Like Water for Chocolate

“Taco USA: How Mexican Food Became More American Than Apple Pie” was written in 2012 by Gustavo Arellano, a prolific food author for the Orange County newspaper OC Weekly. This article originally appeared as an online publication in Reason Magazine. Arellano has written books about Mexican food and its role in the American experience. His writings explain how this genre of cuisine has evolved and transformed as it has spread geographically throughout the United States. Growing up in Orange County California with two Hispanic parents, Arellano experienced firsthand the transformation of traditional Mexican dishes into the tex-mex that most American families are familiar with today. The online news site, Reason Magazine, originally published this article to accommodate to an audience of readers who want to be informed but also entertained by the news. These readers care about what is happening in society but are not considered scholars on the topics presented. Although the readers of Reason Magazine might not have any formal knowledge about food and its role in culture, all of them have experienced the importance of a meal in their everyday lives. The author uses the experience and background of his audience to show them the importance and prevalence of Mexican food in the American culture. In “Taco USA” Arellano uses personal stories, ethnic language, and historical information to show his

The images in the movie relate very closely to the amusing feeling the book gives us, giving us a high angle on the guests and long shots, showing us collectively how everyone was crying. At that night Nacha dies, and shatters Titas world. Later on Pedro gives Tita roses, and she decides to make quail in rose. The passion dripped from her to the dish, and made Gertrudis the older sister think of sinful thoughts. The aroma arousing from her reaches to a soldier Juan, who was Gertrudis dream, the moment is described magically: “A pink clod floated toward him, wrapped itself around him…naked as she was, luminous, glowing with energy… without slowing his gallop, so as not to waste a moment, he leaned over, put his arm around her waist, and lifted her onto the horse in front of him, face to face” (pg 55-56). The movie draws a great parallel here, the picture is blurry a little as if it is a dream, and for the first time in the movie, which is very dimly lit and poorly lighted, the picture is bright, with a flowing movement of the two as they disappear. One of the most significant moments in the book is when Tita delivers Rosauras baby Roberto, the thing she loved the most. In the movie however, the whole phase of taking care of Roberto in the kitchen and feeding him is very brief, which is very confusing for later scenes. As mama Elena senses that Pedro and Tita might have an affair going on, she sends them to one of her relatives in the United States.

This paper looks to define and explore three books which are a crux to various food histories which in the last decade has become a scholarly journey as food history is becoming increasingly studied as a scholarly endeavor by historians where previously it was not seen in such a scholarly light. The three texts which are going to be examined are: Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food by Jeffery M. Pilcher, The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture by Rebecca L. Spang, and lastly To Live and Dine in Dixie: The Evolution of Urban Food Culture in the Jim Crow South by Angela Jill Cooley. Each of these books seek to redefine how people see their perspective topics whether it be Mexican identity rooted in cuisine, the evolution of southern food in a racially divided south, or even the concept of the restaurant emerging from a revolutionary culture. These texts bring awareness to various topics which have both social, cultural, and economic stigmas associated with them.

Jeffrey M. Pilcher is a food writer, professor of History at the University of Minnesota, and author of several award-winning works. In his book !Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (1998), Pilcher explains that every society creates for themselves a cuisine, a set of foods that the people

The title of this novel, Like Water for Chocolate, is also a simile for the burning passion Tita and Pedro had for each other. In Latin countries, “like water for chocolate” mean to boil water to the right temperature in order to make chocolate milk. Figuratively it is a metaphor for state of sexual arousal. Despite their true love for each other, Tita and Pedro had to restrain their feelings under the eyes of society. Their love is like the boiling point of water.

Tita surrenders her love for her the value of family and in doing so, she begins to put a greater value into her cooking. For instance, in the writing, it states that “Soups can cure any illness, whether physical or mental. (7, 410)” This quote was embedded to show that the meal could help cure Tita even in her darkest

Food and family tradition are important for this story, since the food is seen as a way of communication and family tradition as an obstacle within Tita’s life. Ever since she had been born, her closeness to food was seen from that very moment. In the first "scene" of the book, this can be seen. “Tita made her entrance into this world, prematurely, right there on the kitchen table amid the smells of simmering noodle soup, thyme, bay leaves, and cilantro, steamed milk, garlic, and of course, onion” (Esquivel, 5-6). This shows how she connects to food, and this connection only grows more throughout the story. Although, later on Tita is able to mix her own feelings within her food preparation helping her communicate what she feels. When she is cooking is also gets emotionally involved, therefore this lets her mix her feelings in the recipe as well.

Powerful as it is popular, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel has been inspiring strength in women for nearly three decades. A politician, novelist, screenwriter and a teacher, Esquivel has lived a full life of experiences. Her first book and most popular, Like Water for Chocolate followed the life of Tita de la Garza, the youngest daughter in the family thus forced to obey the law laid out by matriarch of the de la Garza clan, Mama Elena. These laws subjected Tita to become the dove in the cage, struggling to break free and live her life. Through the deft

So after everyone left, Pedro and Tita walked back to the dark room peacefully and finally made love. Thus, as a result the heat between the characters was due to Titas desires being poured into her cooking.

Following, we learn that Mama Elena has no milk to feed Tita, which makes Nacha, the family cook - her official caretaker as she replaces Mama Elena. This is important to point out because the initial separation of the two main characters is quite evident; there is no mother-daughter bond that should have been established, Mama Elena doesn’t have time to worry about her, “without having to worry about feeding a newborn baby on top of everything else.” (7) We grow to understand why Tita forms other vital bonds with Nacha, and of course the food that surrounds her daily, helping her not only to grow but acts as an outlet for her emotions. “From that day on, Tita’s domain was the kitchen…this explains the sixth sense Tita developed about everything concerning food.” (7) From the beginning, Tita is given barely any freedom, she is given a purpose, she will not marry anyone until Mama Elena is alive, she is to look after her, which becomes a great conflict when the love of her life, Pedro, is to marry her sister, Rosaura, and not her. Mama Elena wants to hear nothing about Tita’s frustration. Mama Elena herself has lost her true love and because of it is insensitive to Tita’s love with Pedro. The reaction of each woman to her predicament helps explain the opposite characters. Mama Elena lets the loss of her young love turn into hatred for anything but tradition, and

An oppressed soul finds means to escape through the preparation of food in the novel, Like Water for Chocolate (1992). Written by Laura Esquivel, the story is set in revolutionary Mexico at the turn of the century. Tita, the young heroine, is living on her family’s ranch with her two older sisters, her overbearing mother, and Nacha, the family cook and Tita’s surrogate mother. At a very young age, Tita is instilled with a deep love for food "for Tita, the joy of living was wrapped up in the delights of food" (7). The sudden death of Tita's father, left Tita's mother's unable to nurse the infant Tita due to shock and grief. Therefore Nacha, "who [knows]

From the very first page of Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate it is clear that the real world in which her characters inhabit shall be greatly exaggerated. When Esquivel's narrator describes Tita as being so sensitive to onions that “when she was still in my great-grandmother's belly her sobs were so loud that even Nacha, the cook, who was half deaf, could hear them easily.” (Esquivel, p. 5) the reader encounters something at once refreshing, as is always the case when one experiences the supernatural where least expected, and yet ancient at the same time. While Esquivel could have attempted to tell her story, really the tale of a (mostly) unrequited love, in a straightforward manner, the casual inclusion of the extraordinary places it immediately in the tradition of magical realism.

Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel explains women’s roles in northern Mexico during the turn of the nineteenth century. The novel takes place in northern Mexico on a family ranch where many family traditions are carried out. Also, the novel describes some of the typical foods that were prepared and fiestas that were celebrated in the Mexican culture around this time. However, the novel mainly focuses on the roles of females in Mexican society at that time. The novel goes beyond explaining women’s roles and also explains what took place in the Mexican family. Throughout the novel, readers learn the role of mothers, the conflict between personal desires and tradition, and typical foods, celebrations, and family traditions that were

From the day Tita entered the world, her fate was sealed with the De la Garza’s family tradition, which lead to the cause of her pain and suffering from the hands of her mother, Mama Elena. Tita and Mama Elena’s estranged relationship was oppressed with complications from Tita’s premature birth and the sudden death of her father, which caused Mama Elena to reject her nurturing nature and discard bonding with Tita. Although Tita’s emotions would leave her in a weakened mind state, her determination towards breaking the brutal convention, she is faced with, would begin to display her strength, through her visualization of a fulfilled life without the criticism of Mama Elena. While Tita

But of course Rosaura was hurt because of the fact that he brought Tita roses instead of her and Mama Elena did not approve and told Tita to throw them out, but Tita didn’t listen to her so she went into the kitchen to express them the best way she could which was through food, so she cooked the quail in rose petals sauce making the food have a sexual tension especially towards Gertrudis. When Pedro complimented the food Mama Elena downgraded it and Rosaura excused herself. Gertrudis was feeling very hot and lusty causing her to go to the bathroom and shower herself but that didn’t help and the heat from her body cause the bathroom to catch on fire which made her run out of the bathroom naked the opposite way of the ranch, pg. 51 in “Like Water for Chocolate says “The delicacy of her face, the perfection of her pure vaginal body contrasted with passion, the lust, the leapt from her eyes, from every pore. These things, and the sexual desire Juan had contained for so long while he was fighting in the mountains, made for a spectacular encounter.” The tension that she was feeling made her run away from the ranch with Juan on the horse and from there that’s when Gertrudis made love for the very first time. Those two examples were the two major recipes that showed how much Tita’s cooking had a big impact on the people that surrounded her and what it did to them to affect them.