Bunyola hosts anti-fascist days for the 90th anniversary of the coup d'état: "Memory cannot depend on institutions"

PalmaBunyola will host the antifascist History and Memory Conferences on July 17 and 18, an initiative promoted by Sa Tafona that will combine sports, cultural, and historical dissemination activities, coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the military coup of 1936. The objective is to turn streets and popular spaces into meeting points to foster coexistence, reflection, and the preservation of democratic memory.

The historian and member of Sa Tafona, Margalida Roig, explains that the proposal also arises as a response to the lack of community leisure spaces during the summer and advocates for a participatory model distant from privatized consumption. "We believe that streets should be places for meeting and weaving community," points out Roig. The choice of dates is also not accidental: the conferences recover "the spirit of the Popular Olympics of Barcelona of 1936," which was to be organized as an alternative to the Olympic Games in Nazi Germany before the coup prevented its celebration.

The program will begin on Friday, July 17, with a street sports day. Starting at 5:00 PM, Plaça del Teatre will host a football tournament with three-person teams, mixed and intergenerational, as well as a boxing workshop taught by Nabil Taouirsa. The day will end with a popular outdoor dinner at 8:00 PM; tickets must be reserved at Sa Tafona before July 15.

The next day, Saturday, July 18, Sa Tafona will host the cultural event "90 years since 1936", from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM, with a popular lunch. The program includes the conference "From the front to the rear: experience of the Civil War", by predoctoral researchers Sandra Morón and Daniel Raya (Autonomous University of Barcelona), who will address the experiences of combatants and civilians during the war.

At 12:15 PM, the conversation "The island of calm? Mallorca, 1936-1939", with predoctoral historians (UAB), Magdalena Abril, Maria Eugènia Jaume, Andrea Florit, and Margalida Roig. The session will delve into issues such as concentration camps in Mallorca, the repression of teachers, or passive defense against bombings, with the aim of dismantling the image of an island alien to the conflict.

The talks have been conceived in a conversational format, "as if it were a podcast without being recorded," to facilitate public participation. The entity argues that historical memory cannot depend solely on institutions: "It is in the fabric of the people that collective memory must be preserved and transmitted," they affirm. The day will conclude with the conference "90 years of the great Palestinian strike", organized jointly with Citizens for Palestine. From Sa Tafona, they explain that this proposal responds to a conception of historical memory linked both to the remembrance of victims of crimes against humanity and to conflicts that still mark the present day.

The events are open to all citizens and aim to bring together families, young people, and people of all ages in a space for coexistence and debate. This will be the first edition in this format, following the Bunyola History and Memory Days in 2022, and will have the collaboration of Citizens for Palestine. The organization is confident that the initiative will serve for attendees to "spend an afternoon with family and friends" and, at the same time, reflect on "what kind of Mallorca we want".