Food as a characterĮven if Tita appears as the main character, food is the real protagonist of the novel. Cooking is the act that brings her to emancipate from her mother’s decisions. The only place where she can freely express herself is in the kitchen.
In particular, as the last of three daughters, she takes care of her mother – Mama Elena – until she dies. Tita De La Garda, the main character of the book, is a young and submissive woman who can’t marry her love, Pedro, because of family traditions. Like Water for Chocolate appears like a diary written by a niece who tells her great-aunt’s life. The text also has a subtitle: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances and Home Remedies that summarises in a sentence all the themes confronted in the story. The title refers to a Spanish expression mainly used in Latin America, where people use boiled water – and not milk – to make hot chocolate. Esquivel was also a teacher, a screenwriter, and a politician in the Local Council of Mexico City.
It was published in Mexico, then translated from Spanish to English in 1992, and the same year it appeared as a film based on the novel. The Mexican writer Laura Esquivel wrote her first novel, Like Water for Chocolate, in 1989.
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