Between 16 and 17 July 1971, in the final years of Franco’s regime, one of the most surreal episodes in the hippie history of Ibiza took place. At that time, the island was one of the most effervescent centres of this countercultural movement on a global level, along with Goa and Amsterdam. By the end of the 1960s, there were already hippies everywhere in Ibiza, although they preferred the north-east part of the island: Santa Eulària des Riu and Sant Joan de Labritja. In one of these centres, a genuine hippie rebellion took place, which ended in a confrontation between them and the Civil Guard, who had the support of the local population.
At that time, country houses were of little value to Ibizans. Most of them had no running water or electricity, but the hippies loved them. The local population took advantage of this to rent them out to the foreign population, who generally had a very high purchasing power.
One of them was Robert Jack Berg, an American engineer who had proclaimed himself as “the Christ of the hippies”. In 1971 he had rented a country house, Sa Rota, three kilometres from the centre of Santa Eulària, according to the historian José Luis Mir, who has documented it in the book Santa Eulalia Ibiza 1971: The rebellion of the hippies.
When summer came, hippies like Robert and others would sublet out rooms in houses, or even old yards, to pay rent or make a profit. Others would split the costs between them to pay rent and house maintenance, and would organize themselves to do household chores and farm work (some would grow their own food or buy chickens to eat the meat or eggs themselves). This is how hippie “communes” were formed.
Sa Rota was a nine-room house (between bedrooms and corrals) where the members of the hippie commune stayed, either in beds, sleeping bags or blankets on the floor. Robert ‘El Cristo’ was the legal tenant, along with two other Germans, who were gradually joined by more hippies. The owners accepted that more people came in on the condition that they “kept the house and surroundings clean.” So many arrived that they began to occupy the land surrounding the house because there was no more room inside.
Robert ‘El Cristo’ was the legal tenant of Sa Rota, a country house on the island. The owners agreed to allow new tenants to come in on the condition that they ‘kept the house and surroundings clean’. This is how a hippie commune was created. So many arrived that they began to occupy the land surrounding the house because there was no more room inside.
Theft, dirt and parties
The problems began as more and more hippies began to move into the house. “There was the biggest mess you could imagine. (…) They didn’t have a bathroom or anything, they did it anywhere, they pulled down their pants wherever they could and in front of anyone, both men and women,” as described by one of the neighbors who lived there. According to her, when they ran out of water, they went to the neighbors’ cistern.
“Now there is running water everywhere, but before the country houses only had water from their cisterns, and of course, in summer, you know, it rains very little, so you had to pay a tanker truck to bring it to you, and this cost money,” she says. According to her, when they ran out of food, they picked whatever they could from the surrounding fields: almonds, figs, carob beans… In addition, they were a nuisance until the early hours of the morning because “they spent a large part of the night making their own music, with cans, pans, what do I know.”
Little by little, the neighbours grew tired of the nuisance, thefts and disorder that the hippies of the commune were causing. On July 15th they decided to go to the authorities, either to the town hall or to the Civil Guard. Among the things they complained about, they claimed that they were stealing their fruit, causing damage to the crops, stealing water from the cisterns, and making music with cans, drums and other instruments until late at night, “disturbing those who had to get up early to go to work.”
The neighbors complained to the authorities because, according to their version, the hippies stole their fruit, caused damage to the crops, stole water from the cisterns, and until late at night made music with cans, drums and other instruments.
“They were often seen completely naked, both men and women, causing the corresponding scandal, forcing them to lock up their minor children so that they would not have to witness this immoral spectacle,” was stated in one of these complaints. Others, however, had to do with the lack of hygiene, since the hippies “did their business” in the field or around the houses. After the neighbours complained, the mayor promised that both the Municipal Police and the Civil Guard would go to the estate so that, if the complaints were true, it would be evicted. Three Civil Guards and two local police officers went to Sa Rota, however, the hippies ignored the requests of the local authorities to evict them. It is believed that there were more than 200 people when the estate was inspected on 16 July 1971.
In view of the fact that they were going to be evicted from Sa Rota, Robert Jack and other hippies proposed a farewell dinner at the country house. Those who could not attend due to lack of space stayed at the La Bota restaurant, located in the centre of Santa Eulària, where hippies from other parts of the island were invited. When the dinner was over, they gathered in a square on the main street, where the Civil Guard estimated that there were 300 hippies.
It was in this context that the problems really began. The hippies were very angry about the “eviction” of Sa Rota, so they began to enter shops in groups, stealing what they could, throwing firecrackers on the ground, spitting at passers-by and berating the elderly.
“They sat at the entrances to shops and did not let anyone in or out, lying on the pavements. (…) Women lifted their shirts, showed their breasts and their friends touched them in front of everyone, even children. They also urinated in the corners and in the doorways of houses, without any consideration,” describes a neighbour who experienced it. Despite the complaints, the hippies carried on as usual, and people became increasingly angry. In other, more unpleasant episodes, there were neighbours who had to intervene to rescue women or elderly people.
Among the crowd, for example, there was a very nervous woman sitting on the ground, whose skirt had been pushed and lifted. “I got into the van (…) and approached. It was difficult for me to get there because there were so many people in the way. (…) We carried the woman, who was shaking, but they had already surrounded us and wouldn’t let me out,” she says, so she had a lot of trouble getting out of the street. Meanwhile, the neighbours began to arm themselves with sticks and stones from a construction site opposite. They asked the Civil Guard for permission to charge against the hippies, who in turn responded that they could not authorise something like that. They were waiting to receive orders from the Command and the Government Delegation.
Reinforcements to suppress the “rebellion”
The reinforcements they needed were taking a long time to arrive because on July 16th the Virgin of Carmen, patron saint of sailors, is celebrated, so the civil and military authorities were concentrated in the port of the city of Eivissa. Hours later the captain of the Civil Guard, Férvida Cortés, arrived along with other reinforcements. With the help of the other civil guards they began to surround the square, but the hippies still did not obey the captain’s orders.
In this context, Férvida Cortés gave the order to charge against them. A stampede quickly ensued and they began to flee while being pursued by neighbours armed with sticks, as well as by agents of the Civil Guard. At first 27 hippies were arrested, while the rest fled into the mountains or hid wherever they could.
On the morning of July 17, volunteers accompanied the police to the country houses where they knew hippies lived in order to find the rest. House by house, they arrested more hippies who were then taken to the Guardia Civil barracks. “Raids were carried out throughout the night to find more. (…) We went to Sa Rota and didn’t find anyone, but in the forest near the house we found about ten or twelve hiding, lying on the ground, and we took them away,” explains Antonio Domínguez, one of the local police officers who witnessed the events.
That morning, another 18 hippies were arrested. “As we were tired of travelling with one another, we took their passports and sent them to the barracks. (…) After being questioned, they were let go, or, if there were signs that they had participated in the demonstration, they were arrested,” explains Emilio González, one of the Civil Guards who participated in the operation.
The operation was over by mid-morning. In total, 46 arrests were made. They were taken to the Court of Instruction and then imprisoned. During that day, the residents of Sa Rota also testified about the alleged harm caused to them by the hippies. That same night, the judge ordered that the detainees be taken to Palma to be placed at the disposal of the Special Court for Dangerousness and Social Rehabilitation, accused of public scandal, resistance to authority and assault, and held for a few days. On July 22, they were released.
The Civil Guard charged against the hippies. Accompanied by volunteers, they went to the country houses in search of the hippies. In total, there were 46 arrests.
One of the Civil Guards who witnessed all this, Emilio González, cannot understand how the events of July 17 could have taken place. “I still think about it and I can’t understand it,” he says. “The hippie life here was a quiet life. They didn’t usually bother anyone. Sometimes they were lying on the sidewalks or on the benches in the squares and, of course, if someone wanted to pass by or sit down, it was really annoying, because they didn’t even try to get up. They were people who were dressed the way they were and wore the clothes they wore, but some of them did have a certain culture,” he argues.
I still think about it and I can’t explain it. The hippie life here was a quiet life. They didn’t usually mess with anyone.
Emilio Gonzalez
— Civil Guard
In general, there were no problems. Agent González also remembers that many of the Ibizans who complained – rightly, he adds – about what the hippies did in those days had also done a lot of business with them. “There was Anita, from San Carlos, who had a good deal with the hippies. In her bar she kept their mail, did business for them, sold them French omelettes and salad, and that’s how she earned a good bit of money,” he remembers.
In those years, González recalls, they went to the beach of s’Aigua Blanca – very close to the centre of Sant Carles – where “they bathed naked, which was not allowed at that time”. “We went there, we watched them from the cliff and when they saw us they got dressed or left, but it was so normal”, he says. “They lived their life, their drum parties in Cala Boix on full moon nights (…). So, when that happened, the next day I thought: How could it have come to that?”, he asks himself.
Source: www.eldiario.es
