Objectives:

this article examines the nutritional crisis and the social gap during Franco's autarky. It considers the municipality of Hellín (Castilla-La Mancha), prototype of traditional agrarian population.

Methods:

use the stature of 8,947 men measured at ages 20-21 years between the military recruits of 1930-1969. Analyze the differences in height by rural-urban residence, education and occupation. The professions are grouped according to the Hisco-Hisclass methodology in five large groups.

Results:

the height per year of replacement registered a deterioration at the end of the Civil War and stagnated until 1953. The highest value of the 1930 decade (1937) did not recover until 1960. The rural-urban gap was barely significant, although the average of the urban height was in values ​​slightly higher than the rural one and it increased for those born in the autarky. The illiterates were lower than the literate and their differences increased for those who lived their initial adolescence between 1930 and 1955. The deterioration of height in the 1940s was higher for less skilled workers and agricultural day laborers, lower for farmers (farmers) and, barely significant for more skilled non-manual workers, including elites. This group was the one that most progressed in physical well-being between 1930 and 1960.

Conclusions:

the nutritional status worsened for those who lived through the beginning of their adolescence in the 30s and 40s. The social gap, including the educational one, increased during the 1940s. Nutritional inequality increased in the Francoist autarchy.

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