K.Esquivel-LWFC

secrets of love and life as revealed by the
kitchen.
That victory over Rosaura had been enough
to prevent another serious
argument until now, when Alex was
introduced and with him the
possibility of an engagement. Rosaura was
furious when she saw that
Pedro and Tita were staunchly behind
Esperanza. She fought with
everything she had, she fought like a lioness
to defend what according
to tradition was her right-a daughter who
would stay with her until she
died. She kicked, she screamed, she yelled,
she spit, she threw up,
she made desperate threats. For the first
time, she broke their pact
and hurled curses at Pedro and Tita, holding
up to them all the
suffering they had caused her.
The house became a battlefield. Slammed
doors were the order of the
day. Fortunately this did not go on for long,
because after three days
of the most violent and heartrending battle
between the two sides,
Rosaura, due to her terrible digestive
problems, had died of whatever
she had died of.
Having brought off the wedding between
Alex and Esperanza was Lita's
greatest triumph. How proud she felt to see
Esperanza so
self-confident, so intelligent, so perfectly
prepared, so happy, so
capable, and at the same time, so feminine
and womanly, in the fullest
sense of the word. She looked so beautiful
in her wedding gown,
waltzing with Alex to "The Eyes of Youth."
When the music was over, the Lobos,
Paquita and Jorge, came up to
congratulate Pedro and Tita.
"Congratulations, Pedro, your daughter
couldn't have found a better
match than Alex for ten miles around."
"Yes, Alex Brown is a wonderful boy. The
only sad thing is that
they're not going to stay with us. Alex won a
grant to get his
doctorate at Harvard University, and they're
leaving for there today,
right after the wedding."
"How awful, Tita! What are you going to do
now?" inquired Paquita
venomously. "Without Esperanza in the
house you're not going to be
able to live with Pedro. Oh, but before you
move someplace else, give
me the recipe for these chiles in walnut
sauce.
How exquisite they look!"
The chiles not only looked good, they were
indeed delicious-never
before had Tita done such a marvelous job
with them. The platters of
chiles proudly wore the colors of the flag: the
green of the chiles,
the white of the nut sauce, the red of the
pomegranates.
These tricolored trays didn't last very long:
the chiles disappeared in
the blink of an eye . . . how long ago it
seemed that Tita had felt
like a chile in nut sauce left I 2i I' sitting on
the platter out of
etiquette, for not wanting to look greedy.
Tita wondered whether the fact that there
was not a single chile left
on the platters was a sign that good manners
had been forgotten or that
the chiles were indeed splendid.