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daughter with those sick ideas you have in<br />
your head. I'm not going to<br />
let you ruin her life either, forcing her to<br />
follow some stupid<br />
tradition!"<br />
"Is that so? How are you going to stop me?<br />
You must think I'll let<br />
you stay as close to her as you are now, but<br />
mark my words, I won't.<br />
When have you ever seen streetwalkers<br />
allowed to mix with girls from<br />
decent families?"<br />
"Don't tell me you seriously believe that this<br />
is a decent family!"<br />
"My little family certainly is! That's why I will<br />
continue to keep you<br />
from getting anywhere near my daughter, or I<br />
will find it necessary to<br />
run you out of this house, which Mama left to<br />
me. Do you<br />
understand?"<br />
Rosaura left the kitchen to feed Esperanza,<br />
taking the mush Tita had<br />
prepared for her. She couldn't have done<br />
anything worse to Tita.<br />
She had known how to hurt Tita most deeply.<br />
Esperanza was one of the things Tita loved<br />
most in the world.<br />
The anguish she felt! As she tore apart the<br />
last little piece of<br />
tortilla left in her hand, she wished with all<br />
her heart that her<br />
sister would be swallowed up by the earth.<br />
That was the least she<br />
deserved.<br />
All the while she was arguing with Rosaura<br />
she kept breaking off chunks<br />
of tortilla, until she had divided them all into<br />
minuscule pieces.<br />
Tita angrily slid them onto a plate and went<br />
out to throw them to the<br />
chickens, so that she could get on with the<br />
preparation of the beans.<br />
All the clotheslines on the patio were full of<br />
Esperanza 5 snow-white<br />
diapers. They were the most beautiful<br />
diapers.<br />
They had all spent whole afternoons<br />
embroidering the borders.<br />
They swayed in the wind like foam-covered<br />
waves. Tita had to tear her<br />
eyes away from them. She had to forget that<br />
for the first time the<br />
child was eating without her if she wanted to<br />
be able to finish fixing<br />
dinner.<br />
She went back to the kitchen and set about<br />
preparing the beans.<br />
The chopped onion is fried in lard. When it<br />
has turned golden brown,<br />
add the pureed chiles anchos to the pan and<br />
salt to taste.<br />
After the broth is seasoned, add the beans<br />
with the pork and pork<br />
rinds.<br />
It was hopeless to try to forget Esperanza.<br />
Pouring the beans into the<br />
pan, Tita remembered how much the child<br />
liked bean broth.<br />
To feed it to her, she sat her on her knees,<br />
spread a huge napkin over<br />
her front, and gave her the broth with a little<br />
silver spoon. How<br />
happy she had been the day she heard the<br />
sound of the spoon hitting
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