Thursday, 31st August 2023
794th anniversary Rei En Jaume's landing with a message from the mayor in favour of free thinking: "ideas belong to each one, but History belongs to everyone"
Juan Antonio Amengual has addressed the citizens as mayor and chef Fernando Pérez Arellano has been this year's town crier
The starting signal for the festivities commemorating the 794th anniversary of Rei En Jaume's arrival. The event, in which the mayor of the municipality, Juan Antonio Amengual, addressed the citizens, took place at the Santa Ponsa Cross on Thursday. The town crier was the renowned two-Michelin-starred chef Fernando Pérez Arellano. The event included the traditional floral offering by associations and entities of the municipality. Rei En Jaume himself (Jaume Nadal, colla Reial Jaume I) and Abu Yahya (Esther Carigüela, colla Al Madina), along with giants Rei Jaume and Reina Violant also attended the event.
The mayor began his speech by thanking the work of public employees and the collaboration of the residents of the municipality in the hours after the storm that hit Calvià last Sunday. «They were attending to the emergency from the first moment, many of them voluntarily on their day off. They have been the men and women of the Local Police, Calvià 2000, the Maintenance Brigade, Gardens, Civil Protection... And also the Civil Guard, the Mallorca Fire Department, Ibanat... And I do not forget the many neighbours who have given an example of collaboration and solidarity worth remembering.
Thanks to all of them, on Sunday afternoon all the missing and injured were in their homes, and within 24 hours the municipality was back to normal, with the beaches open and almost 100 percent of the incidents were attended. There is no greater pride for a mayor," he said.
Amengual has focused his intervention on a message in favour of free thought and the non-imposition of ideas against the reinterpretation of the past: «although the historiographic debate can be a fascinating exercise, I will not be the one trying to instrumentalise History for my own benefit or regarding my ideas. Just as we cannot force anyone to agree with the ideas of another, we cannot manipulate History to adjust it to particular interests. Ideas belong to each one, but History belongs to everyone.
«Today we celebrate the History that unites us. We look at the past with respect and pride, with the intention of assimilating, understanding and accepting what we are and where we come from. Soon it will be 800 years since the landing, and the seed that Rei En Jaume brought with him remains here. Here in Calvià, that seed was planted, which over the centuries has germinated in our society, an open, tolerant and supportive society," he said.
On his behalf, Fernando Pérez Arellano offered those present a speech in which he wanted to express his gratitude to Calvià: «in this municipality I have seen my children grow up and become the excellent people full of life that they are today. This is also where I have reached the peak of my professional career, achieving two Michelin stars in 2015.
The chef has narrated his personal and professional journey over the years to establish himself as one of the references in the sector: «I can say that I am a self-made person. My journey from dishwasher to chef has been an adventure guided by my long-term dreams, guided by my medium-term plans, and driven by the achievement of daily goals, once again, through perseverance, discipline and the sacrifice. As my admired colleague Marco Pierre White said one day: “When you have a dream you also have the responsibility to make it come true, otherwise you become just a dreamer.”