"Like Water for Chocolate"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how, indicative of the early-twentieth century Mexican culture in which the story is based, Laura Esquivel's novel "Like Water for Chocolate", stresses the importance of food, tradition, and family loyalty. It looks at how, along with these dominant motifs, the author has sprinkled ethnic mythology and unrequited love set within a pre and post-revolutionary Mexican narrative.

From the Paper:

"Tita's knowledge of cooking shows both the value of food and also the value of tradition. She learned to cook from Nacha, who was more a mother figure to her than her own mother, and she remembered Nacha because of "her noodle soup, her chilaquiles, her champurrado, her molcajete sauce, her bread with cream...they could never be surpassed" (Esquivel 167). Much love usually went into the cuisine, but sometimes bitter tears joined the other ingredients. The recipes were all old family recipes that had been passed down like an heirloom from generation to generation. Common to Mexico at the time, many of the foods coincided with other family traditions (Mears 11). "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. Doubleday Publishing, New York, New York: 1992.
• Chasteen, J., Born in Blood and Fire; A Concise History of Latin America. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, New York: 2006.
• Kalman, Bobbie. Mexico: The Culture. Crabtree Publishing, New York, New York; 2002.
• Brigden, Cathy. Labouring Feminism and Working Class History in North America and Beyond. Labour History 90 (2006): 6 pars. 1 Dec. 2007 <http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lab/90/bridgen.html>.
• Mears, John A. Analyzing the Phenomenon of Borderlands From Comparative and Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Interactions: Regional Studies, Global Processes, and Historical Analysis. 28-March 3 Feb. 2001. Library of Congress, Washington D.C., 28 Nov. 2007 <http://www.historycooperative.org/proceedings/interactions/mears.html>

More papers on "Like Water for Chocolate":

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