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

film foray: COMO AGUA PARA CHOCOLATE 295
Would it not have been a repetition of the conquest for the Mexican Tita
to surrender her virtue to the blond from across the border? Mexico even
has a special word for women who give themselves to the enemy (and those
who love foreigners too much): they are known as malinchistas in “honor”
of Doña Marina, the hated mistress of the blond Cortés, who betrayed her
people only to be cast aside herself and given to another conquistador when
the mission had been completed. In one of the fi rst silent fi lms ever made in
Mexico by a company based in the United States, an American soldier says
to the Mexican girl he is embracing, “And soon you’ll be Mrs. Shorty.” Obviously,
in a fi lm made in Mexico, the heroine cannot become Mrs. Brown,
regardless of the reason.
Of course, U.S. audiences perceive no such impediment and look at the
doctor as a prize catch—he loves Tita, he is a doctor, he has a fi ne sense
of humor, he seems to have a good character and, most important, he is
an American. The book and script cheat a little; in order to make Mexican
audiences more sympathetic to the gringo, the author gives him a
grandmother from the Kickapoo, a tribe that voluntarily chose to abandon
the United States and live in Mexico. Partly, American audiences’ resonance
with this character can be blamed on the appealing actor who plays
the forsaken sawbones; his sweetness and gentle humor make him much
more attractive than he ought to be, particularly to happily married women
of a certain age. The actor who plays Pedro, by contrast, displays none of the
smoldering fi re that the role demands.
The book, however, leaves no doubts as to the rightness of Tita’s choices.
In the United States, there are many kinds of love, and a marriage based
solely on passion is seen as quite a risky enterprise. In Mexico, however,
love is defi ned by passion; whether it lasts an hour or a lifetime is of little
consequence. The book revolves around the central premise that women
experience love promised and not fulfi lled, making them forever “like water
for chocolate.” Given this construct, going after the one you love, regardless
of the consequences, becomes in itself a revolutionary act. All throughout
the story, women think about the men whom they have loved and
who loved them, and whom they have not been permitted to marry. From
the servant Nacha to Mama Elena, unfulfi lled passion knows no class
distinctions. When the naked Gertrudis vanishes in a cloud of passion,
swooped up by the Villista captain, she excites both Tita and Pedro
into thinking momentarily that another course is possible for them, until
Mama Elena appears to break their spell. Perhaps another meaning of
the revolution is that Gertrudis, Tita, Esperanza, and Chencha will all
eventually have the opportunity to be with their true loves, regardless of
the cost.