La nacionalización del hogar en España

Abstract

The nationalization of the domestic sphere in Spain is a topic that has been largely ignored. Recently, the interest in the study of banal nationalism and the impact of nationalism on everyday life has been on the rise, particularly for the Francoist and democratic era; however, its origins are not clear at all. An examination of developments in domestic architecture, interior decoration, and even gardening shows that the domestic sphere was nationalized during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Regionalist architecture was in vogue for villas and country-houses and furniture was increasingly modeled after local artisanal traditions. Domestic practices such as cooking, consuming, and cleaning were also increasingly connected with supposedly "national" traditions. During this period Spanish cuisine and many of its regional dishes were "invented". The first phase of the nationalization of the domestic sphere in Spain is analyzed using a wide array of primary sources (press, manuals, speeches, etc.), thus contributing to the history of nationalism, gender studies, the history of architecture, and food studies, which by focusing on modernization processes largely disregarded this profound nationalization of the private sphere. RESUMENLa nacionalización del hogar en España es un tema todavía sin estudiar. Recientemente ha aumentado el interés por el estudio del nacionalismo banal y el impacto del nacionalismo en la vida cotidiana, sobre todo durante el franquismo y la democracia. Sin embargo, sus origines no están nada claras. Analizando la arquitectura doméstica, la decoración interior, e incluso la jardinería se pone de manifiesto que el espacio doméstico se nacionalizó durante las tres primeras décadas del siglo XX. La arquitectura regionalista se puso de moda para las villas y casas de campo y los muebles se inspiraron cada vez más en la artesanía tradicional. Lo mismo ocurrió con prácticas domésticas como la cocina, el consumo, y la limpieza. De este modo se "inventaron" la cocina española y los platos regionales. A partir de fuentes heterogéneas como la prensa, manuales, y discursos, esbozamos la nacionalización del hogar en España en su fase inicial, contribuyendo de esta manera a la historia del nacionalismo, los estudios de género, la historia de la arquitectura, y los estudios de la alimentación, que por centrarse tanto en los procesos de modernización ignoraron casi por completo esta nacionalización de la esfera privada.

The nationalisation of the domestic sphere

“…The intimate connection between food, soil and popular customs gave Spanish cooking its unique character: ‘The Spanish cuisine could be praised for its strong and clear flavours and lacks ambiguous sauces and seasonings’. It had adapted itself perfectly to the products of the Spanish soil and the customs of the inhabitants and therefore ‘the foundation of our table should be, by natural law, Spanish’ (Pardo Bazán : III‐VI; see also Storm forthcoming).…”