Censorship against Josep Melià’s Els mallorquins (1964-1967)

Abstract

In Els mallorquins, written between 1963 and 1964, a young Josep Melià managed to successfully undertake the task of identity reflec­tion that had been initiated by Jaume Vicenç Vives and brilliantly contin­ued by Joan Fuster. Contrary to all expectations, the censorship was harsh against Els mallorquins. It is noteworthy to highlight a report from the Provincial Delegation of Information and Tourism in the Balearic Islands, which accused it of being a radical Catalanist work, propagating separatist personalities, and distorting the Mallorcan reality. This report, along with another, of a more moderate nature but also of Mallorcan authorship, demonstrated that the Francoist authorities had a good understanding of the cultural circles in Mallorca. A lengthy negotiation process ensued be­tween the author and the censoring authorities, in which the Director General of Information, Carlos Robles Piquer, personally intervened. Fi­nally, in March 1967, the work was able to be published. Although numer­ous passages and expressions such as “nation” and “national” had been suppressed, the main theses of the work were not distorted. These theses revolved around the historical and cultural Catalan identity of Mallorca and the denunciation of a long process of cultural Castilianization, pri­marily facilitated by the bourgeoisie and the apathy of the majority of the population.