Writer born in Las Arenas (Bizkaia) on July 15, 1921 and died on July 1, 2002.
Belonging to a family of sailors and shipowners, he entered the San Fernando Military School, graduating as a lieutenant in the Navy. He studied at Oxford University and earned a law degree from the University of Madrid. His life as a military sailor was short-lived, and he himself apparently remembers it without much nostalgia. Around 1948, on the occasion of some so-called historical walks along the coast of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, he gave a talk on Basque corsairs and ended by mentioning the crews of the ships "Nafarroa," "Araba," and "Bizkaia" as the last corsairs, saying that bravery and honor were not the only thing that stood out among the victors. This earned him an initial reprimand from his superiors. Those years as a naval officer meant years of sailing at sea and writing on land. He was never fond of writing on voyages.
His first book was a series of chronicles from London published at that time in La Gaceta del Norte . It was titled A Bilbao in London (1949), with a prologue by Julian Zuazagoitia . This was followed by Essay on Argentina (1955) and Deep Sea (1958), his first novel and a finalist for the Nadal Prize. A story of life on those cod fishing boats that travelled, in pairs, to the coasts of Newfoundland, their only connection being the radio, which takes on the role of a human character in the novel, acting the two skippers of the boats. Road to Rome (1956) followed the path of the 16th century Spanish picaresque novel, somewhat in the vein of the then recently published Journey to Alcarria . But the next one descended to the world of the living, or perhaps the dead. Black Flag , published in 1959, refers to the flag raised when someone was uted by garroting. Menchaca, a political prisoner, witnessed the ution of a poor individual, more a victim of circumstances than guilty of his actions.
Already in the 1960s, after many problems and an imprisonment, he was administratively discharged from the Navy, with no possibility of defending himself in court. His expulsion from the Navy forced Ant n Menchaca to dedicate himself to the family business as manager of the Antonio Menchaca y C a. shipping company in Bilbao. It also meant that his literary activity was somewhat on the back burner. During those years, political texts rather than purely literary ones saw the light of day, such as El Tercer Camino (The Third Way ), in which he expounded his vision of social democracy, "then," as he himself points out, as a political path. Other essays from these years include Cara a España (Facing Spain) (1957), El Tercer Camino (The Third Way) (1959), Hoy, ayer y mañana ( Today, Yesterday and Tomorrow) (1962), and La URSS hoy (The USSR Today ) (1968), which deal with a trip to the USSR and address ideological and sociopolitical themes. His political activity focused primarily on the founding of Cuadernos para el dilogo (Notebooks for Dialogue) , launched by Joaquín Ruiz Jiménez, whose first issue appeared in July 1964. He served as vice president of the sponsoring group and supported the publication throughout its existence. He was the first president of the Nuevo Ateneo (New Athenaeum) in the capital of Biscay. A Knight of the Order of Malta, he was a member of the Royal Basque Society of Friends of the Country, the Cultural Board of Biscay, the Spanish Association for European Cooperation, and president of the "El Sitio" Society. During the 1970s, the economic crisis and the vicissitudes of Basque politics, so magnificently described by him later, brought his business to a halt. After selling the shipping company he ran, he was able to once again devote himself to literature. Luc a Toledano (unpublished) is a novel that takes us back to the immediate post-war period. The Ashes of Splendor (1986) masterfully summarizes the birth, development, splendor, decline, and death of his native Neguri through an imaginary Marchioness of Avendao who gradually recounts her memories. Since Unamuno's Paz en la guerra (Peace in the War) , it would be difficult to find a chronicle as faithful, elegant, and fresh as this fascinating account by Menchaca, which is a true record of the evolution of Bilbao society since the beginning of the century.