Like Water for Chocolate

            When I was eighteen I didn’t get along with my overly religious mother. My spirit is one that is more carefree, spontaneous, untraditional, and not so good at taking orders from authority. Things got so bad that I left home. My values in life aren’t against my Christian up bringing. I just believe that once a child reaches a certain age then they need to be able to harness their individualism and not be oppressed by someone just because they do not agree with what the child wants. Everyone needs to be allowed to live life how they deem necessary.

            This feisty spirit against overbearing authority, made reading Like Water for Chocolate very difficult for me.  I hated Mama Elena from the beginning. No one has the right to control someone’s life past adolescence. Mama Elena forced Tita to stay single for the entirety of Mama Elena’s life.  Tita wasn’t allowed to find her own happiness. Mama Elena paired Tita’s boyfriend, Pedro, with her sister Rosaura instead of allowing Tita to be married and leave Mama Elena’s side.

            Rosaura is nothing more than a spoiled, selfish brat who whines and also expects everyone around her to serve her every whim. She doesn’t care that she betrayed her sister or married a man she knew didn’t love her. All she cared about was following tradition and making her mother happy. The fact that she became so physically revolting amused me greatly.

            Pedro can be seen as both a hopeless romantic who married into the family to be, as he stated, close to Tita. He can also be seen as a chauvinistic pig-man who monopolizes women. Personally, I think he betrayed Tita. He could never make either of them happy by being married to her sister and making babies with Rosaura.

            There was one character that I highly enjoyed following! I found the most relatable to be Gertrudis. Granted, it was a bit extreme that she left the ranch by running naked across a field and having sex on the back of a horse. Also, unlike Gertrudis working in a brothel for a year, I never became a stripper or hooker. It was the fact she broke free of her mother’s oppression and of strict tradition. It reminded me in a way of when I left my parents house.  Lastly, I have no skill for cooking.

This book is ALL about food, passion, love, and how everything can affect the other elements. Tita’s emotions flow through her cooking. When she is baking the cake with a broken heart it makes everyone who tries it so sad they get sick. When Pedro gives her roses, she makes them into a sensual dish that ignites sexual desire in everyone who tries it. Whenever anyone asks for her recipes she simply answers that it was made with love.

Nothing I have ever done has been by tradition.  I left home by packing my things and leaving while they were both at work. I met my husband on www.hotornot.com, asked him to take me on our first date a few weeks later, and eventually I bought a ring and proposed to him. The way that Tita stayed under her mother’s thumb for so long angered me. I begged the author to let her go! When Tita snapped and went to the hospital I felt sad. I wanted her away from the ranch, but I didn’t want her to live a life of sadness and heartache. The way the story ended just seemed right. The lovers died together and the horrible traditions with them.