Like Water for Chocolate: Chapter 1: January Summary & Analysis

Beginning with a recipe for Christmas sausage rolls, the unnamed narrator describes how she cries whenever she chops the onion, just like her great-aunt Tita used to. She then tells the story of Tita’s life, beginning with her birth. Even in her mother’s womb, Tita cried so fiercely when her mother chopped onion that she magically sent her mother into early labor. Born on the kitchen table, Tita’s tears continued, flooding the kitchen floor. Unable to nurse and busy managing her ranch after her husband died, Mama Elena (Tita’s mother) let Nacha, the childless cook, feed and care for Tita. The narrator explains that Tita loved cooking from early on because of her relationship with Nacha, and because of all the smells, tastes, and possibilities that food offers. For Nacha and Tita, Tita’s frequent tears while cooking are a “source of entertainment, so that Tita didn’t distinguish between tears of laughter and tears of sorrow.”

Though Tita sees the kitchen as “her world,” her sisters, Gertrudis and Rosaura, see cooking as dangerous. Once when they are kids, Tita convinces them to play a game of flinging water onto a sizzling griddle. Gertrudis makes a dance out of it, but Rosaura accidentally burns her hands on the griddle. Mama Elena spanks Tita badly, and thereafter her sisters aren’t allowed to play with her in the kitchen. While Tita loves cooking with Nacha, she cherishes special occasions when her mother and sisters join them in preparing the meals. Each Christmas, all of the women in the household work together over days to make Christmas rolls, talking and laughing as they prepare the filling, spices and dough. Tita cherishes this tradition, as the aroma and taste of the Christmas rolls brings back memories of all the years before.

Before Christmas, when Tita is sixteen, she tells her mother that a young man, Pedro, wants to come speak with her. Mama Elena assumes he wants to ask for Tita’s hand in marriage, and she refuses to see him, reminding Tita of their family tradition requiring the youngest daughter to stay unmarried and dedicate her life to caring for her mother. When Tita starts to argue, her mother tells her she isn’t allowed to have opinions. Tita silently continues to question the tradition in her thoughts. Mama Elena, angry that Tita tried to argue, refuses to speak to Tita for days. Her only words are to chastise Tita for her “rebellious” creativity in sewing, softening only when Tita apologizes, calling her Mami in the deferential tone Mama Elena has taught her. The narrator remarks that unlike her sisters, Tita has often been slapped for saying Mami in the wrong tone.

Pedro surprises Tita and Mama Elena by showing up at their ranch with his father, Don Pascual. He asks Mama Elena for her permission to marry Tita, but Mama Elena says Tita isn’t available. She offers to let him marry her oldest daughter, Rosaura instead. Chencha, the maid, goes into the kitchen and angrily tells Tita and Nacha about Pedro’s proposal and Mama Elena’s offer. A little while later, Mama Elena comes to announce that Pedro has agreed to marry Rosaura. Tita feels a cold chill fill her body. Nacha tells Tita that she overheard Don Pascual questioning Pedro’s choice, and that Pedro replied that he agreed to marry Rosaura to be closer to Tita.

That night Tita lies awake, devastated. She remembers when she first met Pedro during a party at her home the Christmas before. When he looked at her from across the room, her pulse rose and she felt hot, her body burning like “dough when it is plunged into boiling oil.” Pedro later followed Tita to the kitchen and declared his love for her, promising that his “word is his pledge.” The narrator says, “from that night on, she would love him forever.” This memory fills Tita with despair, as she realizes she must give Pedro up forever, because to love him now would be indecent. She tries to eat a Christmas roll – which always brings her comfort – and curl up with cloaks and robes, but her hunger and cold are insatiable. She stays awake weeping and crocheting the wedding bedspread she had begun when Pedro first declared his love, unwilling to “let it go to waste.”