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Macy Whitesides
Mr. Holliday
Eng 102-005
24 April 2017
Like Water for Chocolate: Negative Effects from Women’s Roles in Mexico
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel is a novel set in Mexico during the Mexican
Revolution of 1910. In this time period, women were restricted to their specific gender roles in
marriage, motherhood, and family duties. Respect was expected from a young woman when
interacting with parents or a husband. Food is also a very significant and ritualistic idea in the
novel that intertwines each part of the story together through sets of recipes and preparations.
The novel, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, displays the negative effects of being a
Mexican daughter, mistress, and mother in the early 1900s and how food impacts each of them.
The novel is broken down into twelve chapters starting with the month of January and
going through to the month of December. Each chapter starts off with a different recipe that ties
into an event that is happening in Tita de la Garza’s life. Tita is the protagonist of the story. She
is also the youngest daughter of Elena de la Garza and “according to family tradition, the
youngest girl is never to marry, but must devote her life to caring for her mother” (Mujica).
However, the second that Tita lays eyes on the handsome Pedro Muzquiz, she exclaims that “she
understood how dough feels when it is plunged into boiling oil” (Esquivel 16). Pedro asks for
Tita’s hand in marriage, but Mama Elena refuses and offers him Tita’s sixteen-year-old sister.
Pedro agrees to marry Tita’s sister, Rosaura, only to be close to Tita. Throughout the novel,
Pedro and Tita’s forbidden love takes a toll on her physical and mental state. Tita begins acting
out against her mother and breaking the roles that she is supposed to follow as a young Mexican
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woman in the early 1900s. Like Water for Chocolate displays the negative effects of the different
roles that encompass a young woman in the Mexican culture.
The first role that Tita must follow is the role of a respectful daughter. As mentioned
before, the youngest daughter in the Mexican cultures is entitled to take care of the mother in her
old age. In doing this, the youngest daughter must give up her right to marry in order to honor
their mother. In the novel, this role of respecting and honoring her mother is one of Tita’s biggest
conflicts. From the start of the novel, Tita has fallen deeply in love with a young man named
Pedro Muzquiz. When she offers her opinion about marrying him, Mama Elena retorts by saying,
“You don’t have an opinion, and that’s all I want to hear about it. For generations, not a single
person in my family has ever questioned this tradition, and no daughter of mine is going to be the
one to start” (Esquivel 11). Mama Elena is so wrapped up in following the Mexican traditions for
