Como Agua para Chocolate

Two special happenings around here today.  First, we started playing Christmas music.  Second, I get to think about this book a bit more.  My first reading, years ago, confused me; I couldn't decide if I liked it or not.  I was intrigued enough to talk with our Spanish teacher who gave me some helpful suggestion to understand this genre.  This book introduced me to magical realism.   Kay reminded me that Mexican cultures have great reverence for their lost relatives .  Just think of the elaborate preparations that go into Day of the Dead celebrations.  For some, loved ones are quiet memories, for others their presence is felt more intensely, sometime in visions, as we find with Tita.

Who among us has not had a close call and said "I just know that Gramps was there to catch me"?  How many people believe that cardinals are the spirit of a loved one stopping by to say that all is well?  Once I accepted that, the ghosts, and other hyperbolic elements in the book flowed comfotably.

Food and cooking stirs most of the magic in the book, whose title comes from a common phrase used by Spanish speakers, como agua para chocolate, meaning that one's emotions are on the verge of boiling over.

15-year-old Tita falls in love with Pedro at first sight but cannot marry him because in the de la Garza family, it is the duty of the youngest daughter to stay home and remain unmarried until the mother's death.  Pedro marries older sister, Rosaura, in order to be close to Tita.  Tita was born in a kitchen and the ritual of cooking evokes such strong emotions in Tita that those feelings become part of whatever recipe she is preparing.  Example - Tita has to make the wedding cake for her sister and Pedro.  Her sorrow is so great that it enters the cake and everyone at the reception becomes violently ill.  

There are funny moments.  Tita worries that her sister, Gertrudis, who rode off on a horse naked with a soldier and ended up working in a brothel may still be naked.  After all, her fleeing was spontaneous and she didn't pack any clothes.  Moments of anger, confusion, desire...we feel them all through the stories of Tita's life.  

The book is told in 12 chapters, each beginning with a recipe that eventually connects to an event in Tita's.  Although delivered in a package of exaggeration and strangely magical occurrences, Tita's story  is not so different than all of ours.  Rebellion, passion, self actualization all perfectly spiced.

What happiness will you cook with dinner tonight?

Thanks for stopping by.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay happy.