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Salvador Calatayud Caldés, printer-machinist by trade, in 1912 set out on the adventure of founding his own printers shop, called 'La Moderna de Calatayud y Cía.'. Young Salvador left his job as a worker at 'La Sinceridad', locally known as the 'Upper Printers' where he had worked for the last two years due to the wild offer of some militants of the Republican Party. That is how he came to change ca'n Marqués in the carrer de Sant Bartomeu for a new print shop in the carrer de sa Lluna, initially located in the building that is now the ca'n Toni Reia shop. The inicial object was not to produce a newspaper, and during the first few years the 'Lower Printers' only worked on publicacions to order, Such as 'El Pueblo' with its leftist tendency, from 1913 till 1915, and the popular 'En Xerrim' from 1917, satirical and humorous weekly that was well received locally.
Price: 15 céntimos Once the business was consolidated, when, above all, he worked on general printing, and the occasional book, Salvador Calatayud decided to publish his own weekly newspaper, 'La Voz de Sóller', which was to compete with the already veteran 'Sóller'. The first edition hit the street on the first Saturday of 1924, on January the 5th, and its notable physical characteristic was its large tabloid size: 37·5 by 54 centimetres (twice that of the 'Sóller'). 'La Voz de Sóller' was a weekly publication, coming out well into Saturday morning. The price of 15 céntimos, did not vary in its 14 years of existence; and its layout was of 5 columns and 4 pages. The newspapers motto: love The frontispiece of 'La Voz de Sóller' is subtitled 'independent newspaper', and in its first, and double editorial, baptized with the generic 'El momento' makes the following propositions: to disregard the bad and the 'jerry-built', to portrait the daily life of the town, to accept all opinions, the joining of the informative with the agreeable, to combat political elitism, and -highlighted in capitals- have 'love' as the motto. The editorial line is abundant, valiant and clear, and much implicated in politics. The second part of the double editorial praised the beginning of Primo de Rivera's military government, criticising the previous politics of Madrid. The bulk of the following 'El momento' editorials, the early ones published on the front page, refer to and comment on local politics. 'La Voz de Sóller' does not hesitate in openly criticising the mayor of the moment when he censored a report on a town hall meeting, thereby causing that issue to appear with 100 centimetres blanked out -two whole columns-. Likewise it does not hesitate, a week later, in criticise the then Governor who qualified the Sóller Council members as 'cultural illiterates', and comes to Sóller to fire the entire municipal corporation. Again, a few weeks later, it criticises the town hall secretary and asks for his resignation because he will not accept that, in a public town hall session, a civil servant speaks badly of the highest authorities... 23'50 pesetas for the town hall horses Let us leave politics to one side and note some of the daily occurrences of 1924 that will enable us to visualise, to a degree, how life was in Sóller. The town hall meeting of January 2nd, the first to be chronicled, approves a Hill of 23·25 pesetas for the repair of horses tack, el then town hall still went by horse cart. A 'solleric' offers 150 pesetas annually for an exclusive concession for the extraction of sand from the beds of the streams. The town hall rejects the offer arguing that this is already a public right. The steam ship Heinrich Seuld of Cardiff delivers a shipment of English coal to the quay in Sóller's port. In 1924 the Sóller slaughter house is fully functional. In one year 4,370 sheep, 3,493 fowl, 1,330 rabbits were killed, the total number of animals sacrificed was 10,318 by the time you ad don the goats, calves and pigs. The population of Sóller is 35 percent illiterate. It is asked of the town hall that they allow an open-air cinema in the centre of the square, a request that is denied, arguing that the centre of the square is already used for other social priorities. We must remember that in those days the market was held in the square. Etc. A ghost at the Barona bridge When necessary 'La Voz de Sóller' mobilised its reporters and collaborators and filled page alter page with a piece of important news. This is what it did in 1925 when there was a large landslide at 'es Marrois'. A pert of the 'serra de son Torrella' collapsed, destroying sheds and leaving their ruins 20 metres downhill, whole terraces were destroyed, trees uprooted and transported more than 80 metres, the road to Monnàber was cut, and an extensive area of land completely lost. Also at times the weekly published strange articles, for example letting it be known that at the Barona bridge a ghost appears, dressed in black, with a waist-length white cape. Those that have seen this ghost say that it does not speak, and that its eyes shine like jewels. There is also education news, like the request for two new schools, one of them for boys to be situated in the building that was then occupied by the 'Brothers of the Christian Schools', and the other, for girls, to be located in the building of the 'Sisters of Charity' in Santa Teresa. This was the time of the creation of 'grade' schools as opposed to smaller units with only one teacher. Non-repugnant castor oil From its beginnings, the new weekly of the 'lower Printers' contained regular sections: 'Of Fornalutx', 'Sports, 'Social Glimpses', and 'Films' where -funnily- after the title of the film they gave the length in metres: 'La verdad', 2,200 m. But the most delightful part of the paper was the advertisements, especially the death notices, taking up half the ront page, with wide, black borders of vegetable and geometric motifs. The rest of the dverts were in the last pages, all together, and beautifully designed in the Modernist style. In the first edition of 'la Voz' we find: 'Novedades Roveri' of the carrer de sa Luna, Miquel Colom, Carpinter, of the carrer de la Mar, butchers Forteza of the carrer de Santa Bárbara, Andreu Pizà's cement factory of the carrer Obispo Colom, Guillem Calvo's carpintery in the carrer Capitán Angelats and 'Embutidos Aguiló' of the carrer de sa Luna. There were also classifieds, like that of the young man looking for work in a café or restaurant in the París area. Or like that of 'Novoil', the king of the pugatives, sweet, aromatic castor oil that, due to it's lemon flavour, is not the least bit repugnant. Morse messages to Mars As was customary in thase times, 'La Voz de Sóller' published stories in episodes; the first was 'Las fogatas de la costa' (The Blazes of the Shore) by Juan Luis Oliver, but even this was in Spanish, the local language, Catalan, was reserved for opinións, fables and poetry. It is important to remark on the fact that the ca'n Calatayud weekly gave space to several scientific collaborations, one Duch that grabbed my attention was that in which is described the wish of a local sage to make contact with Martians, taking advantage of the proximity of Mars to Earth that was to occur in August, 1925. This wise individual says that he Hill point a gigantic mirror at the neighboring planet, at the concave 'Jungfrau' depression, and, using Morse code, send messages of interplanetary brotherhood. Eight years later, eight more pages The republican years, which began with the local elections of 1931 that had brought the reign of king Alfonso XIII to an end, coincidentially were the 'golden years' of 'La Voz de Sóller'. With eight years of experience it grew from the original 4 pages to 10 - 12 each week, the adverts being so numerous that the weekly came out with 2 covers, the first, page 1, full of ads, and the second, page 3, containing the news. The rythmn is so frenetic that they had to insist the their advertizers that they bring the copy several days befote going to press, that way ensuring that there would be time for the news and classifieds.. Urbano Rosselló, Antoni Socies, Damià Ozones and Miquel Gayà Sitjar were regular contributors, along with the founders son, Josep Calatayud Jofre. But bad times were to come, the last two years of the publication, 1936 - 7, years of social tension and the beginning of the civil war. Large demonstration and Civil Guards on horseback In 1936 the last left-wing republican government becomes radicalised. One law, published on May 6th prohibits school education by religious orders, and the result, in Sóller, is the closure of two schools: the 'Parroquial del Convento' and the 'Hermanas de la Caridad' in Biniaraix. The provincial school inspector came to Sóller to effect the closures, which affect a total of 140 students, and this provokes a large demonstration, the likes of which had never been seen before, in the Plaza de Sóller. The affected parents wrote to the mayor and the inspector and then the movement became politicized. A contra-demonstration, left fists in the air, tried to neutralise the protest, and, t the same time, a contra-contra-demonstration, facist right arms in the air, tried to make the second shut up. Things end up badly because of the intervention of the mounted civil guard to disperse the demonstrations, and the civil governor imposes fines of 100-200 pesetas on a dozen 'sollerics'. 'La Voz de Sóller' doesn't editorialize the event, but does manifest preoccupation as to wether the public school system can absorb the 140 students left without classrooms. Those that do take stances are some of the collaborators, the weekly edition of the 27th of June has its cover stained with the black blocking-out of the government censors. All these tense events are the precursor of what is to happen a few months later, the Spanish civil war. The ridiculous contributions of the well-heeled 'sollerics' One month later marks the start of an uphill struggle for Salvador Calatayud's publication, as for many others. With Franco's investiture comes more censorship, now all publications have to be submitted to the censors before, rather than after, publication, and prime materials become harder to get, paper becomes scarce and is of low quality. The first edition of 'La Voz de Sóller' alter Franco's coup has only eight pages, but even so, the paper maintains a strong position on the consequences of the Civil War in Sóller. The column 'Ante el momento' and titled 'We comply with our obligations' highlights the enthusiastic disposition of the masculine and feminine youth in defence of the spiritual treasure headed by Franco, but does not take sides. In the local section, an editorial attacks with the pen: it qualifies as ridiculous the pro-war donations of the well-heeled 'sollerics', reasoning to them that those who defend society in the front line, are not those live most comfortably in that society. The monthly reunion of the 'Drop of Milk' society In terms of quality the change from the republic to Franco's dictatorship is evident; 'La Voz de Sóller' doesn't publish editorials any more. Patriotism and news of religious acts abound while the literary sections virtually disappear, Catalan is used only for poetry. Here are a few examples: The 'National Unionist Sport group of Sóller' prepares a football match between the local team and the 'Spain Arrives' team of Palma. There are monthly meetings of the women's 'Drop of Milk' society, which is a charitable organization. One article with a fairly explicit title is: 'Echoes of war in the island of peace'. The 'Day of the cigarette' is held with the aim of providing 'smokes' to 'those at the front'. Friday is the 'One Dish' day, which means eating less and giving money for the war orphans etc. The covered market, the facist town-halls first large project Despite the fact that that pretty well everything is coloured by the war, civil life still has glimpses of normalita that 'La Voz de Sóller' makes a great effort to publish: 'El Gas S.A.' sells olive wood charcoal at 6.5 pesetas for the 40 kilo sack. Work on the covered market, on the land of ca'n Cardell, near to ca'n Cremat begins. The barman Willy Cantoni carries on making his ice-cream s and sorbet served with a straw made of straw. The train runs into a man near to the Palma station. The grazing ducks that tried to cross the railway and were killed in the process. The 'esclata-sang' mushrooms go for two pesetas the helping and thrushes at 60 céntimos apiece. In the schools it is obligatory to destroy the books that have a 'socializing tendency'. And it is with this news that we reach the end of 1937. Paper runs out and the machines break down Meanwhile Salvador Calatayud's press has a trying time. The downsizing to eight pages is further reduced to six then finally to four. The awful quality of paper, almost rag-like, provokes terrible print. At the same time part of the workforce and almost all of the reporters and collaborators are mobilized. There was no alternative than to ask the writers to produce shorter articles, and later to stop printing advertisements, thereby causing economic problems. 'La Voz de Sóller' agonizes on October 23rd about the lack of raw materials, paper, reducing the size of the publication by half due to lack of paper. When one is down, one attracts bad luck, and on December 18th there is trouble with the machinery, and, in the first week of the New Year 'La Voz' doesn't hit the streets. Thus end the journalistic efforts of Salvador Calatayud. The founder of the 'Imprenta de Abajo' continued with his contracted printing work, the business passed to his son, Pep and then was run by his grandson, Salvador, until his death in 1994. It is now run by Salvador's wife and children, who have recently enhanced the old printing system by the addition of new techniques, thereby enabling themselves to continue meeting the needs of their clients. |