K.Esquivel-LWFC

and set her to grinding the spices with the
chiles. To make this
process easier, it helps to add a few drops of
vinegar from time to
time as you're grinding. Last of all, mix the
meat, finely chopped and
ground, with the chiles and spices and let the
mixture rest for a
while, preferably overnight.
They had barely begun their grinding, when
Mama Elena came into the
kitchen, asking why the tub for her bath had
not been filled.
She didn't like to bathe too late, or her hair
wouldn't dry properly.
Preparing Mama Elena's bath was quite a
ceremony.
The water had to be heated with lavender
flowers, Mama Elena's favorite
scent. Then this "decoction" had to be
strained through a clean cloth
and a few drops of aguardiente added to it.
Finally, she had to carry
buckets of hot water, one after another, to
"the dark room"-a small
room at one end of the house, next to the
kitchen.
As its name indicated, this room didn't
receive any light, since it had
no windows. All it had was a narrow door.
Inside, in the middle of
the room, there was a large tub into which
the water was poured. Next
to it, there was a pewter pitcher for the aloe
water used in washing
Mama Elena's hair.
Only Tita, whose mission it was to serve her
until death, was allowed
to be present during this ritual, to see her
mother naked.
No one else. That's why the room had been
built to prevent anyone
seeing in. Tita first had to wash her mother's
body and then her hair,
and then finally she had to go iron the
clothes that Mama Elena would
put on when she got out of the tub, while
Mama Elena stayed in the tub
relaxing and enjoying the water.
At a summons from her mother, Tita helped
her to dry herself and put on
her warm clothes as quickly as possible, so
she wouldn't catch cold.
Afterward, Tita opened the door just an inch,
so the room would cool
down a little bit and Mama Elena's body
wouldn't suffer from an abrupt
change of temperature. The whole while,
Tita brushed her hair in that
room lit only by the weak beam of light
through the crack at the door,
which created an eerie atmosphere as it
revealed strange shapes in the
rising steam. She brushed Mama Elena's
hair until it was thoroughly
dry, braided it, and that completed the liturgy.
Tita always thanked
God that her mother only bathed once a
week, because otherwise her life
would be a real cross to bear.
In Mama Elena's opinion, both her bath and
her meals were the same
story: no matter how hard Tita tried she
always got an infinite number
of things wrong. Either her blouse had a
wrinkle, or there wasn't
enough hot water, or her braid came out
uneven-in short, it seemed Mama
Elena's genius was for finding fault. But she
had never found as many
faults as today. And that was because Tita
really had been careless
with all the fine points of the ceremony. The
water was so hot that