Pollença will bring the victims of Francoism back to the streets of the town

PollençaPollença will once again make a part of its most painful memory visible on the streets. The municipality plans to place 34 new cobblestones from the Stolpersteine project in memory of Pollença victims murdered or disappeared during the 1936 coup d'état and the Civil War. The initiative is part of the democratic memory recovery work that the town has kept open for years and which has a special significance in a municipality with a unique history within Francoist repression in Mallorca.

Pollença did not experience the 36 coup as a secondary scenario. It was one of the towns where republican and anti-fascist resistance was strongest in the early days of the military uprising, and also one of those that later paid a higher price. This footprint explains why democratic memory is not just an institutional matter, but also a family and popular one: many names are still part of a history passed down in homes, on the streets, and between generations.

From Pere Josep Cànaves to a new phase of the project

The first Stolpersteine cobblestone in the municipality was placed in December 2018 at the entrance of the Town Hall, in memory of Pere Josep Cànaves Salas, who was the mayor of Pollença during the Republic and was murdered during the Civil War. Now, the project takes another step forward with a new phase that aims to extend this remembrance to different parts of the town and Port de Pollença.

The placement of the first 27 cobblestones will take place over three consecutive days: Tuesday 7, Wednesday 8, and Thursday 9 July, between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM. The final routes and schedules will be finalized in a preliminary meeting of the Pollença Historical Memory Commission, with the participation of the victims' families.

Cobblestones agreed upon with families

The locations have been agreed upon with the families and will be distributed between Pollença and Port de Pollença. Among the planned spaces are Pere Josep Cànaves street, Càrritx street, Temple street, Major street, Plaça Vella, Monti-sion street, Calvari street, Joan XXIII street, Anglada Camarasa promenade, and Miquel Capllonch square, among others.

The councilor for Culture, Heritage, and Democratic Memory, Miquel Àngel Sureda, highlights that the Democratic Memory Commission of Pollença has made "a great effort" to move this process forward and remarks that the reparation is late, but still necessary. "The Spanish state is late, but better late than never," says Sureda, who argues that this recognition is made "in honor of the victims".

A remembrance that reaches the grandchildren of the victims

According to the councilor, many of the people who will now see this tribute will no longer be the children of the victims, but the grandchildren. That is why he considers it important that the cobblestones be incorporated into public spaces and can endure over time. The intention, he explains, is for people to be able to symbolically stumble upon them, read the names, and remember that behind each piece there is a life cut short by repression.

This new phase includes 27 cobblestones that will be placed this July and seven more that will remain pending for a later phase, when they are engraved and available to the Government of the Balearic Islands, which will cede them to the City Council. The seven that will be placed later correspond to Antoni Cantallops Cifre, Bernat Crespí Colomar, Martí Vicens Vilanova, Miquel Company Crespí, Miquel Campins Cerdà, Joan Cerdà Rebassa, and Guillem Company Crespí.

When the remains could not be recovered

Sureda underlines that there are victims whose remains could not be recovered, and that precisely because of this, these gestures of memory have added value. When there is no tomb or physical place to go, a cobblestone in front of a house, on a street, or in a space linked to the victim's life can become a form of presence and reparation.

The 27 cobblestones that will be placed during the three days will commemorate: Antonio Fenoy Blanes, Josep Vilanova Lliteres, Joan Luís Vives, Cosme Llobera Pallicer, Antoni Capó Seguí, Joan Vidal Sitjar, Joan Genestar Torrandell, Joan Torrandell March, Dionís Alcal Rebassa, Josep Pont Cladera, Josep Seguí Rotger, Antoni Castanyer Cifre, Josep Solivelles Amorós, Antoni Oliver Jordà, Miquel Segura Bonnín, Miquel Cerdà Provençal, Bartomeu Cabanellas Botia, Joan Matheu Capllonch, Miquel Marquet Perelló, Manuel Pérez Salas, Ramon Crespo Biosca, Joan Domingo Covas, Joan Losa Campomar, Bartolomé Espasa Albi, Rafael Arrabal Ruiz, Jordi Munar Cantallops and Francesc Vives Torrandell.

The three days will be open to the public and aim to make the placement of each cobblestone an act of shared remembrance. In Pollença, the memory of the Civil War does not remain only in the archives: it will now reappear at street level, where names can be read and victims, even if late, recognized.