Square Names: Spain and Franco

When, do you imagine, will the nationalist (Mallorcan) left in Palma present the motion for a decree to change the name of Plaça Espanya? There wouldn't be anything so mad as altering it officially to Plaza España (which officially it used to be), for clear reasons of politico-linguistic correctness, or Anglicising it as Spain Square (which would be utterly ridiculous). Rather, there would be an entirely different name. Anyone care to offer some alternatives? Perhaps there should be a referendum, otherwise known in Palma-land as a citizens' consultation.

One possibility might be Plaça Més in recognition of all things Mallorcan nationalist. Or how about pre-empting the elevation of the mayor-in-waiting to the rank of mayor next year? Rename it Plaça Antoni Noguera, the deputy mayor who models cities, or one in particular. While they're at it, just rename Palma, but for God's sake leave off the "de Mallorca": Antoni Noguera, the new capital of Mallorca, named in his own image.

Why might they even consider a renaming of the square? The clue, quite clearly, is in the current name. Espanya (aka España): Spain, a concept of nationalism at variance with the one promoted by Més. Think they might not? Well think again. The Més brethren in Sencelles have succeeded in getting the town's Spain square converted to, erm, the Town square, Plaça de la Vila.

Sencelles isn't of course Palma. It is a rural backwater known principally for its wine and for the youth of the municipality haring around the streets on old Mobylettes while being hosed down with water (drought, what drought?) and then rolling two giant bales of hay into the square (Espanya or otherwise) before proceeding to throw the hay at each other. But notwithstanding its comparative inconsequence in the scheme of Mallorcan things (everywhere is inconsequential compared with Palma), Sencelles may act as the spur for Palma to follow the lead of somewhere in the sticks rather than presuming that it must always lead others.

For Palma, for Més and for its republican tendencies, there is an additional justification. Més in Sencelles weren't simply objecting to Spain being the name of the square, there was also the fact that it was "Francoist denomination". And in this regard, Més were absolutely correct. The Spain name was applied following the Civil War, so the renaming is a case of going back to how things were. Few people actually call it Plaça Espanya in any event.

A similar situation applies to Palma's Plaça Espanya. Once upon a time, certainly from the seventeenth century, an area was known as the Plaça de la Porta Pintada in reference to the gate in the mediaeval walls through which it is said that King Jaume I entered in his conquest of 1229. The square was for a time also known as Joanot Colom. He was one of the leaders of the sixteenth-century Germanies uprising that was eventually put down by Carlos V, the Holy Roman Emperor. Colom was beheaded, drawn and quartered, and Porta Pintada was one of the locations for his remains to be put on show. This name endured for a couple of decades before it became Eusebi Estada, who was the chap mainly responsible for building Mallorca's railway. A further couple of decades on, and along came Franco.

In 1990, the Castellano Plaza España was officially dropped in favour of the Catalan. Around the same time, the name Plaça de la Porta Pintada was restored, but it refers only to a part by Olms street.

Going back in time, the historical legacy of the smaller square might suggest that the whole of Plaça Espanya should revert to its seventeenth-century name. Moreover, and apart from direct nationalist sentiments, there is also the fact of the statue of Jaume I and so the link to the days of the conquest and the tale of the Porta Pintada. However, given a desire for historical accuracy, Porta Pintada cannot claim to be the whole square, as it didn't used to occupy the area it now does.

Might there be a change of name? In Sencelles it probably doesn't cause too many issues, but in Palma it would do. Plaça Espanya is very well known and referenced. But as has been seen with the Feixina monument and the intention to demolish it, the current town hall is not averse to seeking to eliminate Francoist symbolism.

There are of course plenty of other Spain squares knocking around. Inca has one, for instance. As it also has a calle Héroes del Baleares, a reference to the same circumstances surrounding the monument. Més have been calling for it to be done away with for years. The street has another name, La Balanguera (the Mallorcan hymn), but the very fact that there are two names creates confusion.

Change the name of Plaça Espanya? Well maybe, but the confusion would be immense.

Making Fun, Making Hay: Embala't

"We know how to make our own fun." This might well be the maxim of some Mallorcan fiestas. Despite similarities that the fiestas possess, there are events within them that are unique to particular towns and villages and which can only be explained by a desire to have a bit of fun. It should be true of all aspects of fiestas that they exist for fun purposes - a fiesta is, after all, a party - but some have lost a certain spontaneity, a sense of fun of doing something for the sheer hell of it.

The battles of Mallorcan fiestas might be said to typify a distinction between the spontaneous and the invented on the one hand and the choreographed and established on the other, the latter having been determined by rules of traditional and historical righteousness and by what have almost become a type of fiesta corporatism: the Moors and Christians of Pollensa being an example.

There are other battles which don't conform to scripts and rituals. These are the ones which happen for totally frivolous reasons. There is little by way of tradition to back them up, save for aspects of rural economies which inspire them. Why, for example, do the young folk of Petra shower themselves with almond shells and water, or why do the good folk of Vilafranca hurl bits of melon at one another, or those of Binissalem splatter each other with grapes? There are clear agricultural traditions which inspire them, such as Binissalem being at the centre of the island's wine trade, but otherwise there is no good reason, except for having a bit of a laugh.

A neighbour of Binissalem's is Sencelles. It is also known for its wine business, but it has something different to utilise when it comes to a battle. The people of Sencelles - young ones, though not exclusively - make hay in that they make their own fun with hay. They make hay while the sun shines. Or is it straw? Whatever. They make hay during the town's August fiestas. Today in actual fact.

Having hay (or straw) as a fiesta theme is not the sole preserve of Sencelles. Santa Margalida also has a hay do, but its is an altogether more rurally correct one than Sencelles. In Santa Margalida they do actually make hay; this is the focus of its recently revived "festa des batre", and it will take place at the end of the month. In Sencelles, by contrast, the hay is the centre of battle attention, and it hasn't been recently revived, as they only dreamt it up in 2007.

This is the "Embala't", a name about which there is worthy discussion of its linguistic correctness. Put it this way, there is a lengthy article which considers this correctness or incorrectness - in Catalan or Mallorquín terms - and ends up not coming to a conclusion either way. Essentially, though, it comes from a verb to pack or wrap and is therefore probably ironic because the packed hay in question becomes unpacked. It would, after all, be difficult to stage a battle with two enormous great, circular bales of hay, wrapped with plastic and bearing the colours of the Catalan "senyera" flag.

From midday today until the evening, Sencelles becomes the stage for this distinctly mad event. There is little about it which makes much sense. What have the mobylette motor cycles got to do with anything? Who knows, but there they are from some time after midday, hurtling around the streets while their riders are fired at with water pistols. The streets and roads get semi-flooded and will later on have more water deposited on them when the bales of packed hay arrive in town. And these come thanks to two teams - a male and female one. Off they've gone into the countryside after a good lunch in order to get the two bales, which are then wheeled into the town's centre and unwrapped. This is when the battle kicks off. What does it entail? Nothing, other than chucking hay and smothering someone in it. More water appears in proving that Mallorca isn't as short of this precious resource as is sometimes made out. 

Around eight in the evening, the battle will be over. Not that anyone will have won, because that isn't the point. Indeed, there is no point to it whatsoever, other than having some fun and in also demonstrating that, with any luck, the Sencelles town hall's street-cleaning service is ultra efficient. 

MALLORCA TODAY - Son Saletes golf course is authorised by Council of Mallorca

The Council of Mallorca has approved the building of a golf course on the Son Saletes finca which lies predominantly in Sencelles and partially in Binissalem. The course has been declared as being in the "general interest", this despite opposition from Sencelles town hall. The debate at the Council, without mentioning names (or name to be more accurate), referred to "a friend of the Partido Popular" who is behind the golf course.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Binissalem golf course set to go ahead

The Council of Mallorca seems likely to give the green light to the construction of a golf course on the finca of Son Saletes that lies partly in Binissalem and partly in Sencelles. The Council's decision would seemingly take precedence over any decisions of the two town halls (Binissalem has recently reversed a local order prohibiting the construction of a golf course). As mentioned in an article (http://alcudiapollensa.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/ventura-fairway-binissalem-and-golf.html), the promoter of the course is Ventura Rubí, the president of the Partido Popular in Sencelles, and also the father of the secretary for communication in the cabinet of the Balearics presidency.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

Ventura Fairway: Binissalem and golf

The arguments surrounding the development of more golf courses on Mallorca are never far away from the shouts of "fore" as the business of golf hurtles towards environmentalists lurking in the rough who are forced to dash for cover and bury their heads in a sand bunker.

Four years ago, I wrote an article the title of which was "Heart and Soul". It was mainly to do with the projected golf course in Campos. Without going into the detail of that article, I concluded by saying that "the Campos case is important as it goes to the heart of many issues, namely what sort of developments are needed, the intransigence of a non-pragmatic environmental lobby, the incoherence of political decision-making and the needs of local communities. It is a story not just about a golf course but also about the future soul of Mallorca."

Nothing has changed to make me think otherwise. Golfing factionalism is as it was and political decision-making remains incoherent as well as being subject to whim, revisionism and dominant political party complexion. The future soul of Mallorca is still undecided, but we are edging more towards a state in which the treasure island becomes Leisure Island.

The Campos project has always made some sense. The town has little by way of tourism, so in purely economic terms the project has advantages, the same advantages that would accrue from the highly contentious hotel development near Es Trenc beach. Another disputed development, in Muro, has always made less sense, if only because of the existence of other courses nearby, Alcanada and Pollensa.

These two projects have dominated the arguments regarding further golfing development, but there is now a third, and one that threatens to become as mired in  the endless to-ing and fro-ing that Muro's has. It is the strange case of the Binissalem golf course, a case made stranger because the golf course would lie less in Binissalem than it would in neighbouring Sencelles.

In May 2010, the Council of Mallorca supported a proposal by Binissalem town hall to modify local planning regulations in order to stop the construction of a golf course on rustic land. The town hall, buoyed by the Council's support, revelled in being able to say that it was the first town in Mallorca to have modified planning regulations in order to expressly forbid golf development on rustic land. Meanwhile, Sencelles town hall had already imposed a moratorium of a year on any construction and in April 2011, it followed Binissalem's lead in prohibiting the construction.

The course seemed dead in the water, therefore. Until, that is, the Council of Mallorca, now under a different political regime (the Partido Popular), opened the way for the course to once more be developed. This was in January this year. And now, all of a sudden, Binissalem town hall has performed a complete U-turn and approved the development of sporting activities on rustic land, meaning the golf course. Sencelles would presumably have to follow suit, and it is here where the story becomes that bit more interesting as the promoter of the golf course is one Ventura Rubí. And he is? The president of the Partido Popular in Sencelles.

The political make-up of both town halls has changed since the prohibitions of 2010 and 2011, as also has that of the Council of Mallorca. So, here you have it: whim, dominant political party complexion and also some revisionism; the decision to prohibit construction had all been a mistake. Presumably, therefore, no one had actually meant to prohibit construction.

Further background to all this is the new tourism law and the provision for more agrotourism whereby existing properties on rustic land can be converted to tourist use (and Binissalem town hall has also agreed that there should be more agrotourism). Just by way of interest, who is the honorary president of the agrotourism association? Ventura Rubí.

Putting agrotourism together with a golf course and the fact that Binissalem and Sencelles are at the centre of Mallorca's wine industry, then the town hall's U-turn makes sense. It would open the area up to an upmarket brand of tourism that would benefit from the synergy of golf and wine.

But go back to 2008 and there were arguments that Mallorca had already reached golfing saturation point in terms of courses while these courses were being under-utilised. Golfing tourism has tended to grow but not hugely, while agrotourism has suffered from a fall in demand from its key mainland Spanish market. The Binissalem course makes some sense, but so does the one in Campos; more so perhaps. However, the question is less whether Binissalem's course makes sense and more whether any more courses on Mallorca make sense.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.