The Mallorcan journalist Pedro Prieto (Antigua, Fuerteventura, 1945) It is a reference in the field of communication. Five decades have passed since the communicator became part of the newspaper Breaking Hour.
And next October 25 will receive the honorary award for Communication at the Rei Jaume I Awards gala. Awards that are awarded by the Calvià City Council (Mallorca). The journalist is a ‘teacher of teachers’ and his life is closely linked to the archipelago.
Also his profession. For years, the journalist has followed in the footsteps of the Spanish royal family. Also from figures such as the former president of the Government Adolfo Suarez or the actor Michael Douglas“with whom it took him 20 years to close an interview.”
– On October 25 you will receive the honorary award for Communication at the Rei Jaume I Awards gala. What does this award mean to you?
– It has been a very pleasant surprise. During the eighties and nineties I had a relationship with Calviá when I wrote chronicles about this town hall. I was pleasantly surprised that they valued my journalistic work.
– Precisely, this award comes five decades after it began in the world of journalism. What was the trigger for you to make the leap from teaching to the field of communication?
– I studied a degree in Teaching, but I always dreamed of being a journalist. As a child I read the stories of Roberto Alcázar and Pedrinand I remember watching how the journalists broadcast. I would take a rod, put a potato in it and emulate the microphone.
In Mallorca I remember that you either worked in business or studied. My parents couldn’t afford to pay for my studies in Barcelona, so I studied to become a teacher. I took the exams and they assigned me to Palma, where I already stayed. Meanwhile, I had the opportunity to start working as a collaborator in Popular Radio. There he did programs on the streets.
– In 1974 you joined the newspaper ‘Última Hora.
– Yes. When I was in Popular Radio, with my companion, the priest Pepe Cabrinetti, we made a program called ‘Siurell’ and for which we obtained the City of Palma Award. In 1974 the editor of the newspaper Breaking News was Pedro Serra. After buying the newspaper, he was looking for people to work with and he chose me.
I told him that if I could combine my work at the newspaper with the private classes I gave after teaching, I could collaborate with the newspaper. That’s how I started. He tempted me on several occasions to stay at the newspaper, but I told him no. With the teaching profession I had security, a salary. Finally, in 1979 I decided to stay at the newspaper.
I remember that as director and editor Pedro Serra told us: “Wherever there was a Mallorcan he had to be there.” Breaking News”. Thanks to this, we went to the streets to look for news. In 1991 with my partner John Torres We realized that there was a city in Mozambique called Palma. But there were also more in the rest of the world. After proposing the idea of going to these cities to Pedro Serra, he told us that we were leaving and we spent six months traveling around the world and made a book called ‘Palma, cities and towns around the world’.
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– A year earlier, Juan Carlos I and Doña Sofía spent their first summer in Marivent. What did the arrival of the then kings of Spain mean for the island?
– Since the royal family began spending the summer in Mallorca, the island has a lot to be grateful for. He put Mallorca in the world map. I remember that once I was in Burundi and in a kind of hair salon there I found the magazine Hello!. On the cover the king appeared entering Puerto Portals with the Fortuna.
At that moment I thought that if that cover had reached Burundi, it would also have reached South Africa, Australia, New Zealand… That was a priceless promotion. If everything the family has done in the name of Mallorca had to be paid at advertising prices, there would be no money.
I remember that summer they had the Fortuna, but it was smaller and darker in color. They have paraded through this yacht since Lady Di and the prince charles even the Helen royal family. Later they gave him the Fortuna that we all know and in which I remember mythical covers, like the one of Lady Di sitting on the bow. That photo went around the world.
– Mallorca became the destination for royalty par excellence. Emperors Akihito and Michiko paraded through the island from Hussein of Jordan. But in 1956 the visit of Princes Rainier and Grace of Monaco was already very popular.
– Princes Rainier and Grace spent a very happy honeymoon in Mallorca. They were dancing in Formentor and the princess danced with one of the members of the saga that founded Galletas Kelly.
– One of the visits that aroused the most social expectation was the arrival of Lady Di and the then Prince Charles. How did you experience that trip?
– The then princes of Wales visited Mallorca on five occasions. Four being a couple and one she did alone. And, in fact, after that trip Spanish journalists learned a lot from the English. They came with ladders to take photographs, but there was a fight and they no longer posed in Marivent.
They also used scanners. We found out because the English press published reports of Lady Di in Cabrera or the prince with his children. From that moment on we all bought scanners and captured all their movements, although many times they were separate.
At that time, the English press rumored that everything was not as idyllic as it seemed. The then Prince Charles was going to paint in Genoa and Lady Di was going to the beach with her children.
– It has only been a week since that visit came back into focus due to an alleged ‘affair’ between the Emeritus and the Princess of Wales.
– At that time, the king was into other stories. If that had been the case, we would have noticed it.
– You have tracked Juan Carlos I during his golden summers in Marivent and have captured unforgettable moments. Like a fight he had with the queen or the photographs of the king aboard the Fortuna ‘how God brought him into the world’.
– I remember that those photographs were taken in the middle of the mountains and in broad daylight. I misunderstood the site. The king found out about the presence of photographers and the security team was checking our legs for scratches, so I decided to wear long pants for a few days. Those photographs were not published until nearly 15 years later in the Italian press.
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– The figure of the decorator Marta Gayá, faithful companion of Juan Carlos I since the nineties, has also been remembered.
-She was a very discreet woman. They met when she was at the Club del Mar nightclub, where Juan Carlos I went a lot. They say he went there to have a drink or play records, but I never saw him.
I remember the scene between them in the casino. The king got up when Marta Gayá arrived later and stayed talking to her and the group that accompanied him.. That was very popular. Except for that time, they were never seen together again.
But it was in the middle of summer when the legendary cover of ‘Time’, with the owner of ‘The Lady of Rumor‘signed by the journalist Juan Luis Galiacho. People were very surprised in Mallorca. In the end the island is small and we all know each other.
– The expectation generated by the arrival of Juan Carlos I and Sofia is created today by Felipe and Letizia, right?
– Not at all. Nowadays everything is scheduled. This year they have gone out between 4 and 5 times warning journalists. People want to see the royal family in a normal way. Before, the relationship between journalists and the royal family was more natural. What’s more, I remember that years ago we captured the king having an ice cream, walking and entering a pastry shop to buy ensaimadas. Today it is impossible.
– The island has not only been the destination of royalty. Also from politics, Adolfo Suárez was closely linked to Mallorca or culture like the actor Michael Douglas…
– Adolfo Suárez was a magnificent character. He always told us: “But, are you here again?” I told him: “Mr. President, you arrive first with your wife, we are here to photograph you.” Then their children arrived and we were there too. But Suárez was not the only politician who dropped by Mallorca. also came Felipe González that arrived on board the GoshawkFranco’s yacht. Also Alfonso Guerra He spent the summer in the port of Andratx. Gorbachev He also ended up in Mallorca with his wife or Hugo Chavez who came to Mallorca the summer after the king told him the famous ‘Why don’t you shut up?’
-I remember that the queen of england with her husband duke of edinburgh. In fact, we took some photographs of the queen in a car on the roads of Mallorca. One of the most special things in my career was getting an interview with the actor Michael Douglas which took me 20 years. He has completely adapted to the Majorcan mentality.
-Returning to your career, you have been a chronicler of some of the most relevant moments in our recent history, could you highlight any that have marked you in particular?
-Since I started I have been on the street and told what I found. I was in Sarajevo, during times of war. I have also been on Death Row or in Belfast (Ireland). In fact we were at the funeral of Bobby Sandswho was murdered by the IRA and I remember we had to run away when the incidents started. But the Tsunami that occurred in Indonesia marked me. The landscape after the battle especially marked me. There the mortal remains of people came out of a hotel. They were carried on a stretcher. I was impressed.
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You are also known as the ‘reporter of the marginalized’, why did you decide to give a voice to that sector that does not have one?
– I have been very streetwise and, nowadays, there is more poverty in Palma every day. Now there are people who are totally neglected. I want to reflect this reality which you see going out into the street, talking to them…it is a social issue.
-How has the media landscape in Mallorca evolved?
-I remember that in the years when Lady Di came to Mallorca, between 30 or 40 paparazzi would gather. Those who came from the peninsula arrived at the end of June and left at the beginning of September. Today seven or eight come in early to mid-August. Before you went out looking for photography and today you find it easily on social networks.
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-You stated in a program that your children were born in Mallorca, your grandchildren… your life is on the island, would you ever leave the island?
-No. Mallorca is an extraordinary place. I got married here, my children were born here as did my grandchildren later. My parents are buried here. This island has many values, I am delighted with the people although at first they called me Forrestier. Although I know that there are very beautiful places in the rest of the world, I wouldn’t change living in Mallorca for anything.