Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

chapter 16
Film Foray: Como agua para chocolate
(Like Water for Chocolate)
Como agua para chocolate, a novel by Laura Esquivel, is a story of forbidden
love. In 1991 it was made into a movie by Alfonso Arau, her husband
at the time, a year after its publication. Esquivel also wrote the screenplay.
The story revolves around a romance involving Tita and Pedro, the main
characters. Their love affair simmers constantly throughout the story, but
especially in the magical way in which Tita infuses her emotions into the
food she prepares for Pedro. In consuming her meals, Pedro ingests Tita’s
passion for him as they bide their time waiting for the day when they can
consummate their love. Once the fi lm demonstrated its strong box office
clout in Mexico and the United States, initial lukewarm reviews by Mexican
critics gave way to ten Ariel awards (Mexico’s Oscar) in 1992 from the
Mexican Film Academy. A full-on advertising campaign by Miramax accompanied
distribution of the fi lm in the United States. The marketing
scheme began with posters praising its achievement as the most successful
foreign language fi lm ever, as if profi ts were the only proof of cinematographic
merit. After sixty-three consecutive weeks in theaters the fi lm had
grossed more than $20 million. Copies of the novel were sold at movie theaters,
persuading Mexican restaurants across the United States to recreate
the dishes made in the fi lm. They also staged “seductive recipe” contests
with trips to Mexico as prizes. At a party celebrating the fi lm, Claudette
Maille, the actress who played Gertrudis, recreated her most memorable
scene by being carried off naked on horseback, this time along the West Side
Highway in New York City, while all those in attendance were treated to a
banquet identical to the wedding feast prepared by Tita and her indigenous
servants.