Like Water for Chocolate: Chapter 9: September Summary & Analysis

Tita is preparing hot chocolate and three kings’ day bread with candied fruit and a porcelain doll hidden inside. She is miserable, believing she is pregnant with Pedro’s baby. She remembers making the chocolate and bread during holiday seasons past. She mourns the simplicity of childhood, missing Nacha, Gertrudis, and her good relationship with Rosaura. Lately, she has been making a special diet for Rosaura, who has suffered with extra weight, inexplicable flatulence, and bad breath. Rosaura believes their rivalry is over, and she seeks Tita’s help to fix her health, win back Pedro, and prevent social disgrace. She explains that Pedro never been “disposed to sexual excess,” but has taken especially little interest in Rosaura since the night she “saw Mama Elena’s ghost.” Tita is overcome with guilt seeing her sister’s desperate situation. Her guilt is complicated, however, by her anger that Rosaura still plans to make Esperanza follow the family tradition.

As she prepares the hot chocolate and bread, Tita feels a cold wind, and Mama Elena’s ghost appears before her. She says that Tita has “forgotten all morality, respect and good behavior,” and calls her a “good-for-nothing.” She curses Tita’s unborn baby, and Tita feels terrible. She feels her life is ruined, and she plans to call off her wedding to John and find a place far away where she can have the baby without Rosaura’s knowledge.

Tita folds the bread dough over the doll. As kids, she remembers, Tita and her sisters would compete to find the porcelain doll, which they saw as an omen of good luck that could grant the finder a wish. As she places the dough to rise, she reflects on how much easier it was to make wishes as a child. She makes the wish that she had never met Pedro, that Mama Elena’s ghost would go away, and that Gertrudis would come back to help her. Tita tries tell Pedro about her pregnancy, but Chencha interrupts to explain that their neighbors, the Loboses, have arrived. Mama Elena’s ghost glares at Tita, and Pulque the dog barks wildly. Tita begins to faint, and Paquita Lobos makes her sit and smell salts. She says that if she didn’t know better, she might think Tita were pregnant.

Unexpectedly, a rebel troop arrives. They are led by Gertrudis, who has become a general, and her husband Juan Alejandrez. Gertrudis says she knows that today is the day Tita makes the chocolate and bread, and she has come home to enjoy the special family recipe. Tita’s heart fills with joy. The troop joins Tita’s family and their neighbors as they celebrate the bread and chocolate, with Chencha working to feed everyone. Gertrudis relishes the chocolate, which brings back memories and fills her with a sense of home. She makes a wish for Tita to live a long life, so that the secrets of their family recipes will live on.

Gertrudis explains that after leaving the brothel, she joined the army and fought her way through the ranks to become a general. She reunited with Juan, and they married. Gertrudis is sad to hear of Mama Elena’s death, as she was eager for her mother to see her success. Later Juan plays music while Gertrudis dances. Rosaura remarks that Gertrudis’ rhythm has always baffled her, as nobody else in her family shares it. Tita believes Gertrudis’ rhythm came from her “mulatto” father, a secret she thinks she will guard forever. The narrator then momentarily jumps to the future, saying that Tita ends up telling Gertrudis the truth a year later, in order to defend Gertrudis’ honor when she gives birth to a dark-skinned baby. Back at the party, Tita hopes Gertrudis will stay and help her figure out what to do about her pregnancy and the “love triangle.”