Pests and diseases: the influenza pandemic of 1918 and its sociocultural insertion in Spain

Abstract

The influenza pandemic of 1918 was perhaps the most significant and disastrous biological-social event of the 20th century, a product of the Great War or World War I, eliminating a considerable number of people in the world. This disease unjustly called "Spanish Flu" conditioned the daily life of many inhabitants, groups, towns, communities and societies, in which the Spanish community stood out, which despite its neutrality in the war was devastated by that phenomenon. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to make a brief approach to the sociocultural configuration that the Spanish society took after the first contact with the ill-named "Spanish Flu" or "Soldier of Naples" in 1918, where the aforementioned society generated all kinds of responses, interpretations and general reconfigurations that had an impact on the day to day, reflected in the press based on public and private spaces, ideals, conceptions, health, among others. Consequently, all kinds of responses were illustrated, which can be exemplified in the conformation of new habits or their maintenance.