Deseado Mercadal Bagur (1911–2000) is remembered in Menorca above all as a musician and for his links with UD Mahón. A new book by journalist Tomàs Andújar, On s’acaba l’aigua (Where the water ends), focuses on a much less-known chapter of his life: the Civil War, internment in North Africa and a long exile.
Reporter during the war
When the Civil War broke out in 1936, Menorca remained loyal to the Republic. Mercadal became a journalist for Justicia Social, the newspaper of the Socialist Party on the island, and was also a leader in the UGT trade union. His articles offer a valuable record of daily life, political debate and the hopes of those who supported the Republic during the conflict.
The camp at Kenadsa
When the war ended in 1939, many Republicans fled Menorca by sea. Mercadal ended up in French North Africa, where he was interned at the Kenadsa camp, in Algeria — one of several camps in which thousands of Spanish Republicans were held in harsh conditions, with forced labour, hunger and disease.
He later wrote about his experiences there, leaving one of the few detailed testimonies of the North African camps, a chapter of the Republican exile that remains much less known than the camps in southern France.
Decades of exile
Mercadal spent decades in exile before finally returning to Menorca in 1965. Andújar regards this period as the most important of his life, and the book sets out to bring it to a wider audience.
The author
Tomàs Andújar is a journalist and heads the Efe news agency’s office in the Balearic Islands. On s’acaba l’aigua is his first book. Drawing on Mercadal’s writings, documents and testimonies, it reconstructs the path of a man whose public image as a musician concealed a dramatic personal history.
Why it matters
Books like this help recover the memory of the thousands of Balearic men and women who were imprisoned or forced into exile after the Civil War. Personal stories make large historical events easier to understand — and Mercadal’s, which combines music, sport, journalism, war and exile, is a reminder of how much history can lie behind a familiar name.
