Like Water for Chocolate

Content Warning: The Chapter 5 Summary depicts physical abuse.

Nicholas the ranch manager leaves to find more livestock in town; supplies are short due to the revolution. Mama Elena instructs him to check on Pedro, Rosaura, and Roberto. Farmhand Rosalio alerts Mama Elena that soldiers are approaching the ranch. Mama Elena hides her shotgun in her skirt; she had anticipated the soldiers and hid most of their food and supplies using an ancient technique for preserving chickens in ash. Still, she fears the men, as she’s heard terrible stories about them. Mama Elena meets them at the door and tells them that they can take food from the corncrib and stable but forbids them from entering the house, as Chencha and Tita are hiding inside. Captain Juan Alejandrez, the man with whom Gertrudis ran away, leads the troops. The captain mocks her, saying “Understood, my general” (64), but can sense she is not a woman to be trifled with. The soldiers take all her chickens, and when a man tries to enter the house, Mama Elena shoots the chicken dead in his hands. She stands her ground, flanked by the other farmhands. Juan orders his soldiers to obey her; they raid the dovecote before leaving.

Tita emerges from hiding, surprised her mother is alive and admitting to herself that she wished she’d died. She is heartbroken by the stolen doves, but finds one baby dove and brings it with her to nurse back to health. Feeding the baby dove reminds her of Roberto; her milk dried up after Pedro and Rosaura left, and she worries about what their baby eats in her absence. Tita has channeled her grief into knitting her bedspread. She struggles to concentrate as she helps Chencha and Mama Elena prepare chorizo sausage; making sausage is an economical way to use all of a pig, as they must conserve their supplies. Tita should be preparing Mama Elena’s daily bath but is behind on her work. She and Chencha continue to work on the sausage, but the former struggles to concentrate and makes several mistakes. Chencha tries to cover for her to avoid Mama Elena’s fury. Mama Elena is angry that Tita has not yet prepared her daily bath, which includes many detailed steps. Tita resents the process, as her mother always finds ways to criticize her arduous work. Despite this, she carefully attends to her mother, helping her bathe, washing her hair, and cleaning her clothes. Washing Mama Elena’s clothes reminds Tita of cleaning Roberto’s diapers. She knows several old remedies for removing diaper stains, but the memory only serves to compound her grief. When she finishes the bath, she returns to sausage-making, but memories of Roberto plague her and she cannot perform the task.

Tita’s memory takes her to a specific summertime moment when the family slept outside in hammocks to avoid the heat. One night, she arose to use the restroom—when Pedro pulled her close, covered her mouth, and began to grope and kiss her. Mama Elena called for Tita, ending the tryst. The following day, Mama Elena sped up the process for moving Pedro’s family to San Antonio. Chencha’s weeping awakens Tita from her memory. The farmhand Felipe has returned with news that Roberto has died. Mama Elena commands Tita to keep working, but she screams at her mother, claiming she killed Roberto by sending him away. She strikes Tita’s face with a wooden spoon, breaking her nose. Tita hides in the dovecote with her baby dove and a supply of worms. Mama Elena removes the ladder to the space, trapping Tita overnight. When Chencha finds her the next morning, the baby dove is dead; Tita overfed it with worms. Tita refuses to leave the dovecote, so Mama Elena summons Dr. John Brown to take her to an asylum. John is horrified by Tita’s broken nose and disheveled state. As they depart, Chencha brings Tita her bedspread, which is too large to fit in the carriage; it trails behind. The sausage the women made is full of worms.

Dr. John Brown ignores Mama Elena’s instruction to deposit Tita in an asylum and instead brings her to his home. He tenderly bathes her, tucks her into bed, and sets her broken nose. John lives with his son; his wife is dead. Tita spends many hours in silence, contemplating her hands. She is so accustomed to using them all day in service to her home and mother that she does not know what to do with them now. She wishes her hands would become wings so she could fly away from her pain. Tita sometimes sees smoke and smells delicious food. At first, she thinks it is Nacha cooking tortillas. Then, she realizes it is an elderly Native American woman who smiles and serves her tea. The presence comforts her.

Tita emerges from her feverish trance, and realizes she is in John’s laboratory. She watches him experiment with matches, the recipe for which is included in the chapter. John is fascinated with phosphorous, the key ingredient in matches that causes them to catch fire. He begins to tell Tita the story of his grandmother, Morning Light, a Kikapu Native American whom his grandfather captured and kept in a room at the back of the house. The family nicknamed her “the Kikapu,” and she was known for her extensive knowledge of plant medicine. Many family members scorned Morning Light and did not believe in her medicinal practices, until she saved the life of John’s great-grandfather Peter. Peter was severely ill, and his wife Mary attempted to use leeches to bleed him. Morning Light rescued him just as he was about to hemorrhage to death. She earned the respect of the family and from then on, John was fascinated with learning from her. Tita realizes that the elderly woman who ministered to her was John’s dead grandmother.

John has made it his life’s work to prove Morning Light’s remedies work scientifically. As he explains how phosphorous works, he shares Morning Light’s philosophy on the soul. She believed every person possesses the ability to be ignited, like a match. The breath or spirit is oxygen, and sensory experiences outside the body—like cooking and romance—are like candles. When a person is near a stimulus, it sparks them to life, igniting their passion. However, if one’s candle remains unlit, it will dampen, and the breath will depart—leaving an empty shell of a person. People with cold breath or spirits can suck the life out of others. The description moves Tita to tears, but she still does not speak. John teaches her to use phosphorous as invisible ink, encouraging her to communicate with him by writing on the wall. In response to his question of why she will not speak, she writes, “Because I don’t want to” (85). Tita contemplates who can rekindle her soul; it might be John, but she is certain she will never live near her mother again.