accept once and for all that people come here because tourism needs cheap labor. People have been coming from abroad for years. But now, with Moroccans and Latin Americans arriving, it suddenly bothers us. What a coincidence, right? Perhaps because it's easier to attack the weak than those at the top. It's a disgusting double standard, and it perfectly ties in with the vulgar discourse of "grid ship" with the reactionary turn that is felt throughout Europe. But listen: blaming the same old people and ignoring those truly responsible will not save us. The newcomers are not the problem. They are victims of the same system. They are asked to integrate, but are not given any real tools to do so. They arrive in collapsed neighborhoods. They feel like outsiders because the system treats them as such. It depends on what we do today.

We Catalan speakers often think we are the "true" islanders; we behave as if we were bouncers at a nightclub: we only let in those who speak properly, think like us, and repeat the slogans we like, and thus nothing gets built. Meanwhile, the rest of society continues on its way. Clarity and a touch of radicalism are needed. Not to expel anyone, but to stand firm. Think of Mallorca as your nation. A community that not only speaks Catalan, but understands that doing so is resisting. That speaking Our language is to stand up to a state that wants us to be mute and decorative. We don't speak our own language here, and we have a unique culture. Newcomers will eventually integrate, in their own way, of course. Now it's time to speak clearly. Make bold proposals.