Ignacio Fernández de Mata

When we listen to the echoes of the past, we can hear the voices of those who lost their lives in the Spanish Civil War or during the Francoist repression. But we can also detect the voices of the people and families who suffered economic marginalization in the ‘hunger years’ (1939-1950). This project studies both these years and the 1950s.

Both decades deserve to be carefully studied: the 1940s because they gave birth to many of the Franco regime’s myths that still survive today. These myths both obscure the scale of the tragedy and hide the regime’s responsibility for the tragedy. For their part, the 1950s deserve attention because they have remained somewhat neglected by scholars. This is neglect is particularly marked in the realm of sociocultural history. Instead, the decade continues to be understood in the terms trumpeted by the Franco regime at the time: as a mere transition period between the dark years of the post-war years and the successful years of economic development.

While the study of Spain in the 1940s and 1950s has been understudied or poorly represented, the wider literature of the European continent has paid growing attention to famine (Ireland, the Ukraine, Greece, the Netherlands, etc.). Researchers have also produced pioneering studies of the reconstruction of European societies after the catastrophe of war. The project History and Memory of Hunger: society, everyday life, social attitudes and politics during the Franco dictatorship (1939-1959) (from now on MEMOHAMBRE), sets out both to integrate the Spanish case within this wider European literature and to generate new historical knowledge for present and future society.

MEMOHAMBRE has three major objectives. Firstly, to place ‘hunger’ centre stage in the analysis of post-war Francoism (1939-1950).  We will study the famine that marked out this decade and other topics which have also been relatively neglected by specialists such as everyday life and the social policies developed by the ‘New State’. Secondly, bearing in mind both the importance and neglect of the 1950s, we will examine socio-economic and demographic aspects of this decade as well as the drives behind and the consequences of the regime’s social policies. Thirdly, we will introduce the role of memory in the study of the two decades. We will explain the politics of memory at the local level and we will explore the social memory of the ‘hunger years’, understood as a key element in the creation of future social attitudes.

MEMOHAMBRE builds on the achievements of a number of earlier research projects and brings together a team of twelve Spanish and international researchers, some of great academic renown. The team will draw on social and cultural history and a number of interdisciplinary concepts and methods from history, anthropology, economics and sociology. To achieve its aims, the team will adopt a variety of local, regional and national perspectives, to which it will apply insights derived from the wider historiography of famine in twentieth-century Europe.

Our project aspires to benefit the society it serves. It will make its findings available internationally, through conferences and seminars. The research findings will also be published in respected national and international journals. It will further seek to reach beyond the academy. Here the aim is to create new understanding and recognition of a particularly difficult period. These findings will offer a mirror for today’s society to examine itself and to confront problems that face us today.