Puerto Pollensa (song)

(left) and Marilina Ross (right) photographed in 1982. Marilina Ross began her career as an actress in the 1960s and by 1975 was at her peak of popularity, thanks to her roles in Lautaro Murúa's acclaimed film La Raulito and the Alberto Migré-penned telenovela Piel naranja. The year before, she had made her debut as a recording artist with the album Estados de ánimo, fulfilling the "dream of her life". The estrangement from her loved ones and her country was very distressing for Ross, who defined the time in exile as the worst stage of her life. Ross composed "Puerto Pollensa" just before returning to her home country, referring to a love affair she had in the town of the same name located north of Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands. The recipient of the song is rumored to be the feminist writer Susana Torres Molina. Ross has said that the new love she found in Puerto Pollensa made her "climb out of the hole", and led her to return to Argentina, despite the fact that the dictatorship that had threatened her was still in power. Ross and singer Sandra Mihanovich met in late 1980 through their mutual friend Alejandro Doria, who invited the latter to a party at Emilio Alfaro's house to welcome Ross back to the country. Ross initially flatly refused, as it was an intimate gift she had never thought to release, but agreed when she insisted. Mihanovich was part of a new wave of musical acts that performed in a circuit of small bars centered in Buenos Aires, Since 1980, Mihanovich was a house act in Shams, a tea house turned pub in Belgrano that became an iconic venue of the 1980s. ==Composition==

"Puerto Pollensa" is a love song that tells the story of two people that overcome the fear that prevented them from being together. Although never explicitly, the lyrics subtly refer to a romantic encounter between two women, with some of the clues including the lyrics "Me nació este amor, sin que me diera cuenta yo/Tal vez el miedo no dejó que apareciera" (English: "This love was born without me realizing it/Maybe fear didn't let it appear") and the metaphor of a "seed that cannot see the light" (Spanish: "una semilla que no puede ver la luz"). What is commonly interpreted as the confirmation comes at the end of the song, with the oft-cited lyrics: "Y sin dormir nos fuimos a la playa y nos besamos descaradamente/Alucinando al gordito de gafas que fue corriendo a cambiarse los lentes" (English: "And without sleep we went to the beach and shamelessly kissed each other/Astounding the chubby guy that ran to change his glasses"). Ross has said that the lyrics in part refer to how she felt when assuming her sexual orientation, with lyrics that speak of "fear" and "panic", as well as the need to leave that behind. She explained: "At that time I was very consubstantial with the internal change. I thought the revolution had to go through your own head." ==Release and reception==

"Puerto Pollensa" was first released as a 7-inch single by Sandra Mihanovich in late 1981 on MICSA, a subsidiary of label Microfón, along with the Alejandro Lerner-penned song "Simple" as its B-side. To avoid censorship, Marilina Ross was credited under her legal name María Celina Parrondo. "Puerto Pollensa" was included as the title track of Mihanovich's second studio album, released in June 1982. Mihanovich is said to have been "at the right time with the right record", releasing the album a week before the war ended. Sandra en vivo (1998), and Creciendo: En vivo en el Ópera (2007). ==Marilina Ross version==

The success of Ross' live performances, as well as the good reception of Mihanovich's version of "Puerto Pollensa", were attractive to record companies eager for new materials. Her studio album Soles was released in November 1982 on Discos CBS and included her own version of "Puerto Pollensa", considered one of the highlights of the record. The album was produced by the songwriting duo Piero-José, Ross presented Soles with three concerts held on November 26, 27 and 28 at the Teatro Odeón, a show in which she combined music with monologues, jointly written with Susana Torres Molina. ==Legacy==

Considered the first Argentine popular song to thematize love between women, "Puerto Pollensa" became an enduring gay anthem, especially among the lesbian community, released at a time when the secrecy of non-heterosexual relationships was a source of shared codes and interpretations of cultural products. Journalist and activist Marta Dillon wrote in 2010 that "thirty years later lesbians of all ages continue singing the entire lyrics by heart". The song had an important role in the process of visibility of homosexuality that took place in Argentina after the return to democratic rule in 1983. Mihanovich has said that the song "served to make women love each other more". Advertisements in the 1990s activist periodical La Hora Lésbica show the existence of lesbian bars named after the song in Buenos Aires. Despite becoming icons of the burgeoning gay culture of 1980s Argentina, both Mihanovich and Ross refused to speak publicly about their non-heterosexuality for decades, although this was considered an open secret. Nevertheless, Mihanovich has said on several occasions that she does not consider herself an LGBT activist. She told La Capital in 2019: "I have had the fortune to say what I thought, what I felt, I had the consistent attitude for many years, like more or less everything I could say I could do, I have not been a great activist, I do not feel like an activist. I do feel that I was choosing songs and saying things that I felt and that this coincided with the feelings of many others. So I opened doors for me and opened doors for others as well. What more can one ask for." "Puerto Pollensa" is regarded as a classic. The Argentine edition of Rolling Stone and MTV ranked the song 83rd on their 2002 list of the "100 Hits of Argentine Rock". In 2019, Chilean musician Javiera Mena mentioned Sandra Mihanovich and the song "Puerto Pollensa" when asked about her "lesbian role models in music". ==Usage in media and cover versions==

"Puerto Pollensa" was featured in the 2002 hit television series Los simuladores as a favorite song of Martín Seefeld, a main character played by Gabriel David Medina. Italian singer Iva Zanicchi covered "Puerto Pollensa" and included it as the closing track of her 1982 Spanish-language album Yo, por amarte. It was also recorded under the title "Renació este amor" by Puerto Rican singer Sophy in 1983, as part of her album Compárame. In 2017, the Argentine duo Ibiza Pareo released a cover version of the song. ==Charts==

Credits adapted from the liner notes of the album Puerto Pollensa. • Sandra Mihanovich – vocals • Ricardo Kleinman – producer • Damián Figueroa – arrangement, orchestral conducting, guitar • Iván Mihanovich – keyboards • Enrique "Quique" Conte – bass • Jorge "Cacho" Patrono – drums ==See also==