Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquirel explores the lifestyle that many woman of Mexico were faced with during the Mexican Revolution around the years of 1910-1920. Published in 1989, the book gained so much support that a movie was produced to go along with it. Three years later, the book was translated to English and released in America. The film representation of this story also become increasingly popular. As a consequence of this publishing, many authors who had written similar stories of oppressed women also gained popularity during this time.
There are an incredible amount of differences between the world as described by this book and the one we are living in today. In following this story, the reader gathers invaluable insight into what differences between the genders was like in the early 20th century. The story begins with a young Tita who, from a very young age, has passionately enjoyed cooking and baking. Each chapter within the book involves a particular dish Tita is cooking, and these dishes symbolize and foreshadow what comes later in the chapter.
In addition, each dish she prepares has various seemingly magical effects on different individuals that consume it. Throughout the novel, she is presented with many hardships that she must overcome. She uses the main dish in each chapter as a way to express herself and cope with the evolving problems she faces. Throughout a large portion of the novel Tita experiences a powerful sense of seclusion, which results in a much stronger connection to her passion for cooking. This strong connection seems to be the cause of the magical properties of everything she cooks.
Another major theme of Esquirel’s novel is that the youngest woman in each family in Mexico could not offer their hand in marriage until the mother of the family passes away. This social norm brings about many challenges for the main character Tita De La Garza. Tita is in love with a young man Pedro. However, because she is the youngest in the family, she cannot join Pedro in a marriage ceremony, despite their powerful love. Pedro ends up marrying Tita’s sister, Rosaura, so that they may keep in contact with each other.
Pedro and Tita often whisper short words of love to each other, but as Rosaura sees more of this, she grows to dislike her sister as well. Tita’s cooking mentor, Nacha passes away and leaves Tita particularly lonesome, as she “was the last link in a chain of cooks who had been passing culinary secrets from generation to generation since ancient times” (Esquirel p. 48). Tita then goes about preparing a special meal in order to help cope with the loss of her dear Nacha, which was a stronger motherly figure in her life than her real mother.
This dinner brings out such incredibly strong emotions of love and passion that Tita’s sister, Gertrudis excuses herself to go rest. While taking a shower, the feelings of love brought about from the rose-petal dinner set fire to the showerhouse. Gertrudis is saved from the burning building by a passing by soldier, and the two run away together. Some time passes and Tita is then left with the responsibility of delivering her nephew, Pedro and Rosaura’s son, because the Mexican revolutionary war caused the family doctor to be locked in prison.
Rosaura is also unable to provide breast milk for Roberto, her son. This seems to be a cause of the dangerous unsupervised birthing process she endured. As a result of this lack of nutirition, Tita attempts to care for the child and grows particularly attached to this motherly role. When news comes that Pedro, Rosaura, and baby Roberto are planning a move to San Antonio in the United States, Tita’s hopes of being with Pedro and also continuing her care for Roberto are crushed. She falls into a deep depression and loses her passion and inspiration to cook.
Shortly after her sister and Pedro move to San Antonio, Roberto dies The family doctor, John Brown, sees how badly Tita feels about life and offers to let her live with him while she moves past the stages of grief of the trauma caused by Pedro and Rosaura’s move. Tita gains a sense of freedom and “never [wants] to live near Mama Elena again” (Esquirel p. 118). She plans a marriage with the doctor, but shortly after finds out her mother was attacked. She decided it’s best to go care for her mother in this time of need.
Mother Elena eventually dies and Tita is brought immense sadness once again, despite the ban on her marriage being lifted. Rosaura gives birth to a second child and Tita is again put into the role of caretaker. She uses her newfound freedom and independence as a woman to take a different approach with this second chance. John Brown comes to the ranch to ask for Pedro’s approval of Tita’s hand. That night while John is away, Pedro and Tita make love and this brings into question whether or not Tita can follow through with marrying John.
Gertrudis returns to the ranch and Tita has a talk with her about her relationship with Pedro. Mother Elena’s ghost appears and curses Tita because of her growing relationship with Pedro. This is the first time in the novel that Tita stands up for herself, as she yells back at the ghost of her mother “I know who 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! ” (Esquirel p. 199).
As a result of her declaration for independence, the ghost disappears, possibly symbolizing how important it is for women to speak their minds and stand up for freedom. Tita informs her fiance, John, that Pedro and herself had a sexual relationship while he was gone and he expresses that he still wishes to marry her, despite this. Tita and John do not marry, but instead Rosaura’s daughter and John Brown’s son plan to get married. Rosaura places the same curse on her daughter that Tita had to suffer through and this causes an argument between Tita and Rosaura.
Rosaura dies due a previous illness combined with the stress of this argument. This allows Dr. Brown’s son and Rosaura’s daughter to wed. After this wedding, Pedro and Tita are left the only two living on the ranch. After all this time Tita and Pedro express their love in the open and to its fullest extent. Much love emits from this union and sets the ranch on fire which leaves behind nothing more than a charred book of all Tita’s recipes upon the book’s end. Like Water for Chocolate portrays how gender inequality can dramatically affect a person’s life.
Tita’s life is full of loneliness and sadness due to the fact that she was the youngest woman in the family. Social norms during this time period stron dictated how women were “supposed” to act, and this took away the freedom for women to live how they desired. Because Tita was prevented from showing her true emotions through her entire life, she was never able to fully experience life at its greatest. This is a primary disadvantage many woman faced during this time period and many women are still in this position today.
This book represents this gender inequality very well. Objectification is something this novel also tries to bring attention to. There are many examples in which women are treated as objects and not given human traits. Most authority figures in Tita’s life such as her mother and Rosaura, Force Tita into certain roles, without questioning Tita’s feelings. From a very young age, Tita was forced into cooking for the family and was never given appreciation for it. She also had to nurture both of Rosaura’s children.
The most prominent example of this, though, is the fact that Tita cannot marry anyone until her mother dies. This gives Tita the notion that she is just a caretaker until her mother dies. This power dynamic is detrimental to any woman’s freedom. Despite this novel being a fictional one, the message can be interpreted as very real. However, this novel is full of positive ideas also, not just negative ones. There is a theme of the importance of women’s empowerment and how strong women can truly be.
Even though Tita suffered through such incredible difficulties growing up, she still managed to find love and happiness after much dedication, perseverance, and patience. The doctor, John Brown, represents the empowerment of women here and Tita represents the human rights movement. When people begin to support the movement for human rights, it flourishes and becomes much more rich and robust. This is similar to how Tita became a strong independent woman once someone showed faith in her. Laura Esquirel has done an excellent job in supporting the movement to improve human rights worldwide.
By telling a story that is touching and meaningful, she was able to give a very large number of people information and support a movement that was not well known during this time period. She also inspired many other authors to share their writings with human rights movement messages and symbolisms. With continued support from individuals like Esquirel, people of all genders will experience fair and unbiased treatment much faster and much more efficiently. Like Water for Chocolate will forever be remembered as a classic that puts into perspective just how unfairly the genders are treated in society.
