Como Agua Para Chocolate or Like Water for Chocolate is a Mexican film about freedom and shaking away the binds that hold us from being happy. Throughout the film, Tita is tortured by the family tradition upheld by her mother that the last child will not marry and take care of their parents until their death. After the death of her mother, Tita is finally free from her suffocating grasp and able to live how she wants, even if it is not with her true love, Pedro. The movie shows how much influence family can have on us, especially with Tita’s mother haunting her even after her death. The movie also shows the strong influence other women can have on our lives, such as the influence Nacha, Chencha, and her sister’s Gertrudis and Rosaura had on Tita.
Tita’s relationship with her mother was a complicated one. She had both love and hate and for her mother, after being forced not to marry her true love Pedro and watching him be married to her sister, Rosaura. She carried this trauma with her through and after her mother’s death, plagued with the idea that she was doing something wrong by being in love with him. The family tradition that caused this to happen is constricting and unfair to the youngest daughter, and watching Rosaura say that Ezperanza will have the same fate as her, angered Tita greatly. Throughout the film, the influences of Nacha and Chencha on Tita are shown. They help Tita through her troubles and give her the strength to go on. Tita learns to cook from Nacha, finding a way to express her love to Pedro, and she always has a confidant and friend in Chencha. Tita’s sister, Gertrudis, also shows Tita to be free and live her life how she wants. Gertrudis runs away with a revolutionary soldier, later becoming a general and married to the soldier she ran away with. Gertrudis followed what made her happy without any fear and always wanted Tita to do the same, ultimately helping Tita tell Pedro about the pregnancy and her love for him. The women in Tita’s life helped shape who she is and would influence generations of family.
Were you influenced by any strong female figures in your life?
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