Como el dicho en Mexico va: “Como agua para chocolate” – the meaning is that something is or will be done with a strong emotion- usually referring to passion. The title does serve well to the movie. In the movie Like Water for chocolate, we can clearly see how the attractions of Tita and Pedro are throughout their time. Their love story could be somewhat atypical for viewer in today’s societies in the U.S. A tough Mexican widow dictates the lives of her daughters. Since Tita is the youngest, she will have to be single and take care of her mother.
Tita has to put her desire and plans aside, or does she? Well she does not. Although the man she loves marries her sister, they were able to live together. Now that can be bad, but both actually could love in secrecy. The mother was very upset with Tita’s way of being. At times, it was as if the mother was angry with her own daughters. Her daughters, especially Tita, was able to have her lover near her. While the stern and ‘cold’ mother had in the past, a true love that could never be. Not only the mother’s past true love forbidden but he had die or been killed. But most women had to settle for what it was dictated by their parents and accept their fate. Tita was not going to be another woman to settle with what tradition dictated for her. In the movie, she has to learn to be a defiant daughter and woman.
The movie had plenty of surrealistic imagery that helped in telling the story of Tita. Some of the imagination or surrealistic details in the book sounded too amazing, but were a great addition in the movie. As a movie, we cannot get hung up on this; it does have a heavy entertainment value. It can literary show some of the old saying of people. The fantasies portrayed, were able to show the strong desires of the lovers; their strength and passion of their love until their deaths.
-RA
