Franco's Famine : Malnutrition, Disease and Starvation in Post-Civil War Spain

"At least 200,000 people died from hunger or malnutrition-related diseases in Spain during the 1940s. This book provides a political explanation for the famine and brings together a broad range of academics based in Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia to achieve this. Topics include the political causes of the famine, the physical and social consequences, the ways Spaniards tried to survive, the regime's reluctance to accept international relief, the politics of cooking at a time of famine, and the memory of the famine. The volume challenges the silence and misrepresentation that still surround the famine. It reveals the reality of how people perished in Spain because the Francoist authorities instituted a policy of food self-sufficiency (or autarky ): a system of price regulation which placed restrictions on transport as well as food sales. The contributors trace the massive decline in food production which followed, the hoarding which took place on an enormous scale and the vast and deeply iniquitous black market that subsequently flourished at a time when salaries plunged to 50% below their levels in 1936: all contributing factors in the large-scale atrocity explored fully here for the first time."-- Provided by publisher Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Illustrations 8 Figures 8 Tables 8 Contributors 10 Acknowledgements 15 Introduction: Famine, not hunger? 16 The silencing of the famine 17 The famine 20 Overview of the chapters 25 Part I: Famine and malnutrition in Spain: Political and socio-economic conditions 32 Chapter 1: The famine that ‘never’ existed: Causes of the Spanish famine 34 Francoist explanations: War destruction, drought and international solation 35 The main cause: Autarkic policy 41 Chapter 2: Agricultural crisis and food crisis in early Francoism: Hunger seen through the lens of biophysics 51 Introduction 51 Sources and methods 52 Results: A long and deep food crisis 54 Exploring the causes of the food crisis 60 Conclusions 68 Chapter 3: Tracing the physical consequences of famine and malnutrition in Franco’s Spain1 72 Introduction 72 The economic context of the famine and its effects on height 73 Exploring the regional disparities and territorial differences 82 Conclusions 88 Part II: Famine, poverty and daily life 94 Chapter 4: Iniquitous famine: Marginalized mothers and children 96 Hunger in the Franco zone in the Civil War 97 Hunger in government territory in the Civil War 99 Post-war famine and disease in Franco’s prisons 101 Post-war famine, disease and child removal in everyday life 104 Conclusion 109 Chapter 5: When there was nothing. An ethnography of the years of hunger in post-war Extremadura: Memory and representation of scarcity 115 Extremadura: A land of the rich, the poor and day labourers 116 For some, ‘there was almost nothing’ 119 Memory and representations of a ‘hunger always of others’ 122 Chapter 6: ‘Pícaros De Posguerra’. Turning to crime to survive famine and malnutrition in early Francoism (1939–52) 129 ‘Lack of work and lack of bread’ 129 ‘Swarms of ragged and hungry children’: Post-war estraperlistas, smugglers and thieves 134 ‘For being hungry’: Subsistence, resistance and Eigensinn practices 139 ‘Not only vanquished and not always resistance’: Conclusions 142 Part III: International responses 150 Chapter 7: ‘Starving Spain’: International humanitarian responses to Franco’s famine 152 Understanding and addressing famine after the Civil War 154 Withdrawal and isolation 159 American food aid 164 Part IV: The politics of cooking 172 Chapter 8: The production of autarkic subjectivities: Food discourse in Franco’s Spain (1939–59) 174 Eat more oranges 176 A taste for rice 180 An appetite for culinary patriotism 187 Conclusion 189 Chapter 9: A recipe for rationing: Women, cooking and scarcity during the early Franco dictatorship, 1939–47 194 The food politics of the early Franco regime 197 Franco’s leftovers: Re-creating monotony of the meal 203 Those who can’t eat it, write It: Fantasy in cooking literature 208 Conclusion 212 Part V: Memories of malnutrition and famine 218 Chapter 10: Remembering the Spanish famine: Official discourse and the popular memory of hunger during Francoism 220 The construction of the official discourse of hunger 221 ‘La gente se quitaba el hambre a tortazos’:39 Popular memory of hunger 226 Conclusions 233 Bibliography 240 Introduction 240 Chapter 1 243 Chapter 2 246 Chapter 3 249 Chapter 4 254 Memoirs/Oral History 254 Monographs 254 Articles and Chapters 255 Chapter 5 256 Chapter 6 259 Chapter 7 261 Chapter 8 262 Chapter 9 264 Chapter 10 265 Index 270 Introduction: famine not hunger? / Miguel Ángel del Arco Blanco (University of Granada, Spain) and Peter Anderson (University of Leeds, UK) -- 1. Famine and malnutrition in Spain: political and socio-economic conditions, Miguel Ángel del Arco Blanco (University of Granada, Spain) -- 2. Agricultural crisis and food crisis in early francoism / Manuel González Molina, David Soto, Juan Infante and Antonio Herrera (all University Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain) -- 3. Tracing the physical consequences of famine and malnutrition through the generations / Javier Puche Gil (University of Zaragoza, Spain) -- 4. Ethnography and ideologies of scarcity: famine in post-war extremadura / David Conde Caballero, Lorenzo Mariano Juárez and Julián López García (all University of Extremadura, Spain) -- 5. Poor mothers and children succumb to malnutrition and famine during and after the Spanish Civil War / Peter Anderson (University of Leeds, UK) -- 6. Crime and surviving famine and malnutrition / Gloria Román Ruiz (University of Granada, Spain) -- 7. Starving Spain: international humanitarian responses to hunger under the Franco Regime / David Brydan (King's College London, UK) -- 8. Food discourse, Autarky and Franco's Spain (1939-1959) / Lara Bernadette Anderson (University of Melbourne, Australia) -- 9. A recipe for rationing women, cooking, malnutrition and famine, 1939-1952 / Suzanne Dunai (University of California, San Diego, USA) -- 10. Remembering malnutrition and famine in Spain / Claudio Hernández Burgos and Gloria Román Ruiz (both University of Granada, Spain) Introduction: Famine, not hunger? / Miguel Angel del Arco Blanco and Peter Anderson Part 1: Famine and malnutrition in Spain: Political and socio-economic conditions The famine that ‘never’ existed: Causes of the Spanish famine / Miguel Angel del Arco Blanco Agricultural crisis and food crisis in early Francoism: Hunger seen through the lens of biophysics / Manuel Gonzalez de Molina, David Soto Fernandez, Juan Infante Amate and Antonio Herrera Tracing the physical consequences of famine and malnutrition in Franco’s Spain / Jose Miguel Martinez-Carrion and Javier Puche Gil Part II: Famine, Poverty and daily life Iniquitous famine: Marginalized mothers and children / Peter Anderson When there was nothing. An ethnography of the years of hunger in post-war Extremadura: Memory and representation of scarcity / David Conde Caballero, Lorenzo Mariano Juarez and Julian Lopez Garcia ‘Picaros De Posguerra’. Turning to crime to survive famine and malnutrition in early Francoism (1939-52) / Gloria Roman Ruiz Part III: International responses ‘Starving Spain’: International humanitarian responses to Franco’s famine / David Brydan Part IV: The politics of cooking The production of autarkic subjectivities: Food discourse in Franco’s Spain (1939-59) / Lara Anderson A recipe for rationing: Women, cooking and scarcity during the early Franco dictatorship, 1939-47 / Suzanne Dunai Part V: Memories of malnutrition and famine Remembering the Spanish famine: Official discourse and the popular memory of hunger during Francoism / Claudio Hernandez Burgos and Gloria Roman Ruiz. "At least 200,000 people died from hunger or malnutrition-related diseases in Spain during the 1940s. This book provides a political explanation for the famine and brings together a broad range of academics based in Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia to achieve this. Topics include the political causes of the famine, the physical and social consequences, the ways Spaniards tried to survive, the regime's reluctance to accept international relief, the politics of cooking at a time of famine, and the memory of the famine. The volume challenges the silence and misrepresentation that still surround the famine. It reveals the reality of how people perished in Spain because the Francoist authorities instituted a policy of food self-sufficiency (or autarky): a system of price regulation which placed restrictions on transport as well as food sales. The contributors trace the massive decline in food production which followed, the hoarding which took place on an enormous scale and the vast and deeply iniquitous black market that subsequently flourished at a time when salaries plunged to 50% below their levels in 1936: all contributing factors in the large-scale atrocity explored fully here for the first time."-- prové de l'editor.