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| Como Agua Para Chocolate Photo credit: colegiouniversitariodeperiodismo licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 |
A rare success
The story’s title draws on Tita, the main character in the novel, who conveys her state of boiling fury with a statement, “Estoy como agua para chocolate.” The unusual success of this book in 1989 led to an even bigger success in the form of a movie in 1992 and when the film opened in the United States with English subtitles, it easily became one of the most popular foreign films in American history.
The film also garnered immense critical acclaim partly because it came out in the 90s when works of previously ignored minority female writers had just started attracting their due share of limelight due to the newly emerging ideas of multiculturalism in literature. As a testimony to its success, the film bagged each of the 11 Ariel Awards from the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures and became highest grossing film to be ever released in the United States until then. There’s no denying the fact that this film is a masterpiece worth every connoisseur’s collection and the powerful storytelling transcends all language and cultural barriers.
A tragic tale of intense passion
Como Agua Para Chocolate is a very simple yet moving story of the strong family values and traditions that underscore Mexico’s cultural heritage. The story revolves around the life of Tita De La Garza, the protagonist, who is forbidden to marry because of a family tradition but is still involved with Pedro Muzquiz, her novio (boyfriend). A chain of comic events ensues after, one day, Pedro and his father visit with Tita’s family to discuss their marriage and her mom refuses and offers her elder daughter, Rosaura instead. Pedro, counting on being closer to Tita as a member of her family, accepts the liaison; this decision naturally devastates Tita who bakes her sister’s wedding cake with much crying and longing. Tita’s tears magically stir nostalgic emotions in all those who eat the cake. Later, Tita’s father dies after knowing that his wife had cheated on him some time in the past.
A year down the line, Tita prepares a meal of rose petals laced with her passion and feelings for her love in an attempt to win him back from her sister. However, instead of Pedro, it is Gertrudis who ends up having the meal and Tita’s heat and passion along with it. As an effect of the spell, she is overcome with lust while taking a shower and runs off naked in the arms of a revolutionary soldier. Rosaura is shown to have given birth to a baby boy who, for some reason, only Tita is able to nurse. Tita’s mom suspects Tita’s foulplay in this and sends Rosaura and Pedro away to San Antonio. In some time, the baby dies due to lack of Tita’s nursing and Tita becomes sick and catatonic.
At this stage, Tita is taken to Texas by one Dr. John Brown for treatment and recuperation. Eventually, Tita and Dr. Brown develop a relationship and decide to get married. Meanwhile back home, her mother is killed by the revolutionaries and Pedro and Rosaura return for the funeral. Soon after, Rosaura gives birth to a baby girl, Esperanza. Dr. Brown is called away and finally Tita and Pedro end up sleeping together.
Twenty years later, Rosaura is shown to have died of severe digestive problems and Pedro and Tita as reunited. Tragicaly, though, Pedro dies during an intense love-making session with his beloved and Tita too, burns to death along with the entire ranch. In the end, Esperanza returns to the site only to find Tita’s cookbook that told of her recipes and love for Pedro.
What’s it it for me?
For someone learning Spanish, this film offers every ingradient for immersive learning. Engaging beyond doubt, the story sucks you in regardless of which genre you like watching. It also helps to know that the film has reasonable helpings of Mexican colloquialism that will help you further your knowledge of this flavor of Spanish.
A glimpse of history also accompanies the experience and you get to see the Mexico during the Revolution. Personally I haven’t come across a better example of magical realism in any language till today. The characters in the film are set against the backdrop of the most powerful episode in Mexican history, the Mexican Revolution that ended in 1917.
The story develops at a peaceful yet interesting pace and you will find this movie relatively easier to understand even if you don’t necessarily catch every sentence being spoken. Besides, the visuals of Ciudad Acuna, Piedras Negras, and the Eagle Pass are simply priceless. The movie gets you up, close, and personal with the Mexican lifestyle in ways few storytellers do.
Maximize your benefits
As we keep harping all the time, you cannot watch a random movie once in a while and expect some miracle to bake Spanish in you. That’s not how it works. Absorbing a language takes persistence. And repititions. Yes, you must watch the movie so many times that most major dialogs, if not all, become nursery rhymes for you. You should be able to watch a scene and blurt out the line that the character is about to utter next. That is when you can claim to be saturated with all the Spanish the movie had to deliver. This might take a dozen reps or maybe even a hundred depending on your mental faculties. But saturate you will.
And no English subtitles please. You’ll kill the essence of the original lines because translations often don’t convey the original sense with the same conviction. You’ll not only miss out on the true emotions being conveyed by the original Spanish dialogs but will also delay your absorption of Spanish thus defeating the whole purpose you began with! If Mel Gibson could make Apocalypto in an extinct language and still manage success, we are sure language barrier cannot be a genuine excuse for falling back on English subtitles.
Another thing that can greatly help with novel-based movies like this one is reading the novel before the movie. You can read the novel in English if you wish but Spanish would obviously be a wiser choice. Don’t hesitate reading the book several times over before you watch the movie for the first time. This will only help further reinforce the Spanish you acquired while reading the novel.
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