Ara Balears in English - Joan Alcover

2026, Joan Alcover and Blai Bonet Year

Sebastià Alzamora — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 06:30:27 +0000

It's already March 2026, which means we're fully immersed in the simultaneous celebrations of the Joan Alcover Year and the Blai Bonet Year. From the author of The Balanguera We commemorate the centenary of his death, while we celebrate the centenary of the birth of the poet from Santanyí. Obviously, centenaries and other more or less round numbers are mere pretexts, as is the reason itself—whether they were born, died, or made their First Communion. What matters is the will and the act of celebrating the memory and work of two of our greatest poets. It is always good to remember what T.S. Eliot said: that peoples who do not honor their poets are barbarian peoples. We Mallorcans (like the Menorcans, the Ibizans, and the Formenterans) are not barbarians, and that is why we do not forget to pay homage to our poets, those who wield the language of the tribe the farthest and highest. Which in our case, as everyone knows except for some stubborn fool, is the Catalan language.

The Balanguera of the Chinese by Pere Garau

Sebastià Alzamora — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 06:30:10 +0000

The Chinese New Year celebration took place last Sunday, December 22nd, in Pere Garau Square, the Palma neighborhood where 43% of the city's Chinese immigrants live, representing 10% of the non-EU population in the city. Among the many events of this grand celebration, which the Chinese have contributed to the city's popular culture, one moment stood out: two girls took to the stage and sang. The BalangueraThe song, "Els Moréos," has been the anthem of Mallorca since 1996. The musical version of the poem was composed by Amadeu Vives in 1926, the same year Joan Alcover died. Its performance during the Chinese New Year celebrations in Palma thus coincided with the centenary of the poem's creation. It is moving to imagine how Joan Alcover would have felt seeing his poem about the cultural tradition and vitality of the Mallorcan people transformed into a song of understanding, coexistence, and respect between native Mallorcans and newcomers who have literally arrived from the other side of the world. This isn't about 'integration,' as is often repeated, half out of intellectual laziness and half out of prejudice, when immigrants are discussed. It's not about integrating, but about dialogue, about showing affection and respect for the place where you live, whether you have lived here for fifteen generations, have just arrived, or are the child of those who came a few years ago. The first signs of this respect, this esteem, and this willingness to engage in dialogue obviously involve language and culture. And (it goes without saying) care for the environment, primarily the natural environment, but also the urban one. The Chinese community of Pere Garau and the Chinese Cultural Association of the Balearic Islands understood all of this well, filling the Chinese New Year celebration with Mallorcan references and elements: there were castellers (human tower builders), the dragon—one of the day's main protagonists—was named Pep, and so on.

Joan Alcover: Maura's friend who switched to Catalan nationalism

Francesc M. Rotger — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 15:54:04 +0000

Poet, author of the poem The BalangueraJoan Alcover, whose song would become the anthem of Mallorca, was the host and driving force behind the prestigious gatherings held every Sunday at his home, Can Alcover, in Palma, with the most prominent figures of Mallorcan culture at the time. An art theorist, a man who suffered the loss of his first wife and four of his five children... Joan Alcover is widely remembered on the centenary of his death on February 25, 1926. Perhaps less well known, however, is his political side, the one that led him to become a member of parliament in Madrid and a champion of Catalan nationalism, with language as the unifying element of what we now call the Catalan Countries.