Like Water for Chocolate
Michael Kennedy

This is a story about a young woman who wants to be loved by the man who loves her but cannot because of a De Le Garza family tradition. The youngest daughter, who is Tita in this case, is not allowed to marry and has to stay and take care of her mother till she dies. Tita feels this tradition is "silly" and does not agree with it at all. She has fallen in love with Pedro and Pedro with her and wants to marry Tita but Elena forbade this because of the family tradition. So Pedro rationalizes and decides to marry Rosaura so he could be close to Tita.
As a Mexican culture food is an important component of family traditions. Recipes are passed down from generation to generation. Food plays a big role in this film and is being used to express a range of human emotions. Tita is an incredible cook and she literally pours her heart and sole into everything she makes. Since Tita cannot seduce her love interest physically she does this through her cooking. But this effects everyone who eats her food and not just Pedro. Tita made her recipes with such love that it affected the people who ate her meals. This caused people who ate her food to become sexually aroused. This happened in two instances. The first time Tita made a "rose sauce" from the flowers Pedro had given her. Elena had told Tita to throw them out but in spite of her mother she made the sauce as a way of pouring her "feelings" of love for Pedro into the recipe. As each family member consumed the meal you could see they were all affected by their physical reactions. Gertrudis had such a strong reaction she rushes to the bathhouse to take care of her urges. The second time this happens is after Elena's funeral. I personally think Tita did what she did to spite her mother yet again even though she was dead. After eating what appears to be stuffed peppers we see everyone becoming sexually aroused yet again. We even see the priest running off with a woman. Tita was loving every minute of too.
Like Water for Chocolate I think had a double meaning for this film. In some Latin American countries hot chocolate is made with water and not milk. Chocolate will not melt until water reaches its boiling point. In my opinion this was used as a metaphor in two ways. In the beginning of the film Tita has the burring passion to be with Pedro and Pedro with her. We can see that it is obvious the two are attracted to one another. There was sexual tension in the air but neither one of them could do anything about it because Pedro was not allowed to marry Tita. Now, this is where I think the the other meaning of the title comes in. Tita was told by her mother you will never marry because it is our family tradition the youngest daughter is to take care of me till I die. Tita was treated poorly by her mother all the time. This made Tita "boiling mad" and was quite upset that she could not do as she pleased. Tita eventually "told off" her mother's spirit and made her feelings known.
Magical realism was used throughout the film. As mentioned above Tita's food was able to make people become increasingly aroused and have them act on their emotions. This is something you don't see every day. The ability to cook something to make one have really bad breathe and flatulent continuously as was the case for her sister because she took her man. Also when Rosaura became quite ill and dying from a nasty smelling bowel dysfunction. Maybe a way of saying "screw you for taking up mother's ways" beacuse Tita wasn't going to have what happened to her happen to Esperanza. Tita was able to breastfeed when never having been pregnant. The incredibly long quilt that Tita had knitted was a little far-fetched too. Gertrudis becoming a general for the Mexican forces (not to say that it couldn't happen) was little out there. These magical realisms made the film somewhat comedic at times. The storymaker wanted us to "feel" what he was trying to portray his meaning onscreen in an obviously unrealistic way. But that is what draws us in and gains our attention to detail making us, the audience, think for ourselves the reason it is that way it is.