Echoes of famine: Effects of the embodied memories of the Spanish Hunger Years (1939–1952) on survivors’ subsequent food practices and attitudes

Abstract

This article explores the echoes that resonate in the present of the embodied memories of the Spanish Hunger Years (1939–1952) during the post-war period of Franco’s dictatorship. More specifically, it analyses both the bodily and mental effects of those traumatic memories on the survivors’ subsequent dietary practices and their perceptions of the socio-political reality. For this purpose, the study relies on the first-hand personal memories of those who were children during the 1940s. It is argued that there are continuities between these embodied memories and the eating habits of the survivors and their attitudes towards subsequent periods of prosperity and crisis.