Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Journal Title

Cincinnati Romance Review

Volume Number

33

First Page

78

Last Page

97

Version

Publisher PDF: the final published version of the article, with professional formatting and typesetting

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND License.

Abstract

In July of 1924 Spanish vanguardist Ramón Gómez de la Serna published “El primer mapa gastronómico de España” in the humor weekly Buen humor (1921-1931). Although Ramón’s map locates and catalogues Spain’s alimentary wealth and diversity, his accompanying vignette mockingly deconstructs the supposed objectivity of the map and the cartographic authority of its creator, the “cartógrafo gastronómico.” This study places Ramón’s commentary and map in the historical and social context of 1920s Spain, a period during which two very different lifestyles co-existed in the same Spanish “nation.” Ramón’s cartógrafo exists at the margins of both versions of Spain. Ramón’s mocking of the cartógrafo to provoke the laughter of his readership serves as a social critique of the Spanish nation-building project as it ultimately subverts and undermines the Spanishness of Spanish cuisine and gastronomy. In his description of the cartógrafo’s mission, Ramón demonstrates the failure of a singular Spanish identity based on “liberal national” citizenship (Álvarez Junco 83).

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