Hambre y pan duro. De los años de la autarquía a la gastronomía globalizada en ámbito español

Abstract

This article addresses four different ways in which food speaks to us: a surrealist approach in Buñuel’s cinema, table manners as discussed by Larra, the shortage of food and hunger that was an obsessive and persistent reality during the Spanish civil war and post-war period of the 20th century, or the recent sophistication and cosmopolitanism of Spanish cuisine due to the transformation of the country by the presence of immigrants. This study focuses on highlighting the passage from a culture of survival during the civil war and the Franco regime to one of greater abundance and sophistication with the arrival of democracy. The current recognition of Spain as one of the gastronomic destinations in the world modifies part of a historical and cultural past, which includes the ethnic transformation experienced by Spanish society. From the perspective of food studies, one can examine the relationships of the individual with food, and analyse how this association produces a large amount of information about a society.