Disnerys Molina
December 12th 2012
English 150-018
Professor Gordon-Chipembere
The Mexican Revolution its role in Like Water for Chocolate
The Mexican Revolution was a time period of uprising and triumph that forever left its mark on Mexican culture. Laura Esquivel displays her frustrations with this revolution in her novel Like Water for chocolate. Laura Esquivel uses the Mexican Revolution to mirror the revolution going on in the De La Garza home, a home in which each inhabitant can be compared to a key player of the revolution. The revolution was a battle against dictatorship meanwhile the novel exemplified a battle for love. The Mexican Revolution started in 1910 and ended in 1940. Over the course of 30 years men and women united to fight in battles all over Mexico to end the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. Porfirio Diaz was once seen as a hero in a prior revolution but swiftly changed things and turned into a dictator. In every story there are villains and then there are some heroes who attempt to defeat the villains in this case, the villains are Porfirio Diaz and Victoriano Huerta and the heroes are Francisco Madero, Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza. Each of these individuals played a key role in the overall result of the revolution and each are reminiscent of a character in Like Water for chocolate by Laura Esquivel Like water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel tells the tale of Tita the youngest female in the De La Garza family and how their family’s rules affected her love life .these rules are enforced by her tyrant mother Elena prevents her from being with the one she truly loves Pedro who agrees to be married off to Rosaura titas sister just to stay close to tita .Tita being the youngest female is not allowed to marry, she instead has to take care of her mother until her mother passes away. Mama Elena has a very strong personality, she is seen as a tyrant because she is the main reason for Titas suffering & she subjects her through hell. “Mama Elena was merciless, killing with a single blow. But then again, not always. For Tita she had made an exception; she had been killing her a little at a time since she was a child, and she still hadn’t finished her off.” (Esquivel47) Mama Elena doesn’t only scare Tita but also her daughters Rosaura & Gertrudis, it later comes to light that the reason for Mama Elenas Bitterness towards Tita is because she was once in her position, she also suffered a lost love, a love which resulted in the illegimate birth of Gertrudis a product of her extramarital affair with a Mulatto Man. “Unquestionably,, when it came to dividing, dismantling, dismembering, desolating, detaching, dispossessing, destroying, or dominating, Mama Elena was a pro. After she died, no one came close to accomplishing the same feats….” (Esquivel97)
