What Amanda Fernández was like, according to her mother: "She still asks me to sign her up for judo."

PalmThey never saw a mother without her daughter, because until she was three years old, she clung to her "like a footstep": "She didn't want to go with anyone, she was always on me, hanging onto my hair, wherever we went. I was finished!" So says Catalina Rubí, from Manacor, mother of Amanda Fernández Rubí, general secretary of the Socialists of Mallorca. The mother speaks quickly, stringing together images as she reminisces, and between anecdotes and memories, she sighs and says: "Oh! Mothers, let's do what we can." And almost without meaning to, Rubí's voice is the voice of all mothers.

Mothers do what they can, yes, even climb into a pigpen because their almost two-year-old daughter couldn't think of anything better to do than go and inspect it: "We were having a blast with friends and other children, and since she was always attached to me, that day I told her to go play with the children! We found her inside the pigpen. What a mess, because pigs bite! I climbed in to get her, I still don't know how."

Amanda was the daughter-in-law for eight years; then came Savina and Carlos. According to her mother, and surely because that's what her age dictated, the daughter-in-law acted as a great big sister: "She helped me a lot with the children. She organized chores, made them play games, and they both really enjoyed being with her. When she got a little older, she suddenly started partying with her husband, and with Savina and Carlos everywhere! So much so, that Amanda has always wanted to be a teacher." And who knows if this comes from his father's side: his godfather, known as 'the Madrid doctor'He was stationed here and had nine children.

Of Amanda, Catalina remembers that she was a very good student and liked "almost" everything. Aside from school, the little girl did many extracurricular activities, and there was one thing this mother and daughter, who now couldn't have a better relationship, never agreed on: music. "She wanted to go to everything, everything! Even now she jokes and tells me she wants me to sign her up for judo, because she couldn't get into that... I made her go to music and the poor thing didn't have a good time at all because she didn't like it at all. I regret it. It's one thing to like to sing and dance," and another. And Catalina is absolutely right.

In fact, at home they "sing a lot": "We had a stereo system, and the first person who came in would turn it on. We also had a cassette player in the bathroom, and I remember Amanda and Savina grabbing the deodorant can like it was a microphone and pretending to be singers. They could spend hours singing."

Some things that Rubí highlights about Amanda's personality are that she's "very competitive" with sports: "She doesn't like walking or running... She'll do volleyball, beach tennis, and things like that." She also says that Amanda is a "hard-working" woman, something that was already evident when she was younger, as a student, and when she started working as a teacher and, later, in politics: "She really gets into things," her mother points out. And perhaps there's nothing better than having a daughter like that: "Amanda enjoys herself; she doesn't make you feel bad. What you want, as a mother, is for your children to be happy, and with her, that's guaranteed." It's always good. Or so I think. What I know for sure is that, when I grow up, I want to be like her." That's what Catalina said, and that's how it's been written.