Book: Guía secreta de Baleares (Secret guide to the Balearic Islands) (1975) de Guillem Frontera. Ed. Al-Borak.
Guillem Frontera, consolidated in the Catalan literary scene thanks to his first novels, would be commissioned by the Madrid publishing house Al-Borak to develop a kind of atypical tourist guide, which would focus on spaces that went beyond the classic tourist settings. The result would be a curious work, full of information and impressions, which featured a profuse photographic report by Rosa Barberà.
Background and characteristics of the work: Despite being a guide focused on the visitor, Frontera produced a work in which there is no lack of a critical vision on the tourist monoculture and on other socio-cultural issues of interest related to the Balearic Islands of the late Franco period. He also connects it with literary references ranging from folk songs to Albert Camus. His stop in Magaluf belongs to the first route through the Ponent, which includes the beaches of Calvià, Andratx, Banyalbufar, Esporles and Establiments.
[Unplanned urban growth]
Los males de esta playa son, también, consecuencia de su caso urbanístico, en su día críticas encendidas. Ahora ya no sobresalen tanto, no porque les hayan quitado algunas plantas, sino porque otros edificios les hacen compañía; y, también, porque muchos otros puntos de la isla han crecido construcciones de altura similar. En Mallorca ha proliferado no solamente los excesos urbanísticos. La competencia de restaurantes, salas de fiestas, comercios en general, ha hecho que la imaginación de algún promotor se desbordara.
The ills of this beach are also a consequence of its urban case, once criticized. Now they don't stand out so much anymore, not because some floors have been removed from them, but because other buildings keep them company; and also because many other parts of the island have grown buildings of similar height. In Mallorca not only urban excesses have proliferated. The competition of restaurants, nightclubs, shops in general, has caused the imagination of a promoter to overflow.
[Signs of Britishization in the business fabric]
Hay muchos pubs al estilo inglés: sería difícil explicar porque, precisamente en Magaluf, y no en cualquier otra parte, han proliferado estos pubs.
There are many English-style pubs: it would be difficult to explain why, precisely in Magaluf, and not anywhere else, these pubs have proliferated.
