From a very young age, she had her ideas very clear. “When she set her mind on something, she had to have her way,” they say about her. She soon developed a special ability to achieve what she wanted: “She knew perfectly how to ask for things from each person. She did it with innocence, but she almost always succeeded. She had great intuition for reading people.” Children and stories have been two constants throughout her life. When she was a girl, she would sit the little ones down and tell them stories. Later she studied teaching and worked for a few years as a Primary school teacher before dedicating herself fully to philology. We are talking about Caterina Valriu (Inca, 1960), na Catalina Contacontes, and her older sister, Paula, who is seven years her junior, introduces us to her.

He heard the first jotes and boleros in Valldemossa, where his father was from, a village that was beginning, in the mid-50s, to be touristy. She was born in 1948 and grew up in Palma, where her mother was from. At her home there was a pickup that was always on. The first records she listened to were Picolíssima Serenata, by Renato Carosone, and Una Casita en Canadá. She was particularly marked by French chanson and Italian singer-songwriters, but she also developed a taste for classical music: “She deeply adores Bach”. She is the second of three siblings: the eldest is Biel, a lawyer; the youngest, Rafel, a set designer. She is a composer, one of the most recognized voices in Mallorca: we are talking about Miquela Lladó. Pere Estelrich, a mathematician, musicologist, and collaborator of various media, introduces us to her.

A close person, with a smile that enchanted and shining eyes, eager for knowledge, for love, and for life. Very soon he began to play the guitar and to take an interest in music and songs. For him, there was no other path than music: “His father was already a musician, and his mother was called Cecilia, the patron saint of music.” Neus Ferrer says this, half-seriously and half-jokingly, highlighting the kindness of the character we are about to discover today: “When it got dark, he always accompanied me home. Over time, I discovered it was because he was very interested in my neighbor, Mercè, whom he eventually married.” Neus Ferrer’s lifelong friend is the musician and linguist from Ibiza, Isidor Marí (1949).

The 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.

Once 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.

He did his military service with little enthusiasm. He studied Systems Informatics at the UIB. At 15 years old, he became so passionate about volleyball that, when he was already living in Palma, he would return to Manacor once a week to train. At only fourteen months old, he already spoke clearly. He wasn't one of those children who get tangled up with their words: he quickly developed the ability to express himself with precision. Joana Gomila, mother of the mayor of Manacor, Miquel Oliver Gomila, tells us this. It's hard to get words out of Joana. At the end of the conversation, she reveals why: “A mother always speaks well of her children. What else are we going to say? And I… I don't just want to praise him.” There will be some, but not that many.

Born in 1979 in Palma. He has roots in Felanitx (on his mother's side) and Santa Margalida (on his father's side). He has lived in Madrid for years, but, in the eyes of others, he has the power of omnipresence, because he can give the impression that he is everywhere. His favorite place in the world is Portocolom. He is the middle of three siblings and if one thing characterizes him it is that he has "inexhaustible energy". It is strange that someone doesn't know who he is, because every now and then he enters everyone's dining rooms, and it's not that he does it silently: we are talking about the television presenter David Ordinas (I know more than you, The best party…), who is also a singer, composer and actor. Xisco Pericàs introduces him to us, and they have known each other since they were four years old.

It's made of Umberto Tozzi. But let's go back: she was born in a house of onions, so she had to be an onion, yes or yes. From a very young age she showed interest in drawing and today it is her way of "unfolding". She played with Nancys, but she often exchanged them for her little brother Pau's Airgam Boys, with whom there is a four-year age difference. It is he who brings us closer to the figure of his older sister, politician Xisca Mora Veny (1971). She recently left the mayor's office of Porreres, her hometown, after 13 years.

He was a futsal goalkeeper until he started to be afraid of the balls. He also did swimming. He liked (and maybe still does) playing Pro Evolution Soccer with friends. He has a younger brother, with whom they grew up in the Escorxador neighborhood. He is a "polyhedral and difficult to explain" character. Perhaps it is his elusive and distant character at first rather than anything else, but even his lifelong friend, Àngel Mendoza, finds it difficult to define the character of Lluís Cabot (Palma, 1990), musician and producer. He is known, above all, for having been the leaderof Da Souza for a decade. Àngel Mendoza, who will introduce us to the character, was the band's drummer.

In an 80-square-meter apartment in Madrid Square, six people lived: four siblings, mother, and father. At times, the grandmother was also there. It was a noisy house with a large terrace, and while some were returning from high school, a baby was crying. There is a 14-year age difference between the eldest brother and the youngest in the house. “It surprises me how, in the middle of that chaotic house, full of shouts and playing children, Pep could read, completely absorbed. He had a brutal capacity for concentration, it was as if he escaped.” Pep is Josep Ramon Cerdà (Palma, 1971), a playwright and professor. His younger sister, Margalida, known on social media as Madò Llucia, introduces us to him.

Today's protagonist has a magnetism and personality that make him difficult to approach. He is as quick to approach people as he is to distance himself, as quick to dazzle and charm you as he is to weigh you down. A lifelong friend will tell us about him, one of those you start to relate to by kicking a ball around the schoolyard as the adolescent sun rises: one of those who know you so well that they are even a little afraid to talk about you. The protagonist is the artist Albert Pinya (Palma, 1985), and Francesc Becerra, whom he has known since kindergarten, brings us closer to his most unknown story: "Back then, Albert was already a very friendly person, although he also had an introverted side." Contradictions accompany us throughout these lines.

He was a blond little piglet with very light eyes; calm and easy to handle. His favorite toy has always been a soccer ball. In fact, soccer is his great passion. And Barça. At some point, he "dreamed of being a soccer player." Until he was almost an adult, he played for different teams, such as Sallista, Constancia, and Murer. As a teenager, he even refereed. He shares the name (uncommon in the Canary Islands) of his godfather from Ciudad Real, where his father is from, Inocente Moreno. We're talking about Virgilio Moreno Sarrió, who has been the mayor of Inca for over a decade under the PSOE banner. His mother, Maria Sarrió, reveals a lesser-known side of him.

A bacterial infection complicated his birth in November 1983, an illness that severely hampered his childhood. Nothing, however, prevented that boy from Palma, who spent entire summers and weekends in Can Picafort, from running joyfully over the rugged rocks by the coast and being a restless soul, constantly darting up and down the beach with his cousins, a good-sized group of mischievous kids: "They grew up in a community, above all, a community, above all, a community of people. They'd come out of the water with a splash." One of those mischievous cousins ​​is the visual artist Joan Aguiló, and his partner, the actress Catalina Inès Florit, tells us about him. They met amidst the blue and sand hues of summer. Joan is four years older than Catalina, but they've known each other all their lives because their godparents were neighbors on the same terrace in Can Picafort—in this town, the terraces open onto the street, a feature that fosters close relationships with neighbors. "We grew up together, along with his cousins. His paternal godmother, for me, was Aunt Ángela," says Catalina, who as a child saw Joan as "the nice older cousin." Over the years, Joan began to amuse her and her friends: "We were teenagers and he was studying Fine Arts in Barcelona. He had long hair and a bohemian air about him," she recounts, and remembers that, "between his long hair and the fact that he was very thin, my brother called him Jesus Christ."

When she was little, she loved pencil sharpeners so much that she said when she grew up she wanted to be one. "Nintendo and Game Boy game tester." She was terrified of animals—"it's quite frightening"—but that changed when Boira, a little dog, came home at age twelve, transforming her fear into affection. She belongs to the generation of young girls who started wandering around town with a digital camera, taking "photoshoots" and then posting them on Fotolog and Tuenti. There's a strange balance in her daily life: a combination of stage fright and embarrassment with the excitement and joy of telling stories to an audience, whether young or old. We're talking about Maria del Mar Coll (Muro, 1994), actress, screenwriter, presenter, and comedian. She tells us how small her mother, Martina Ferriol, was.

He says of him that, as a teenager, he was "fun, chatty, funny, and a really good person." They would go out for walks after dark to some of Palma's classic bars: Es Carreró, Sa Font. Sometimes they would also go to Gomila: "And he would chat with everyone, he was very articulate, and he would go from group to group meeting people. Now perhaps he's lost a little of his charm, but he's still a sweetheart," says Pedro Moll, one of the friends the journalist—winner of the Ciutat de Palma novel prize—still keeps in touch with from his teenage years, laughing throughout the conversation. They grew up in Palma and didn't live far from each other: Jaume Oliver lived in the neighborhood near the bullring, and Pedro lived near Blanquerna. Since they became friends in the schoolyard (they weren't in the same class because Jaume is a year older than Pedro), they spent many evenings together. Pedro recounts that the now writer and journalist used to play hockey, in the version that is without skates (but with stickThey played volleyball together for a while, but that didn't last long either. What they did enjoy together was hiking, but don't think they went out every week: "Out of every ten times we got together, one ended up being a hike. It wasn't like it is now. We could improvise much more: the mountain huts were open, you didn't have to book, you could be more adventurous. We'd make it last longer," the friend recalls.

She was a vegetarian from birth until she had to eat lunch at school before adolescence. She loves the land and the countryside: as a young girl, she was part of a scouting group. In the 90s, you could still sleep on the beach and camp in Menorca. She has loved the water and the sea since she was little, as well as dancing, singing, and acting; we recently saw her on screen in Favaritx (IB3), and a couple more years ago in Night and day and The stream (TV3). We're talking about Queralt Albinyana, a multifaceted actress, born in Terrassa (her father is from Cerdanyola and her mother from Terrassa) in 1980 and raised in Alaior from age 4 to 18. Her mother, Maria Dolors Armengol, tells us about her.

He was born on November 22, 1984, at eight months gestation, and before arriving home (first in Inca and, a few years later, in Caimari) he had to spend almost a month in an incubator. His mother remembers those moments with sadness: "After four or five days I went back to work so I could enjoy my maternity leave when the baby was home," she notes. It was just before Christmas that year that the family was able to properly welcome their son. The son, who was so tiny it was almost pitiful, is the writer, poet, translator, and contributor to this weekly publication, Jaume C. Pons AlordaHis mother, Teresa Alorda, tells us about him. Six years later, she had her second daughter, Gloria.

When he was born in December 1960, there were only two television channels. Before discovering and falling in love with the Tramuntana mountain range, he explored the Ports de Tortosa-Beseit. As a teenager, he joined his village's hiking club, and they would go on trips to the Pyrenees. We travel to the Baix Ebre region, in the municipality of Tortosa, to learn about the origins of Jaume Carot, the physicist and current rector of the University of the Balearic Islands, the third of four siblings. Before him came the twins Tomàs and Maria Cinta; the youngest was Elena, who lends her voice to these memories.

Being the youngest in the family, she was destined to inherit her sisters' clothes. The situation frustrated her a bit; everyone wants to wear something new, and she couldn't: "To make her happy, Mom took her to buy shoes just for her: she chose red shoes, with studs, in the Sevillian style. She was small, but so determined that neither Mom nor the saleswoman at the shop could count her out." This determination is one of the traits she most highlights about her sister, whom she describes as more of a shy and quiet doll.

She was more into Blur than the Spice Girls; more into Oasis than Britney Spears (although she did play the occasional song by both). The explanation is simple, and anyone familiar with the scene will understand: when she started going out on weekends, she frequented the Plaça de sa Pobla bar, a hangout for young people from Sa Pobla and other nearby towns. Within the walls of this bar, Magdalena Serra (Sa Pobla, 1983), a journalist and presenter of the program... Now we're going From IB3, she danced to the songs of Blur, Oasis and REM, and made the song her own. At dawn from The Rebel Strawberries. They sang it at the top of their lungs with their friend Maria Bel Cladera, who brings us closer to the journalist's childhood and adolescence.