Like Water for Chocolate

Dr. John Brown and his Aunt Mary are coming to visit, and Tita prepares beans with chile, Tezcucana-style. She boils the beans, which take a long time to cook. She plans to tell John that she is breaking off their engagement. The dread leaves Tita feeling, “…completely empty, like a platter that held only crumbs, all that was left of a marvelous pastry” (150). They have little food left after Gertrudis and her troops exhausted their stores. Tita is alone as Chencha just had a baby. She brings Pedro his food. He is physically recovering from his wounds but is harsh and unkind to Tita, demanding she leave John. Tita tells Pedro that she is not pregnant. He thinks she is rejecting him because of his burns, but it is his jealousy which repulses her.

Rosaura visits Tita while she eats breakfast. Tita is astounded by Rosaura having lost all her weight in the week she stayed in her room; she loses weight when she does not eat at the ranch. Rosaura bitterly accuses Tita of trying to steal her husband, calling her a prostitute. Tita defends herself, claiming Rosaura should have never agreed to marry Pedro in the first place. Rosaura threatens to publicly expose the affair if Tita does not break it off herself. Tita is unmoved, but then Rosaura forbids her from seeing Esperanza. The punishment is devastating. Too sad to eat, Tita tears her tortillas to feed the chickens. Esperanza’s diapers are drying outside, and the sight reminds Tita of Rosaura’s curse. The chickens violently peck each other’s eyes out, turning into a whirlwind that rips the diapers from the line. The chicken tornado bores a hole into the ground, swallowing all but a few damaged birds. When Tita returns inside, her beans are not cooked. She remembers Nacha’s wisdom: When someone is angry, their food will not properly cook and they must sing to the food to encourage it to do so. She sings a love song with Pedro in mind, and the beans cook perfectly.

Tita cleans herself of dirt and chicken feathers and finishes preparing for John’s visit. As she brushes her teeth, she remembers her teacher Jovita, who taught her the recipe for tooth powder. Jovita was a childless widow who walked the streets collecting trash, which sometimes clung to her. People made fun Jovita’s appearance and eccentric behavior. Tita does not wish to suffer the same fate over her grief. John and his Aunt Mary arrive, the latter being deaf but able to read lips in English. Aunt Mary praises Tita’s cooking, but John can sense something is wrong with Tita. She tells him in Spanish that she wants to cancel the wedding. She explains that when she is with him, she feels content, but when she is at the ranch, her feelings grow for someone else. Tita also confesses she is no longer a virgin. John knows his competition is Pedro and tells Tita that he does not care about her loss of virginity, only that she marries the person whom she genuinely loves and who will make her happy. Tita cries and leaves the table, conflicted.

For 20 years, Tita lives with Rosaura, Pedro, and Esperanza. Tita and Pedro keep their relationship a secret to preserve Rosaura’s reputation and in return, Rosaura allows Tita to help raise Esperanza. Tita also promised to prevent herself from becoming pregnant with Pedro’s child. The arrangement mostly works; however, Tita and Rosaura disagree on Esperanza’s education. While Rosaura focuses on providing a high-class education, Tita secretly imparts to Esperanza her knowledge of food. When Esperanza attends school, Rosaura thinks she should focus on skills like playing the piano, while Tita wants her to learn how to meet and speak to other people. Esperanza confides in Tita that she has fallen in love with Alex, Dr. John Brown’s son. She describes the passion she feels for him: “when she felt Alex’s eyes on her body, she felt like dough being plunged in boiling oil…” (171). Alex is in medical school studying to be a doctor, and both Tita and Pedro support the relationship. However, when Rosaura learns of their inevitable engagement, she becomes enraged for three days and suddenly dies. John concludes she died of digestive illness. Rosaura’s body maintains a foul odor even after death and very few people attend her funeral.

One year later, Tita is making chiles in walnut sauce for wedding festivities. Chencha and John assist, as it takes an entire day just to shell the 1,000 walnuts needed for the recipe. Excited for the wedding, John gives Tita a box of matches, clasping her hand in his. Pedro is jealous of their closeness and wishes he could physically assault John. Gertrudis, Juan, and their son arrive for the wedding in a new Ford Model T; they are dressed in the latest fashion and Sergeant Treviño is their family bodyguard. Neighbors Nicholas and Rosalio are dressed in traditional clothing called charro. Alex and Esperanza prepared the ink for their invitations with a traditional family recipe. At the reception, Tita and Pedro dance to “The Eyes of Youth” and he asks her to marry him. John watches them from afar and quietly leaves the festivities. Tita’s chiles are green, white, and red like the Mexican flag. All the guests become aroused after eating the food and quickly leave the reception to fulfill their lust. Alex and Esperanza also leave, anxious to start their honeymoon.

Left alone for the first time, Tita and Pedro go to the storage room, which is full of candles. The ghost of Nacha appears and lights another candle. The couple enjoys uninhibited, passionate lovemaking without the fear of being caught. Tita remembers John’s words about the power of passion, and she holds back from enjoying herself too much. However, Pedro cannot restrain his pleasure and dies. Tita feels cold and begins to eat the matches John gave her, wrapping herself in the bedspread she knit for herself and Pedro. As she thinks of Pedro, a tunnel of light appears. As she is reunited with her love in death, the bedspread catches fire and consumes the entire ranch. The room erupts like a volcano, and bystanders think the commotion is fireworks from the wedding reception. The fire burns for several days, and when Alex and Esperanza return from their honeymoon, all that remains is Tita’s cookbook buried in the ashes. The narrator reveals herself as Esperanza’s daughter. She inherited the cookbook when her mother died and continues to preserve Tita’s memory by cooking her recipes. The ranch grounds remain fertile for years to come.