Baltasar Porcel portrayed in El emperador o l’ull del vent one of the most tragic events in the history of Mallorca, based on the tragic events that occurred on the island of Cabrera during the Napoleonic wars.

Now, in 1848, I am almost sixty, while in 1809 I was twenty. It was then that my potential happiness, together with the hope that fuelled it, sank on that deserted Balearic Island, ghostly Cabrera, and, in contrast, since then I have clung on to all the insignificant everyday trivialities within my grasp. I am literally a mouse that confuses any noise whatsoever with danger, rushing to take refuge in its little hiding place.

My memories of Cabrera are the continuous harsh screeching of the seagulls flapping in the sky, as if ogres had sent them from the heavens to threaten us, the air full of salt, an invisible tangible maliciousness, the sea’s obsessive magnificence, like throats in dreams (as if the waters might part at any point and sink their teeth into you), the dreadful human stench… When you drew close to someone, their breath, genitals and hands stank. You recognized everyone by their personal stench, more than by their features, which everyone had lost in their haggard feverish state, or by voices now transformed into hoarse babbling. And I remember Gérard de Fleury, a whirlwind...

L’emperador o L’ull del vent, 2001

Translated by Rachel Waters.

(Andratx, 1937 - Barcelona, 2009). Baltasar Porcel wrote novels, short stories, travel literature, opinion columns, interviews and theatre plays. In 1960, he moved from Andratx to Barcelona, devoting himself fully to writing. Particularly worthy of mention during this early period are his interviews in the magazines Serra d’Or and Destino. Although he made his début as a writer with a play, Els condemnats, Porcel mainly focused on narrative literature. Man and his passions are a central theme of his novels. These are set in a variety of places, although Andratx, the town of his birth, is an important source of inspiration. In his novels, Andratx can be identified with the fictional town of Solnegre, portrayed as a traditional world and backdrop for a rural and maritime fiction that serves to explore the huge change that the Balearics have undergone over the last fifty years. La lluna i el cala Llamp (The Moon and the Cala Llamp) is a tragic story of seafaring men who struggle to survive in a world of poverty.

A tireless traveller, Porcel also described other places, above all Barcelona, although he also wrote accounts of his stays and experiences elsewhere, particularly in the Mediterranean. Porcel is one of the most powerful voices in 20th century Catalan literature and his work was singled out to receive leading Catalan literature awards. The writer died in Barcelona in 2009.

Cabrera Maritime-Terrestrial National Park is today one of Mallorca’s most emblematic attractions, thanks to its natural, historical, ethnographic and archaeological importance. In the 19th century, during the Spanish War of Independence (part of the Peninsular War), prisoners from the defeated Napoleonic army were imprisoned there. A monument and the remains of huts are a reminder of that historical episode when, from 1809 to 1914, Cabrera was transformed into a bleak jail. Later, at the end of the century, it became private property. Houses were built and land was used to grow vines and for the construction of a winery. Other features worth mentioning are its 15th century castle and Enciola lighthouse. In the early 20th century, the archipelago was expropriated. It was not declared a national park until 1991.