On The Street Where You Live

Courtesy of "The Diario", here's a strange little story, though it isn't all that strange for Mallorca. It concerns a street in Palma that used to be called Capitán Salom. That was its name until June of this year when it was changed to Alfons el Magnànim, who apparently was the king of Mallorca from 1396 to 1458 (an explanation that appears under the new street sign). That sign has been defaced and the old name has been written in above the new one.

The change in name has to do with the law on historic memory, the one that is concerned with eliminating references to and symbols of the Franco era. Capitán Salom was, presumably, associated with Franco. Palma town hall had identified a number of streets that needed a name change, in accordance with this law.

One day in June, along came the town hall workers and put up a new sign, that of Alfons. It was then that things started to get interesting. The residents say that they were not notified as to the change, though the town hall and the post office say otherwise. But since June, there have been problems with post, letters being returned no known address (for Capitán Salom), cheques for payments being returned, and so on. The paper spoke to a number of businesses, and they all say the same thing - that they had not been told of the name change and that they were all suffering because of non-receipt of mail. Moreover, if one googles these two street names, it is the captain's that comes up, meaning all that information is out of date. So who's right? The businesses and residents of the street or the town hall and the post office?

The answer is probably that neither is right and neither is wrong. The greater issue lies with the law itself. It is one thing for the government to wish to eradicate Francoist symbols, quite another when it is likely to cause practical problems, and the Capitán Salom case would appear to be one such practical problem. Perhaps the Captain was a well-known Franco thug. Then, well, one could understand the name change. But if he was just any other Franco follower, does it really matter? How many people might know who he was, in any event? It's a street name, not a statue to the glorious nationalist revolution and the repression of republicans and others.

But they do this sort of thing - changing street names - even when there is no law on historic memory to influence the change; it's just done, as has been the case in Can Picafort - a street name disappears to be replaced by one of a street a couple of streets down, which in turn is replaced by another one. Or that is how it seems, because street maps don't keep up with the changes and were wrong in the first place. Even the one being issued by Can Picafort tourist office was out of date for a year or so. And how well town hall and post office communicate is anyone's guess.

The postal service can be somewhat haphazard, but it's not altogether surprising. Post codes are subject to change (which occurred when parts of Alcúdia were re-coded), while not everyone knows what their code is. It should be very simple. Unlike the complicated post-code system of the UK, in Mallorca there is a five-digit code per town or per area of a town. It should be simple, but isn't, because of a lack of clarity and communication. There's an example. Playa de Muro's post code is? Well, maybe it's the same as for Muro town, maybe it has its own, or maybe it's the same as for Can Picafort because the local post office for Playa de Muro, though it is in Playa de Muro, actually falls under Can Picafort.

Confusion reigns, post doesn't always get delivered, and then, on top of everything else, they go and change the street names. Fortunately, not everywhere has a Capitán Salom or even an Alfons el Magnànim.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Night Boat To Cairo", Madness, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSTHMxBttlU. Today's title - from which musical does this come?

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