Between 1960 and 1980, in just two decades, the population of Palma doubled. It went from 150,000 inhabitants to 300,000. The tourist boom, with its epicenter in l'Arenal, turned the Balearic capital into a kind of promised land not only for peninsulars, especially from Andalusia and Murcia, but also for families from the Part Forana, who were fleeing the harshness of the countryside. One of the suburban neighborhoods that was suddenly colonized was Son Gotleu, located in the Llevant district, between Aragó street and La Soledat. Its transformation can be traced in the exhibition Son Gotleu, beyond the headline. The origins of a welcoming neighborhood (1960-1980). Until the second week of June it will be at the neighborhood's health center and then it will move to the Mater center. It is a project by Palma XXI and Arquitectives, coordinated by the historian from Pollença Leyla Dworkin with the support of Caixa Colonya and Fundació Iniciatives del Mediterrani.

He reached 95 years of age and was absolutely prolific. Josep Costa Ferrer, nicknamed Picarol, was an excellent draftsman and satirical cartoonist, a specialist in art and antiques, an amateur archaeologist, a gallery owner, also a pioneer of tourism and landscape defense, and even the creator of a utopian urbanization. Ibiza will remember him with an exhibition this summer, when it is 150 years since his birth, on June 7, 1876. That was the beginning of a life path that would culminate in Cala d’Or, Mallorca, after a North American adventure in Chicago.

From his house in Bunyola, at the foot of the Serra d’Alfàbia, Miquel Canals Canyelles Moro, 93 years old, proudly displays a framed photo from his youth. It's no ordinary photo. It shows him with the trophy that in 1956, at the age of 23, accredited him as the best pine cutter in the entire State. At the end of November 2019, local researcher Biel Mateu Batle rescued his story and that of his companions from oblivion. This was during the Mountain Fair he organized in the town, which would later be called the Fira de Santa Catalina.

He was widely admired, also in the Balearic Islands, until the judicial affair that affected his family broke out and from which he has been excluded due to his delicate health. Before that, Jordi Pujol was, for decades, the benchmark of Catalonia par excellence, with certain ties to the Islands. We remember them as half a century has passed since the controversy generated, in May 1976, by his supposed 'disembarkment' as a shareholder in the Majorcan magazine Cort, in the midst of the political Transition.

The archaeological site of Son Forners in Montuïri continues to write golden pages in the history of Balearic prehistory. Just as half a century is completed since the start of the first systematic excavations (1975-2025), the settlement is once again shaking the research world with the unearthing of the fourth talayot.

The world of trotting in Mallorca experienced, during the decade of the seventies, one of the periods of greatest expansion, intensity, and splendor in its recent history. Those years were marked by a notable growth in popular interest, by the consolidation of horse racing as a first-class social spectacle, and by the arrival of horses from abroad, which contributed to raising the competitive level of the tracks. The racecourses, and especially that of Manacor, became nerve centers of an activity that transcended the sporting sphere to also become a cultural, social, and identity expression. During that decade, and it is not an exaggeration to say so, the Manacor racecourse was one of the most active in Europe.

Mallorcans do not know our anthem. In our country, unless you are from Sóller or a slightly eccentric person, you do not know how to sing La Balanguera. And by knowing how to sing it, I mean the whole song, not just the chorus, and with the emotion it requires.

Citizen struggle has more strength than some believe. The Menorcans know this well, who in 1973, at the end of Francoism, were the first in the Balearic Islands to raise their voices against the destruction of the territory – four years later, in July 1977, in Mallorca, there would be the historic occupation of Dragonera; and in October, in Ibiza, 2,000 people demonstrated with the cry 'Save Ses Salines'. In 1969 Menorca was the last island to embrace mass tourism with the inauguration of Maó airport, which replaced the old aerodrome in Sant Lluís. The historian from Maó, Laura Piris Coll, explains the reasons for this late incorporation into the tourist boom: “Here there was an important structure of its own for footwear and jewelry. The livestock sector was also quite profitable. In addition, the owners were very interested in maintaining family estates for reasons of social prestige. On the other hand, the dictatorship had not invested anything in infrastructure on the island”.

Even today, the festival that remembers Alexandre Ballester in sa Pobla, of which the sixth edition has just taken place, is called Albopàs, the name of the town backwards: a term he coined, as a kind of magical recreaction of sa Pobla, and a country where he set many of his works. We remember this stage creator precisely when the Principal Theatre of Palma is about to premiere a new version of Un baül groc per a Nofre Taylor, one of his most outstanding works.

There are three weeks left until the Manacor Spring Fairs and Festivals and this year the nerves are very noticeable in the 'castellera' group Al·lots de Llevant. One of its members, Joan Llodrà Gayà, 52, assures it: “We hope to be able to raise a good tower to celebrate our thirtieth anniversary. We are among the first 'colles' in the Balearic Islands. We were born in 1996, the same year as Castellers de Mallorca, from Palma. We have been rehearsing for months. Our highest construction has been a four of eight, meaning eight floors with four people on each floor. We have only been able to raise it three times in our history. We almost always do seven floors”.

Natural phenomena fascinate people: a solar eclipse scheduled for next August has everyone captivated, for months. Others are not so entertaining: an earthquake, in the early morning of May 15, 1851, caused damage to houses and churches in Mallorca and generated panic among the citizens of Palma, who fled to improvised shelters. We recall this episode as the 175th anniversary of the scare is celebrated.

“N’Abel wants it all”. That’s what a veteran journalist from Ibiza, referring to Abel Matutes Juan, said years ago: a man who, in addition to his multiple businesses, certainly became practically everything in politics over three decades: mayor of Vila, a prominent figure of the Transition, senator, deputy, negotiator of the Statute of Autonomy, European commissioner, minister... We review his career as the thirtieth anniversary of his appointment, on May 5, 1996, as head of Foreign Affairs in José María Aznar’s first cabinet is celebrated.

Llucmajor still preserves vestiges of rural Mallorca. Four times a year, a flock of 100 sheep crosses the town center towards a farm on the old Cala Pi road, nine kilometers away. They do so under the watchful eye of Miquel Tomàs Garau, Pastoret, 75 years old, and his dog. “Everyone takes photos of me,” he says with a smile. “It’s something that catches the eye. When the grass runs out on my farm, I take them there.” The Llucmajorer is one of the last old-fashioned shepherds practicing transhumance, an activity that consists of the seasonal movement of livestock in search of better pastures. Traditionally, sheep flocks from the large estates spent the winter in the Migjorn plains of the island and the summer in the mountains. On the roads, there used to be cisterns, reservoirs, and ponds that allowed animals and shepherds to drink.

Located at the foot of the Tramuntana mountain range, 14 kilometers from Palma, at the beginning of the 20th century Esporles was known as the 'little Russia' of Mallorca. Its six textile factories had managed to forge a strong proletarian consciousness. The inauguration in 1930 of the Casa del Pueblo would be a reflection of that class pride. Already in the municipal elections of April 12, 1931, the municipality would be one of the few on the island where the left triumphed. Two days later, King Alfonso XIII departed into exile and the Second Republic was proclaimed.

Women have played a key role in the history of antimilitarism. When men were obliged to go to war, mothers, wives, and sisters did not hesitate to mobilize to save their loved ones from certain death. It was during the Modern Age (15th-18th centuries) that the armies of European states became permanent and increasingly large. At that time, the Hispanic monarchy, following what was done in the rest of the continent, had three ways of supplying its troops: with mercenaries (professionals who fought in exchange for pay), with forced levies (generally from marginalized people, prisoners, and vagrants), and with the quintas.

The Havana cemetery is full of tombs with very local surnames: Pujol, Roca, Moner, Ensenyat... They are the testimony of the Majorcans who in the 19th century left to 'make the Americas'. According to chronicles, in 1889 there were about 10,000 (4% of the population). Many from Andratx went to Cuba. Among them were the paternal and maternal grandparents of Rosa Calafat Vila, professor of Catalan Philology at the UIB. “In the eighties, during my youth – she says –, I dug into the oral memory of the municipality and I was pleasantly surprised. I discovered a large number of 'gloses' related to the Caribbean island”.

“The olive trees that your Pilar paints are real, / They are pagan, Christian, and modern olive trees / that guard the secret desires of the dead / with gestures, wills, and poses of the living”. This is what the poet Rubén Darío wrote addressing Joan Sureda, the husband of the painter Pilar Montaner. We remember the life and work of this exceptional artist, ahead of her time, as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of her birth, on April 13, 1876.

The Palmesan Gonçal López Nadal, 73, is Professor Emeritus of Economic History at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB). He feels indebted to the mastery of the Felanitx native Antoni Binimelis Sagrera. “The first time –he assures– I heard of him was in 1964, when I was 11 years old. It was through my uncle, Guillem Nadal Blanes, who was stationed as a diplomat in India. In a letter he told the family that he had met a Majorcan, a specialist in classical languages and a Spanish teacher in New Delhi. He said he was a rather peculiar person, a man of universal culture, and that he hadn't lost a hair, but, from his condition as a peasant”.

Almost all monarchs have had a distinctive nickname –like ‘the Emeritus’, in our times– and Alfonso, sovereign of the Crown of Aragon and, therefore, of the Balearic Islands, between 1416 and 1458, has gone down in history as ‘the Magnanimous’. Was he, really? It is now 575 years since the eternal fine that, with the king’s full powers, the governor of Mallorca imposed on the Part Forana, on April 9, 1451, for revolting against the injustices they suffered. Not much magnanimity there.

Almost at the same time, just a few days ago, two pieces of news reached us. One: the State denied the temporary loan of the three prehistoric bull heads found over a century ago in Costitx, to be exhibited at the Museum of Mallorca. "The Ministry of Culture is laughing at the Majorcans," stated the president of the Council, Llorenç Galmés. Two: the discovery in the Tramuntana mountain range of a small bull head – precisely! – which this time will remain on the island. We recall the discovery of the bulls and how and why they ended up in Madrid, at the National Archaeological Museum (MAN).