UC San Diego

This dissertation examines the social consequences of the food policies adopted in Spain during the early Franco dictatorship (1939-1952), a period marked by food shortage and political terror. Many scholars assert that Spaniards became apolitical and sought survival rather than political engagement with the violent and fascist regime. To revise this, I selected one of the most marginalized groups of Spanish society—Spanish housewives—to show that far from retreating into the home or resigning themselves to the repression and coercion of the dictatorship, Spaniards sought new strategies of political engagement with the regime, even when traditional rights and oftentimes human rights had been stripped away. Shopping, cooking, and eating provided housewives an avenue to resist, acquiesce, or ignore the food policies of the dictatorship. Through food habits practiced in everyday life, I demonstrate that women challenged the regime via its food policies, elucidating a previously overlooked form of civic engagement and political activism during the hunger years.