During the boom of tourism, there were Swedes who did not let themselves be intimidated. Some tried to dissuade their compatriots from going on holiday to a country that was a dictatorship and that, with the economic support of the USA, had turned tourism into its salvation. The most activist ones demonstrated with slogans such as 'Boycott trips to Spain!' and 'Trips to Mallorca are a disgrace'. From other countries, those protests would also be supported by Spanish anarchists in exile organized around Defensa Interior (DI). Coordinating the entity was the Minorcan Octavi Alberola Surinach (1928-2025).

The University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) is hosting this Thursday, May 14, the conference 'Despite Fear, Solidarity and Memory. Accounts of Women in Francoist Prisons', an initiative promoted by LiCET and the UIB Equality Office to reclaim the memory of women repressed during Francoism. The activities will take place between the auditorium of the Ramon Llull building, on the university campus, and the auditorium of Sa Riera, in Palma.

“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.

The Consell de Mallorca has been the subject of criticism this Thursday after a stand dedicated to the exaltation of the Francoist military man Millán-Astray was set up within the framework of the Feria de la Gent Gran.

One of the most unpleasant episodes of my entire schooling I still have very present. One day, in the dining room, I vomited. And instead of taking care of me, they forced me to eat it. I still remember it with a very vivid feeling of disgust. It was strawberry jam and they made us eat it by the spoonful. I have never tasted it again. It was a period in which the school really indoctrinated, so much so that they now tell us teachers that we do it.

One of the most unpleasant episodes of my entire schooling still stays with me vividly. One day, in the dining hall, I vomited. And instead of taking care of me, they forced me to eat it. I still remember it with a very strong feeling of disgust. It was strawberry jam, and they made us eat it by the spoonful. I have never tried it again. It was a time when school truly indoctrinated, so much so that they now tell us teachers that we do it.

If something stuck with me from my school days is that there were very violent teachers. I remember one who beat a child until he was destroyed. Another day, he threw one out the window. Today, it would be unthinkable. Back then, nothing happened. There were also humiliations. A classmate with a facial deformity, who spoke with difficulty, was ridiculed by the principal in front of the entire class. He asked him if he had finished selling coupons. No one laughed. The silence was more eloquent than any laughter.

When I started school, I was three years old and the youngest in the class, because we are from November. The first memories are of the Franciscan nuns of Bunyola. I especially remember Sister Antònia: a small, chubby woman who never raised her voice. I have no memory of punishments or bad words. I went to school happy, without fear.

The historian Marina Castillo Fuentesal (Palma, 1996) has recently obtained her doctorate with a cum laude qualification from the University of the Balearic Islands. Between the yoke and the cross. Women during the Franco dictatorship in Mallorca (1939-1975) is the title of the research she has conducted for almost six years and which has been supervised by the professors of Contemporary History David Ginard and Sebastià Serra.

At six years old, I used to cross Palma all by myself to go to school, in a city where children moved with a freedom unthinkable today. I walked from Pere Garau to the Sant Francesc school. In the sixties, families granted much more freedom to their children, and this premature autonomy ended up forging a strong sense of independence.

At school they made us sing 'Cara al Sol' and Catalan was learned in secret. At six years old, I started at the Trinitarian nuns' home in Binissalem. We paid 350 pesetas each month, which was a lot of money back then. My mother wasn't too keen on me studying. She thought our job was to get married, that's all.

In Mallorca, during the Civil War, one of the main targets of the insurgents was the wealthy class that had supported the Second Republic. The symbol of that repression was the mayor of Palma, Emili Darder, a doctor by training, who in 1934 had helped found the Balearic Republican Left (ERB) to counterbalance the local political bosses. On February 24, 1937, after a sham court-martial, Darder was executed by firing squad. He shared that fate with two party members: the businessman Antoni Maria Ques from Alcúdia and the former mayor of Inca, Antoni Mateu, and the Palma socialist Alexandre Jaume. Eight more ERB mayors were also murdered: Joan Mas Verd I harvest (Montuïri), Clemente Garau Juan (Porreres), Pere Llull Fullana (Algaida), Pere Josep Cànaves Sales (Pollença), Pau Crespí Villalonga (Mancor del Valle), Pedro Vallespir Amengual (Costitx), Joan Alemán Villalonga (Búger) and Joan Guasch.

My first memory of school is fear. At the Augustinian nuns' house in Andratx, there was a room separated by a curtain where they locked away the talking dolls. They left them in the dark. Even today I remember the inconsolable cries on the other side.

I was born in 1948 on the Iberian Peninsula, but we came here when I was little because my parents were from Mallorca. first memories of school My memories are from Palma, from a public school that used to be in Pere Garau Square. From that time, I especially remember Mrs. Micaela, who was my teacher when I was very young. From the age of six, I had several teachers. First Rafael, then Ricardo, and later Pedro, who was Mrs. Micaela's husband. Pedro taught us so much. He knew a ton of things and would tell us about topics that, looking back, were almost at a high school level.

'My School Years' is a series by ARA Baleares that reconstructs what education was like in Mallorca decade by decade through first-person accounts.

The declassification of documents regarding the 23-F coup attempt served as an excuse for PP leaders to rush to demand the return of the former king to Spain. "It would be a collective failure as a country if Juan Carlos I were to end his days in exile," said the Prime Minister, Marga Prohens, shortly after Feijóo made the same statement. The revealed secrets of the coup have yielded little more than a few minor details and have confirmed what we already knew. The PP's attempt to exploit the head of state's correct actions—his duty—45 years ago to glorify him is a demagogic attempt to ignore why he chose to go to Abu Dhabi. Voluntarily. He didn't do it solely to save the Crown or his son's reign, but for the security of living in a country where he wouldn't have to pay a single euro in taxes.

The association Memòria de Mallorca has announced that, in just over 24 hours, it raised the €3,223 it needed to cover the legal costs of its lawsuit against the Feixina monument in Palma, according to a statement released by the organization. The association highlighted that the public response was "immediate, generous, and moving," which allowed them to raise the full amount required thanks to contributions from people committed to democratic memory. For this reason, Memoria de Mallorca has closed the fundraising campaign and expressed its "immense and sincere" gratitude to all those who contributed financially or shared the initiative. The organization emphasized that the support received reinforces the idea that defending public spaces free of Francoist symbols is not an isolated cause, but a collective commitment to democratic values.

A Mallorcan journalist tried to convince Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero to abandon his plans on the night of February 23, 1981. This is according to documents declassified this Wednesday, which include the transcript of journalist Joan Pla's testimony as a witness in the April 19, 1982 session of Oral Hearing 2.

Today, giants are the protagonists of many civic celebrations. Their origin, however, was religious, within the context of Corpus Christi. The most important ancient feast of Christendom was instituted in Europe in the 13th century. It was set on the calendar 60 days after Easter Sunday to venerate 'the body of Christ,' personified in the consecrated host. Initially, it took place inside churches, but from the 14th century onward, it moved into the streets in the form of a procession. Attention then turned to men in costumes and on stilts who recreated episodes from sacred history with the aim of making it known to the illiterate population. Very soon, those actors became giants. The first one in the West dates from 1424 and was built in Barcelona. It was a replica of Goliath, the Philistine giant whom David, the future king of Israel, captured with a powerful slingshot. It already had the characteristic rigid shell that encases the man wearing it. In the Balearic Islands, the appearance of enormous anthropomorphic figures occurred two centuries later. The first is documented in Sóller in 1630 and the second in Sineu in 1653, the latter already integrated into a local festival, that of Sant Roc. The first Mallorcan giant whose name we know, Puput, dates from 1762 and is from Sant Llorenç. And in Menorca, the oldest giants are those of Maó. They arrived rented in 1934 from Barcelona to liven up the festivities of the Virgen de Gracia – the City Council would eventually buy the figures, which would not be given names (Tomeu and Guida) until 1992. In the Pitiusas Islands, however, the giant tradition was entirely nonexistent.

On November 20, 1975, the day Franco died, there were approximately 5,000 unemployed people in the Balearic Islands who, since the 1973 international oil crisis, felt completely abandoned. Three weeks later, on January 13, 1976, about fifty of them decided to express their discontent with the government of Arias Navarro by locking themselves inside the church of Sant Miquel in Palma. They did so with the complicity of the Bishop of Mallorca, Teodor Úbeda. The following day, they were violently evicted by the police, who were acting on orders from the Civil Governor, Carlos de Meer.