READ
There were so many books by Mexican authors to choose from that I had a hard time picking just one. In the end, I decided on a bestseller from years past that I had never read.
Like Water for Chocolate, written by Laura Esquivel and translated by Carol Christensen and Thomas Christensen, is the story of Tita De la Garza, as told by her great niece. Tita was the daughter of Juan De la Garza and his wife, known to all as Mama Elena. Juan died when Tita was two days old, leaving Mama Elena to raise Tita and her two older sisters, Gertrudis and Rosaura, by herself. Early in her young life, Tita discovers that she has great culinary skills, so she is consigned to the kitchen with Nacha, an old servant beloved by Tita.
Mama Elena tells Tita, that as the youngest daughter in the family, she will never be allowed to marry. Instead, it is an old family tradition that the youngest daughter must take care of her mother until the day she dies. Tita is heartbroken, then, when she meets and falls in love with Pedro Muzquiz. He comes with his father to ask for Tita’s hand, but Mama Elena is a hard woman, and the answer is no.
Mama Elena’s meanness is mentioned many times throughout the book, often by way of culinary metaphors. Her skill at carving up a watermelon is described this way: “Unquestionably, when it came to dividing, dismantling, dismembering, desolating, detaching, dispossessing, destroying, or dominating, Mama Elena was a pro.” Another passage in the book discusses her approach to killing chickens or quail, followed by a particularly poignant comparison: “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 quite finished her off.”
None of this seems fair to Tita, and indeed, it is not. She questions who will take care of her when she gets old, if she’s not allowed to marry and have children. And who will take care of the married women who can’t have children? Who decided that the youngest daughter rather than the eldest was the best suited to take care of her mother? But she keeps these questions to herself because no one argues with Mama Elena.
While she may not express her emotions in words, Tita’s feelings have a way of finding their way into the food she cooks for parties and other special occasions. Many times throughout the book, the guests have a surprising reaction to Tita’s food. Sometimes it acts as an emetic, and other times as an aphrodisiac, without any willful action on Tita’s part. The plot of Like Water for Chocolate is laced with other instances of magical realism as well, things that would never actually happen but seem entirely natural in the story.
Tita’s life is so hard, through no fault of her own, and I was on her side every step of the way. Like Water for Chocolate is a cautionary tale about the folly of insisting that traditions or customs be observed for no other reason than that it’s always been that way.
COOK
Each chapter of Like
Water for Chocolate begins with a recipe for something Tita is going to
prepare. Most of the recipes aren’t easily veganizable, although I considered
trying to make a couple of them. In the end, I decided to make chilaquiles, a
dish that seems to be a type of comfort food for Tita, reminding her of the old
servant Nacha. At one point, Tita “prepared some chilaquiles and sat down at
the kitchen table to eat them. She didn’t like to eat alone, but when it came
right down to it, she had no choice…”.
I found an easy chilaquiles recipe at thekitchn.com. The only part of the recipe that required any tweaking was for the toppings. I couldn’t find vegan queso fresco at the store, so I made a vegan crema instead from a recipe on the Broke Bank Vegan website. This was a very enjoyable dish, and the reheated leftovers were tasty too.
GIVE
In the fight against climate change, one important component
is the protection of mangrove forests. Mangroves are trees that grow in
tropical coastal swamps, and according to Conservation International, they “store
more carbon per unit area than any other ecosystem on Earth."
A project I found on the GlobalGiving website would train local people to become guardians of the mangroves at Bahia Magdalena on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. According to the project description: “This project will help empower the local community through individuals who will receive capacity and training to become nature stewards. This capacity will enable them to take part in monitoring and surveillance activities of the ecosystem. Their active participation will contribute to the preservation of 1,700 hectares [approximately 4,200 acres] of mangrove forests, their natural inhabitants, and the services they provide for the local communities and its future generations.”
More information about this project is available at: Create 50 guardians for Bahia Magdalena mangrove - GlobalGiving.
No comments:
Post a Comment