Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

When I was in my early teens my cousin Becky made a group of us sit down to watch a movie called Like Water for Chocolate. I remember the event vaguely but I remember the way the movie made me feel vividly. Though I've never known oppression like Tita, I strongly related to her character. So when I saw the book for sale at a used bookstore I was immediately drawn to the sole copy on the shelf. It was beat up and clearly read dozens of times over.

Each chapter begins with an authentic Mexican recipe and throughout the chapter Tita is cooking that recipe. Tita is the youngest of three daughters. She is also a great cook. She learned from early childhood. She takes great care in preparing the family’s meals, but somehow all her most passionate emotions flood into her cooking. Then all that eat her cooking will feel what she felt while she was cooking. Dinnertime can become quite dramatic, but Laura Esquivel manages to make it humorous at the same time. As the youngest daughter, tradition has it that Tita will live out her life only to be her mother’s caretaker or nurse until the day her mother dies. She cannot move away or marry. We can all agree that this is the dumbest tradition ever, but its one that is strictly enforced in Tita's family. Tita has a great love for Pedro, but Mama Elena denies their love. The older sister's are free to marry, so Pedro uses this as a way to stay close to Tita. All she can do is sit by and watch. But through the power of her cooking Tita tries to control the events around her. She fights desperately to break the tradition because she does not want to see her beloved niece follow in the same fate as her. The passion in Tita is explosive, literally. There is a lot of magic in this book but I think that is a use of symbolism for passion.

Even though I fell in love with this book I gave my copy away. It just so happens that my aunt Lydia came to visit shortly after I was done reading it. I gave the book to her inscribing "for my Aunt Lydia a book of traditions". She is probably the only one of my family members who enjoys reading the way that I do. I thought of her life, her oppressions growing up and even the ones she lives with now. Thank you Aunt Lydia for everything you've ever done for my family. You were there at many points in our lives when we needed family the most.