How was Maria Magdalena Amengual Caldés, according to her friend: "The grandparents were her gods"

PalmaDetermination, courage, and firmness are traits that her presence exudes; her voice and her words are her calling card to the world. Maria Magdalena Amengual Caldés (Pollença, 1985) grew up between Port de Pollença and sa Pobla, surrounded by the love of her grandparents from both sides, who “were her gods.” For a period of time, she couldn't stand honey or mushrooms. Today she is a glosadora (improvisational poet), a discovery that “changed her life,” as she herself admits. However, as a special education teacher, she is the one who contributes to changing the lives of many children.

To those who have watched her grow, from near or far, she is simply Meri. We are introduced to her by her close friend Margalida Victòria Estrany Bertos, who met her when she was a counselor at the Pa i Mel summer school in sa Pobla. Maria was 11 years old at the time.

“From the age of 12 there were no longer summer school groups, but Meri wanted to continue. It was because of her that we created the role of assistant counselors, when nobody yet knew that she would end up studying Education. In this way, she remained linked to the activities.” So, during the summers of her 13th, 14th, and 15th years, Maria Magdalena was an assistant counselor with Margalida Victòria –with whom there is an eight-year age gap–, who describes her as a “very responsible and empathetic young woman, who liked being with people and helping.”

The friendship between the two grew stronger. Margalida Victòria lived for a time in Menorca and they exchanged letters to keep in touch. She watched an adolescent grow up who became “a devotee of Els Pets” and a great literature enthusiast: “We are hooked on reading, but we don't always agree: she hates Murakami and I love him.” Faced with difficult situations that forced her to mature quickly, the glosadora “had the intelligence, capacity, and strength to carry on.”

Maria Magdalena is, according to her friend, a very deep and rational person, with her feet firmly on the ground. She has firm values and beliefs and is not afraid to defend them: “People don't always like that,” but it is part of the glosadora’s brave and determined character. Even so, she says, she has never been a person who tries to impose herself on others: “With words and reasoning, she will give you her principles. If you don't want them, you will miss out.” She considers this way of being especially important in her work as a special education teacher. “She is the best person for doing special education, for helping the children, for conveying things.”

Since she was a little girl, family has been a fundamental part of Maria Magdalena’s life. Going to lunch on Sundays with the family is a way of life. “Don’t touch anyone belonging to her,” her friend warns. In fact, her young grandmother, from Sa Pobla, is like her second mother. “All their lives they have been very close-knit and spent a lot of time together.” They love each other very much, she assures; in fact, “they love each other so much that the family loves all the members’ friends. It sounds romantic, but it is like that,” says Margalida Victòria, who assures that she has become attached to it: “The people that Meri loves, I love. I trust her blindly.”

Margalida Victòria adores the “scandalous touch” of Meri, this lack of fear of “making noise, laughing at herself, and not being afraid of playing the fool”. When they have the best time is when they start “saying nonsense, one after another” and laughing loudly and with their mouths wide open. There are things that cannot be said with a small mouth, such as that “Meri is one of the best glosadores in Mallorca”. Margalida Victòria still remembers when Maria Magdalena told her what she had discovered about glosar at the beginning: “I remember the passion and the bright eyes. I looked at her and thought: My God, this is for real”. And it is for real.