How was M. Antònia Oliver París, according to her sister: “She was protective, rebellious and seeking justice”

PalmaOne day, at school, she told off a nun who had hit her little sister. She was, and still is, “very protective, defiant and justice-seeking”. She was a girl “who made herself noticed”, according to the one protected, the little one, Catalina. We are talking about Maria Antònia Oliver, president of the Memòria de Mallorca organization, who is the second of three siblings. The older brother is Francisco.

All three were born in Inca. When Maria Antònia (1957) was five years old, they moved to Palma, but they kept the bond with the capital of the Raiguer because their aunts, uncles and cousins lived there. For this reason, even now she considers herself “very much from Inca”. They moved to a ground floor apartment in the Soledat neighborhood for “logistics”: “Our father had shops and some businesses, and my mother designed dresses and fur coats. I remember that at home, in Palma, seamstresses would come. I suppose it was easier to work from the city”, explains Catalina. Having wandered so often through her father’s shops meant that one of the sisters' favorite games was playing shopkeeper: “We would argue because we both wanted to be the shop assistant!”, laughs the little sister, who adds that they also played “with the Nancys” and street games.

Maria Antònia is five years older than Catalina. “I have always seen her as my protector. She defended me from everything and everyone, and I defended her, too.” The two sisters were accomplices. To explain the nature of the older sister, Catalina recounts that it was she who taught her to ride a bicycle. “It was very difficult for her, because I was very clumsy, but she insisted. Constancy is one of the great virtues that Maria Antònia has.”

According to Catalina’s memories, the childhood of the Oliver París family was “warm and pleasant.” She can still relive the moments when her mother would comb their hair and make two braids for each girl. “My mother was very vain and could not understand that neither of the two sisters was, as pretty and well-dressed as she always made us go.” In fact, it was during these moments that the mother and Maria Antònia spoke the most: “I was little and didn’t pay much attention, but I know it was while she was combing her hair that my mother began to tell her things about our grandfather who was repressed,” the story that pushed Maria Antònia to lead Memòria de Mallorca with inexhaustible strength: “She must have been eleven or twelve years old and my mother told her what had happened, in great detail, while to me she only said that Franco had destroyed the family. I suppose that, driven by curiosity, my sister also asked her things, and that is why they told her the whole story. They told me about it when I was much older. I remember that the two of them talked a lot about that.”

Maria Antònia began dating very young, at fourteen or fifteen years old, with the man who is her husband today, Pep. “They made me tag along, but both of them treated me very well, and I had a great time with them.” One day they took her to a demonstration: “We ended up running in front of the ‘grises’ (the police). Maria Antònia was holding my hand. I have never run so much in my life!” The two sisters really liked protest songs: Lluís Llach, Maria del Mar Bonet, Raimon… They had posters of Che Guevara in their room and protest leaflets. “On the day of the 23-F, with my sister and my mother, we began to hide everything with some anxiety, just in case,” Catalina notes.

One of the things that still makes Maria Antònia special today is that “she has always had a very strong ability to bring people together” and that she is a “natural leader”: “In her group of friends, she was predominant. She was impetuous, she had the ability to move people. She was, and still is today, supportive. As a sister, she is very welcoming and very affectionate, and she is also like that with her children and with mine”.