Alimentação, comida e sensibilidades na história da Força Expedicionária Brasileira (1934-1945)

Abstract

This dissertation is anchored in the field of the History of Food. In it, we aim to understand how food presented itself in two different moments in the history of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) (formation and implementation). Considering the period (space/time) that begins in Brazil in 1934 and ends in Italian territory in 1945. The sources we use are from different typologies (Food surveys; decree-laws; Constitutional Letters; chronicles, photographs, and oral reports) those were undergone to a methodological effort guided by the exercise of interdisciplinarity (PETERSEN, 2009) and the “Patchwork” method developed by Alessandro Portelli (1996) for Oral History. The interdisciplinarity also made it possible for us to reuse memorialistic sources as methodology (RODEGHERO; MACHADO, 2017). Agreements signed between the Brazilian and American governments marked the history of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force. Two countries with very different realities, situation highlighted by the food and the feeding. The troop formation process suffered problems due to the Brazilian population's food insecurity. Brazil's inexperience in war events coupled with the neglect of the Brazilian Army with the food it provided to its troops, resulted in difficulties for the military who were sent to World War II. Not only they failed to offer them safe or nutritionally adequate food, but also it lacked identity and cultural values. The FEB military period in the war was branded by feelings of homesickness, family members and Brazilian food nostalgia, that brought about prescribed memories (WORTMAN, 2016), providing a well-being feeling. Sensitivities (PESAVENTO, 2005) also marked the memories that Italian expeditionary and civilians built about the relationships they established during the war. Therefore, the “voice of the food” (AMON, 2014) emanated from the memorial reports and from the other sources used, ended up stating the presence of different perspectives of food during the process of formation and implementation of FEB in WWII.