Rafel 'Coca', a multifaceted man: Politician, promoter of the Bassa skyscraper and manager of Cine Goya
Politician, businessman, printer and film buff, Rafel Muntaner Morey was a key figure in the social and political life of Manacor for decades
ManacorTalking about Rafel Muntaner Morey, Coca, is to talk about almost a century through Manacor life. Mayor, printer, cinephile, president of TV Manacor, a man linked to Perles Manacor — both in the basketball section and in underwater fishing — promoter of the skyscraper in Plaça de la Bassa and manager of Cine Goya for a decade. The politician of "put a furrow between the eyebrows" was a polyhedral, impulsive and active man until his last years.
Rafel Muntaner, who lived next to La Bassa, in the first building in the whole city to have an elevator, was born in Manacor, on Tonadors street – today Soledat – the year the Civil War began. Winters in the city and summers on Carrer de la Mar in Portocristo, he started school with the Sisters of Charity until he was 10 years old. He then entered the Centre d'Estudis Mercantils academy at Can Llarg, in Plaça del Rector Rubí, until two years later he enrolled at the Business School of Palma.
The Bassa skyscraper
His father, Antoni –co-founder, player, and director of CE Manacor football–, inherited the Drogueria Ferreteria Muntaner, later Almacenes Muntaner, which Rafel then continued to manage together with his brother Llorenç until its closure.
It is there that the Muntaner brothers, following the unbridled height construction trends in Manacor since 1965, decided to carry out the construction of the great skyscraper of Manacor, with eleven floors and an attic, at the beginning of the 70s.
A construction with difficulties from the start and which did not turn out as they expected. "If we had known, we wouldn't have done it," replied the two brothers, Rafel and Llorenç, a few months ago when asked in a report for this same publication.
The building that was there before, of a traditional character, was distributed from a ground floor and two upper floors. To the left, looking from la Bassa, at street level there was Can Coca's bakery, which had once been family-owned but was no longer so at that time; it had its entrance on Peral street and a wood-fired oven in the basement. On Alexandre Rosselló street there were Gesa's offices. And in the middle, the Almacenes Muntaner shop, which crossed from one street to another.
"The ground floor belonged to my father Toni, while the two upper floors, which were an inn, belonged to my aunt Catalina," explained Rafel Muntaner.
"Most of the apartments went on sale for 600,000 pesetas just for the shell. We also offered the possibility of buying them already completely finished, of course, but for 300,000 pesetas more," replied Llorenç Muntaner.
The policy
Afterwards, and in parallel with the start-up of the family printing and stationery business, Muntaner concentrated many efforts on the political field.
He was a true local politician legend. In 1970, he already became part of the City Council, of which he was mayor between 1975 and 1979. Likewise, between 1979 and 1987 he was a councilor for Manacorins Autònoms, and for Unió Mallorquina between 1983 and 1987.
Afterwards, he joined the Popular Party of Manacor, leading the muntanerista current, with much influence within the popular family for years.
The Goya Cinema
From September 1989 and for an initial period of ten years, which was later slightly extended, until November 2000, when it definitively closed, he managed the Cinema Goya, at that time one of the best film projection rooms in the Islands. He rented the building from the owners, Bernat Fons Estelrich and Gabriel Llabrés.
"From five friends driven more by the feeling of survival of Cine Goya than by mercenary motives, the truth. It all started in a discussion after a lunch at the Latitud 38 restaurant in Portocristo. We were talking about cinema and the projects for the next season with Bernat Fons. At one point in the conversation he said that he was tired of it, that no money was being made and that the distributor was not giving him any facilities or support, and furthermore, he demanded that he had to buy the tapes in lots," recalled Coca.
"For this reason I had almost decided to do more reduced seasons, only five months long. I told him that I could not leave Manacor without cinema for so long and I made him a rental proposal, half joking, half seriously. I considered that the seventh art on the big screen could not disappear totally or partially from the municipality," he explained in another interview.
"A few days later he called me to ask me if I was still interested. So the interviews began to take place to finalize the conditions and the future partners, who finally were Gabriel Galmés Arcenillas, Miquel Quetglas Juan, Miquel Perelló Nebot, Miquel Sabiol Burgués and myself, Rafel Muntaner Morey. Thus the company Cinemas Manacor SA and the new era were born."