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Whiteley, E “Like water for chocolate: the story of two women”, NAFF_Online 5.1 (2007): pp. 35-37.
Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate tells the story of Tita De La
Garza, the youngest daughter in a family living in Mexico at the turn of the
twentieth century. In the novel there are twelve chapters, each a "monthly
installment" and labeled with the months of the year. The monthly
installments feature a recipe to begin each chapter, and the preparation and
consumption of food accompanies the reader through Tita’s struggle to find
her independence and true love.
Like Water For Chocolate could be said to be the story of two women, Tita
and her mother, the formidable Mama Elena. Their battle against one
another is at the centre of the novel, with Tita, striving for love, freedom,
and individuality, while Mama Elena stands as the major obstacle to the
fulfillment of Tita’s goals. This mother-daughter relationship is fraught with
difficulty from the very beginning when Tita is brought into the world
prematurely after her father's sudden death. Mama Elena is no nurturing,
caring mother, and never displays any bond with Tita. However, through her
relationship with food, Tita finds an outlet for her emotions and the power to
nurture.
The world which Esquivel creates is that of the female dominated
household, with women confined by propriety to the domestic sphere and
men present only from time to time. The restrictions placed upon Tita are
not the patriarchal legacy of any of the males in the story but standards
created and perpetuated by other women.
Rose Lucas argues that Like Water for Chocolate is a novel that is
positioned 'within a shifting set of perspectives about North America, and
the various cultures, histories, geographies, genders and ethnicities which
constitute it' (1994, p. 65). The characters in Like Water for Chocolate are
set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917. During
this time, peasants and natives banded together under the leadership of
such legendary figures as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata in order to get
rid of the old dictatorship, revive democracy, and claim Mexico for the
average man and woman. Ms Esquivel uses the revolution to explore
themes of masculinity and gender identity, and show that liberty was not
just a goal of the revolution but for some of her characters too.
The expectation that children will strictly obey their parents reflects the
Mexican cultural influence. Tita’s oppression is also linked to Mexican
cultural expectations since her adherence to the rules directly dismisses her
own personal desires, such as her hopes for love and marriage, due to the
culture's customs. Mama Elena controls Tita's life, and bases most of her
decisions on her past experiences and on her personal knowledge. This
virtually condemns her youngest daughter to a life of loneliness and
imprisonment.
Initially, Tita's conduct is influenced by the culture, and she demonstrates
submissive behavior towards her mother. In the early nineteen hundreds, it
would have been considered outrageous to disobey the parental figures and
openly challenge them. This unwritten law/cultural principle takes a toll on
Tita and forces her to constantly acquiesce to her mother’s commands and
demands: "You don't have an opinion and that's all I want to hear about it.
For generations, not a single person in my family has ever questioned this
tradition, and no daughter of mine is going to be the one to start" (p. 11).
The first chapter begins the novel's exploration of duty, responsibility, and
tradition as they present Tita's main conflict. Tradition requires that she
reject Pedro's marriage proposal so she can stay at home and take care of
her widowed mother for the rest of her life. If she turns her back on this
tradition, she will not fulfill what society considers her responsibility to her
mother. Pedro then marries Tita's oldest sister, Rosaura, instead, but
informs his father that he has only married Rosaura so that he can remain
close to Tita. The couple lives there on the family ranch, which gives Pedro
the opportunity for contact with Tita. In comparison to the women of the
story, males appear almost weak, and Pedro somewhat hypocritical. When
he finally gets around to consummating his marriage, he informs God that:
‘Lord, this is not lust or lewdness, but to make a child to serve you”.
Lucas believes that the focus on food and cooking in both novel and film
suggests the possibilities of paradox: 'that is, it indicates the conventional
passage of a subjectivity through a social and epistemological system and it
also suggests the potential for that same process to signify transgression,
permeability, a breaking of the rules' (1994, p. 65).
The picture of pre-revolutionary Mexican women was of a woman who had
to live her life constantly in the shadow of men. These women were
consumed by family life, marriage, and the Catholic Church, and according
to Shirlene Soto (1990, p.31-32) lived silently behind their dominant male
counterparts. In 1884 (prior to the revolution) the government passed the
Mexican Civil Code. It dramatically restricted women's rights at home and at
work (Bush and Mumme, 1994, p351). Soto comments that the code
‘sustains an almost incredible inequality between the conditions of husband
and wife, restricts in an exaggerated and arbitrary manner those rights due
the woman, and…erases and nullifies her personality’ (qtd in Bush and
Mumme p. 351). In Like Water for Chocolate, it is Mama Elena who restricts
in an exaggerated and arbitrary manner.
Esquivel was born in 1951 in Mexico, the third of four children of Julio
Caesar Esquivel, a telegraph operator, and his wife, Josephina. In an
interview with Molly O'Neill in the New York Times, (qtd in Napierkowski,
2003) Esquivel explains her origins: 'I grew up in a modern home, but my
grandmother lived across the street in an old house that was built when
churches were illegal in Mexico. She had a chapel in the home, right
between the kitchen and dining room. The smell of nuts and chilies and
garlic got all mixed up with the smells from the chapel, my grandmother's
carnations, the liniments and healing herbs'. Perhaps here was Esquivel’s
first equation with food and rule-breaking.
The code was just one of the many inequalities women and other ethnic,
economic, political, or religious minorities suffered under the regime of
Porfirio Diaz (Bush and Mumme, 1994, p. 351). When the Mexican
Revolution of 1910-1920 arose to fight against the discrimination that Diaz
incorporated into his regime, women began to find a place for themselves. It
gave them the chance to control their own fate and live more public lives
successfully.
. . . when she first felt his hot gaze burning her skin. She turned
her head, and her eyes met Pedro’s. It was then she understood
how dough feels when it is plunged into boiling oil. The heat that
invaded her body was so real she was afraid she would start to
bubble—her face, her stomach, her heart, her breasts—like
batter, and unable to endure his gaze she lowered her eyes and
hastily crossed the room. . . (p.16)
The novel and film version both touch specifically upon differing cultural
traditions with regard to marriage. Tenenbaum comments that ‘In the United
States, there are many kinds of love, and marriage based solely on passion
is seen as quite a risky enterprise. In Mexico, however love is defined by
passion; whether it lasts an hour or a lifetime is of little consequence’ (1999,
p.170).
Throughout the film version of the novel there are sumptuous and sensual
shots of food and its preparation, conveying Tita’s passion, and almost the
smell of the food! Valdes (qtd in Dennard nd) comments that Tita expresses
her emotion and passion not through normal means of communication but
through the food she prepares. She is therefore able to consummate her
love with Pedro, thereby secretly breaking the rules, through the food she
serves: ‘This clearly is much more than communication through food or a
mere aphrodisiac; this is a form of sexual transubstantiation whereby the
rose petal sauce and the quail have been turned into the body of Tita'.
Tita is the youngest daughter of her family. The man she loves, Pedro
Muzquiz, comes to the family's ranch to ask for her hand in marriage.
However, because Tita is the youngest daughter she is forbidden by a
family tradition upheld by her tyrannical mother, Mama Elena to get married,
in order that she will be available to care for her mother in later life.
Tita and Pedro share an exceptional passion for one another, and Tita uses
food as a metaphor for the emotion she feels:
When she prepares a special meal using her recipe for Quail in Rose Petal
Sauce, Tita allows her emotions to overwhelm her. In the dish she uses
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rose petals, given to her by Pedro, as a main ingredient because Mama
Elena forbids her to have them. Tita holds the roses so tightly to her chest
that her blood and sweat and the rose petals all intermix. She extends so
much of herself in preparing the meal that her emotions are extended to the
other characters, and in particular to her sister Gertrudis.
Gertrudis becomes filled with passion and desire, even managing to set fire
to the shower curtain, and then flees the ranch into the arms of a
revolutionary soldier and riding off with him. She then works as a prostitute
for many years, unable to quench her desire. Though Tita prepares the
meal for the whole family, the Quail in Rose Petal Sauce is really only for
Pedro. With this meal they cross into a new system of communication, with
Gertrudis the unwitting medium through which the sexual energy is passed.
Lucas argues that what is interesting about food in this novel is the way that
it is used for 'a wide range of psychological investments and symbolic
significations' with food magically embodying the repressed desires of both
Tita and others (1994, pp.12-4). The magical realism in this novel is not
only used to exaggerate a specific point, but is also used for humour. Ibsen
(qtd in Dennard nd) describes Esquivel’s humour as 'women’s humour'
which consists of intimacy through support and healing, whereas 'men’s
humor' consists of domination of power and sexual joking. However, in the
case of Like Water for Chocolate the humour provided by the magical
events provides comic relief that takes the reader’s focus away from the
more depressing aspects of the novel. For example the mass nausea that
occurs on Rosaura’s wedding day as a result of Tita crying into the batter
helps us to get over the sad fact that Tita’s true love is marrying her sister.
Mama Elena is jealous of Tita and Pedro’s love, not because it is wrong, but
because it brings back her own past. She won’t allow Tita to be happy,
forbidding her from having the life that she wants and in order to do so,
forcing a ridiculous tradition upon her. In an interview with Claudia
Loewenstein (qtd in Dennard nd), Esquivel gives her view on Mama Elena:
'Mama Elena is a castrating woman because she is a product of a
castrating society. She is also a victim of repression but with all of her
strength she was unable to rebel against tradition'.
Ms Lucas believes that food is used as a model of the self (subjectivity)
which is both potentially transgressive and dissolving: 'We take in, process,
digest, refine and expel. Turning ourselves inside out we mate, defecate,
disgorge, feed, reproduce, produce ourselves' (1994, p.12). Napierkowski
(2003) comments that when Virginia Woolf argues in A Room of One’s Own
for an appropriate and pertinent place for a woman, she never mentions the
kitchen as a possible space in which her intellectual liberation from the
patriarchal system could be enacted: ‘At first glance, this area had always
been assigned to a wife, servant, daughter, slave, mother, grandmother,
sister or an aunt. For feminists, the kitchen has come to symbolize the
world that traditionally marginalized and limited a woman. It represents a
space associated with repetitive work, lacking any "real" creativity’.
However we soon see that the kitchen becomes a workshop for Tita to
express her emotions and seek her liberation.
Born in the kitchen, Tita has a unique understanding of food and she
acquires a central position in the household, linked to everyone else’s lives.
She prepares the food the household eats and in some ways she also
provides life. Certain dishes are prepared at certain times of the year or for
special occasions. After the food is produced, it has a texture, smell, shape,
taste and color unlike the others. These elements arouse the senses, which
can trigger emotions. Dennard (nd) comments that Ms Esquivel associates
certain dishes to love, lust, sickness, pregnancy, motherhood, and the
supernatural. Whoever controls the food, appears also to control all those
elements and in the novel this person is Tita.
Nancha, the family nanny and cook, represents the real mother figure to
Tita. Together they have a deep understanding of food, and a relationship
with it that the other characters in the novel are unfamiliar with. As Tita's
surrogate mother, Nancha teaches Tita her secrets and makes her the next
in line of great family cooks. Even from her birth, Tita had been part of the
cooking. Nancha had scooped up the salt left behind from the broken water
of Mama Elena after Tita’s birth and it was used by Nacha in the food for
months following, perhaps the beginning of Tita’s emotional connection to
the food she was destined to cook later in her life.
Rosaura unfortunately is the diametric opposite, as we see in the episode
where she attempts to cook for the family. She follows the same recipes
that Tita does. However, Rosaura has no emotional stake in the food and
everything tastes awful:
There was one day when Rosaura did attempt to cook. When
Tita tried nicely to give her some advice, Rosaura became
irritated and asked her to leave the kitchen. The rice was
obviously scorched, the meat dried out, the dessert burnt. But no
one at the table dared display the tiniest hint of displeasure, not
after Mama Elena had pointedly remarked: "As for the first meal
Rosaura has cooked it isn’t bad. Don’t you agree, Pedro?" . . . Of
course, that afternoon the whole family felt sick to their stomachs
(pp. 50-51).
Tita does not consciously set out to break the rules through her preparation
of food–she is only subconsciously aware of what she is doing. Ms Esquivel
uses magical realism to express some of the emotions that Tita puts into
her cooking—allowing them to assume a visible form. Dobrian (qtd in
Dennard nd) comments:
The kitchen becomes a veritable reservoir of creative and
magical events, in which the cook who possesses this talent
becomes artist, healer, and lover. Culinary activity involves not
just the combination of prescribed ingredients, but something
personal and creative emanating from the cook, a magical
quality which transforms the food and grants its powerful
properties that go beyond physical satisfaction to provide
spiritual nourishment as well.
Heat and fire are also used in the novel to express emotion. The title 'Like
water for chocolate', refers to the fact that water must be brought to the
brink of boiling several times before it is ready to be used in the making of
hot chocolate. Heat is a symbol for desire throughout the story, such as
when Gertrudis runs away from the ranch; Pedro's lustful gazing at Tita in
the shower; and his death after he makes love to Tita. Fire is used as a
symbol both of strength and a force of destruction.
Tita is also able to magically provide food herself when Rosaura gives birth
to baby Roberto, producing breast milk for him, while her sister is dry.
Sensing that Roberto is drawing Pedro and Tita closer together, Mama
Elena arranges for Rosaura's family to move to San Antonio, a separation
which devastates Tita. A short time later, news arrives that Roberto has
died, probably due to the fact he was taken from Tita’s care. His death
causes Tita to have a breakdown, and Mama Elena sends her to an
asylum. Dr John Brown takes pity on Tita and brings her to live in his
house, patiently nursing Tita back to health. Tita recovers and she decides
never to return to the ranch. No sooner has she made this choice than
Mama Elena is injured in a raid by rebel soldiers, forcing Tita to return.
Tita tries to care for her mother, but Mama Elena bitterly rejects Tita's good
will. She refuses Tita's cooking, claiming that it is poisoned. It is almost as if
Tita has placed poison in the food, not physically, but emotionally. Her
hatred for her mother results in the production of a poison-like flavor. On the
other hand, it can also be seen that Mama Elena tastes the bitterness in the
food due to her own emotions. Mama Elena is unable to expel her feelings
of jealousy and loathing for Tita. Kristine Ibsen (qtd in Dennard nd) feels
that this is the reason for the bitterness in the food: 'Elena’s bitterness
towards Tita leads her to taste poison in everything she eats; although she
finally consents to let Tita prepare her meals, she secretly expels the food
from her body with syrup of ipecac, and eventually dies from vomiting'.
Even though she is a cook and understands about appetite and satiation,
Tita too suffers an eating disorder–anorexia, brought about by her mother’s
cruelty. Chencha, the ranch maid helps her to recover with her soup and
also some words of wisdom: appetite and satiation let run wild is gluttony,
and gluttony kills. Lucas notes that Tita’s cooking is an art form through
which she can ‘inscribe and encode the desires which are rendered mute
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and illegitimate by her role as a dutiful daughter’ (1994, p.66). But she must
learn to control the power of her magic.
In the novel, Tita’s cooking has a profound outcome on the other
characters. The medical reason for Rosaura’s death is indigestion and gas.
Rosaura blames her flatulence and obesity on Tita’s cooking. She even
begs Tita to cook her special meals in order to accommodate her health
problems. Tita follows Rosaura’s request, but her body continues to
produce gas and she dies. Seeing the relationship that Tita and Pedro
share, hate and discontent fill her up slowly over time. Literally, she
balloons out until finally she is at bursting point, and suffocates on the gas
that she produces. If Tita had been responsible for the deaths of her mother
and sister, it could certainly be regarded as the most profound breaking of
the rules. However, Mama Elena and Rosaura ultimately are responsible for
their own demise.
The ghost of Mama Elena continues to haunt Tita, but finally she is able to
break the hold that Mama Elena has on her is when she acknowledges that
it is her life to live and hers alone. Tita screams at her mother’s ghost: ‘I
know who I am! I am a person who has a perfect right to live her life as she
pleases. Once and for all, leave me alone; I won’t put up with you! I hate
you! I hate you, I’ve always hated you!’ (p.199). With these words, the ghost
disappears, finally allowing Tita to experience freedom.
Feminist analysis of Like Water for Chocolate might possibly comment that
the story shows that gender roles that control women are only artificial and
historically based. The very fact that Tita even bothered to struggle for
independence could be viewed as a breaking of the rules. In Mexico in the
early1900s for Tita to defy her mother was clearly unthinkable, but she
managed through her cooking to magically find a way around the rules and
also a measure of justice. Like Water for Chocolate portrays the Mexican
culture as a unique lifestyle packed with cooking, love affairs, dramas, and
oppressed dreams. In the New York Times interview, (qtd in Napierkowski,
1998) Laura Esquivel commented that her ideas for the novel came out of
her own experiences in the kitchen: 'When I cook certain dishes, I smell my
grandmother's kitchen, my grandmother's smells. I thought: what a
wonderful way to tell a story'. The novel explains the title Like Water for
Chocolate as referring to the fact that water must be brought to the brink of
boiling several times before it is ready to be used in the making of hot
chocolate. However the film version leaves us wondering what it could
actually mean. Perhaps it describes how Tita must have suspected that her
life was going to play out – plain and colourless like water, instead of the
rich and satisfying chocolate-life she could have had.
References
Bush, D M & Mumme S P Gender and the Mexican Revolution Columbia
Press, University of South Carolina (1994)
Dennard, M E. The Encrypted Recipes in Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for
Chocolate. Viewed 10 April 2007
www.class.uidaho.edu/eng295_2/webwork/mackenzie_dennard/
Esquivel, L. Like Water for Chocolate. Doubleday, New York (1992)
Like Water for Chocolate. Alfonso Arau, Director. Mexico (1992)
Lucas, R. ‘Enchiladas or Tacos?: Families, Frontiers and Food in Like
Water for Chocolate’ Island 60.6 (1994)
Napierkowsi, M R. Literature of Developing Nations for Students (1998)
Viewed 12 April 2007 www.enotes.com/like-water/7737>
Soto, S. Emergence of Modern Mexican Woman: Her Participation in
Revolution and Struggle for Equality, 1910-1940. Ardern Press, Denver
(1990)
Tenenbaum, B A. ‘Why Tita Didn't Marry the Doctor, or Mexican History in
Like Water for Chocolate’ Mexico’s Cinema: A Century of Film and
Filmakers. Hershfield J & Maciel D, Editors. Scholarly Resources,
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