Balearic identity and richness of languages
The question of Balearic identity is a hotly debated topic, just as it is in Catalonia and the Basque Country. In fact, it is strongly linked to language. Since the Balearic Islands became an autonomous community, Catalan has been the archipelago's official language. Accompanied by Castilian (Spanish), it is, in fact, a co-official language, according to the terms used in the legal texts. The majority of islanders claim to understand Catalan, but around 30% do not speak it. In reality, the use of Catalan is limited to political institutions. State schools are supposed to offer teaching in both languages from nursery school onwards, which would make it easier to find a job in Catalonia, or to continue university studies on the mainland. But once again, the reality is different: in schools, Castilian is the majority language in the classroom, and local dialects(mallorquí in Mallorca, ibicenco in Ibiza) are mainly spoken in the playground. The latter have even become symbols of nationalism for the older generation.
However, from 2013 onwards, this official model was threatened by the José Ramón Bauzá (PP) government's reform of the education system, which proposed a trilingual Catalan-Castilian-English system, reducing Catalan hours in favor of English. Despite its annulment by the Supreme Court in 2014, this reform has been the subject of much debate. Spirits calmed with the arrival of the Socialist Party in government in June 2015. As a result of highly developed tourism, some foreign languages (English, German, Italian and French) are spoken quite fluently in certain areas of Mallorca and Ibiza. On Menorca, however, Catalan remains the most widely spoken language, as it is on Formentera, where it remains a linguistic mainstay, with 73% of the population knowing how to speak it and almost 90% understanding it. While the latter two islands have preserved a traditional identity cradled in centuries-old customs and traditions, the face of the population has changed considerably in recent years. Formentera, for example, is now very cosmopolitan, with almost 4,000 foreign residents - more than a third of the island's total population.
It has to be said that the Balearics are also home to a large number of emigrants, working on all the islands. In 2009, the Balearic Islands were listed as Spain's autonomous community with the highest percentage of foreign residents, with over 20% immigrants. In other words, 1 in 5 people in the Balearic Islands are foreigners. Mallorcans distinguish between locals and forasters (foreigners): this adjective refers to Spanish families originally from the peninsula. Strangely enough, tourists are better accepted than Spanish immigrants: a Madrilenian, even one who has lived in the Balearic Islands for more than ten years, will always remain a foraster . Among the main nationalities represented in the archipelago, Germany comes first, followed by Ecuador, Morocco and Argentina. Since 2010, the Balearic Islands have seen a sharp drop in immigration, a direct consequence of the crisis. This trend was reversed in 2017, with a 33% increase in the number of foreign immigrants.
As a result of the steady influx of people from central Spain, the demographics of the Balearic Islands have changed dramatically over the last twenty years. This has also brought about a change in politics: Castilian political parties have overtaken the traditional island parties. The Balearic government underwent a transformation following the 2023 elections. The right-wing PP and the far-right VOX now govern. Strong recentralization policies have been implemented on several levels (cultural, territorial, environmental, etc.). The most controversial of these concerns languages: knowing how to speak Catalan, the language of the Balearic Islands, is no longer a prerequisite for employment in the public sector. Similarly, the new government wants to urbanize rural areas and grant new licenses to tourist establishments, thus endangering certain protected areas.
Brief history of the hippie movement in Ibiza and Formentera
Although Ibiza gained international renown with the arrival of large numbers of hippies in the 1960s, the island had already enjoyed a reputation as a sanctuary of the good life since the 1930s. Indeed, many avant-garde European intellectuals and artists, forced to flee authoritarian regimes (notably the Spanish Civil War), found refuge on the White Island. After the Second World War, the world was gradually rebuilt, and creativity and freedom became increasingly important values, so many artists already accustomed to the island began to flock here again, soon joined by young Europeans and Americans, followers of the nascent hippie movement. For these souls enamored of freedom and peace, of a healthy relationship with nature, Ibiza - but also its small neighbor Formentera - offered all the ingredients for happiness, so much so that hippie communities were quickly formed in the early 1960s, mainly in the rural areas in the center of the island.
While San Francisco is considered the cradle of the movement, London and Amsterdam, with their cosmopolitan, bohemian atmosphere, were also important hotbeds of this emerging culture. Nepal and India are also top destinations for meditation. What Ibiza offers hippies is direct, uncomplicated contact with nature, a mild climate and an area still untouched by mass tourism. The island's inhabitants received this new population with curiosity and kindness, calling them "peluts" ("hairy" in Catalan) because of their shaggy hair, and coexistence was quite good. During Ibiza's golden age of hippies (1965-1975), thinkers, artists, idealists and back-to-the-land dreamers helped popularize the island, and soon tourism began to gain ground, gradually diluting the authentic hippie spirit of the early days..
Even today, however, you can still get a glimpse of what those days were like at the Sant Joan Sunday market, whose stalls of artisans are still perhaps the most authentic on the island. The small coves of Atlantis and Punta Galera are also spots that still retain some of the psychedelic magic of the 1960s. Also worth seeing is the gathering of drummers on Benirràs beach, every Sunday at dusk during the summer months. In 2016, a bronze sculpture of a hippie and his child (inspired by a famous photograph of the period) was inaugurated in the Marina d'Eivissa, as a tribute to this fundamental episode in Ibiza's history and culture.
