The streets of Palma and Puerto de Andratx make up the vital landscape of Cristóbal Serra.
I owe the Port d'Andratx, on the west coast of the island, a whole series of experiences that have been interrupted but never forgotten.
Above all I owe it a house close to the see, from where I contemplated, year after year, the breakwater lighthouse and that wide expanse of water at the mouth of the port, which, in the breeze, contained the purity and mystery of the real sea.
[...]
Other debts I should mention:
The first splash of a small wave. Having had breakfast in the days of my youth with the touch of the breeze on my forehead...
Having felt the touch, whether warm or cold, of the venerable seam foam that mystically surrounds the hulls of boats.
Touching the quivering jellyfish on stormy days, when the still water seems sown with violet shadows.
Feelings in the intense September and the falling of exhausted leaves.
Appreciating the murky grey of the port whipped up by the tail of the harvestfish.
“Deudas en voz alta” Diario de signos (A Diary of Signs), 1980
Translated by Richard Mansell. Performed by Magda Molina.
(Palma, 1922 - 2012). Cristóbal Serra is a remarkable writer who stands out for his imagination and ingenuity. Born in Palma in 1922, he is the author of works admired by leading writers like Octavio Paz or Joan Perucho. A gifted thinker and writer, he concentrated particularly on essay writing, poetry and aphorisms. He said that he did not choose to write, but that writing chose him. With his skilled use of the Spanish language, Serra became – again in his own words – a “recreator”, who renewed everything.
Cristóbal Serra created an imaginary world called Cotiledònia, full of characters and figurative tribes. His novels - Viaje a Cotiledonia and Retorno a Cotiledonia - are accounts of journeys, rather like Cyrano de Bergerac or Jonathon Swift’s imaginary travels, conspicuous for their humour, surrealism and satire of society. Cristóbal Serra’s work is all embracing, containing hints of Anglo-Saxon satirists, French moralists, Oriental literature and Mallorcan authors like Ramon Llull or Anselm Turmeda.
The streets of central Palma and Port d’Andratx played an important role in his life. Serra’s Diario de signos (A Diary of Signs) describes a period spent in Port d’Andratx recovering from tuberculosis. Thanks to the calm, restful time that he spent there, with no other company than the sea and the occasional fishermen, he was able to devote himself to reading, and this experience was no doubt fundamental in his makeup as a writer.
The old part of the port stretches from the right bank and the bridge of the Saluet storm channel, draining salt flats with old fields, watermills, windmills and huts. Today Port d'Andratx is mostly a tourist town with a leisure port and a large number of hotels and houses that cover the mountain side to the water's edge.
Originally it was a settlement for fishermen which became established from the 17th century. It became more important as a place for transporting goods in the 19th century, thanks to Andratx's soap industry.
