Like Water For Chocolate Chapter 8

Characters: Tita, Pedro, Dr. Brown, Chencha, Esperanza (Pedro and Rosaura’s daughter) Jesus Martinez (Chencha lover)

The chapter’s recipe is Champandongo

The chapter takes place in the Ranch

Tita is frantically trying to prepare a meal for when Dr. Brown comes over to the ranch to ask for her hand in marriage. She would normally have lots of time to do it, but due to the birth of Rosaura’s daughter Esperanza, and Rosaura’s inability to feed her, Tita has to take control again, reducing her time to prepare the meal. It is noticed that Esperanza’s life is taking a similar course to Tita’s, since they’ve both had to be raised in the kitchen, and Tita is worried that Rosaura might decided to keep her daughter from marrying like Mama Elena did to Tita. Rosaura decides that Esperanza needs to spend more time with her and less in the kitchen, but the child has already grown attached and will not stop crying. Tita eventually has to keep carrying dishes up and down the stairs to keep her satisfied, and on the last trip she falls, dropping all the food she was carrying. Pedro shows up to make matters worse by trying to tell Tita not to Marry Dr. Brown, and she yells at him to never speak with her again, then calls him a coward. Chencha shows up to lift Tita’s seemingly never ending irritation and brings along her new husband Jesus Martinez, who seemed to help her cope with the trauma the bandits left. Chencha helps fix the meal while Tita goes to take a shower, only to once again encounter Pedro as he watches her bathe. The time finally comes for Dr. Brown to arrive, and Tita goes to greet him after some last minutes setups. Pedro and Brown are arguing about politics when Tita comes in, which breaks rules about manners. Dr. Brown presents Tita with a ring to ask for her hand and Pedro, being the man of the house at this point, reluctantly agrees. Once the meal is finished Tita and Dr. Brown kiss each other goodbye, as he has to leave to get his only surviving aunt from the US, and then Tita goes off to do some chores around the house to calm down her conflicted emotions. She goes to the store room to put some kitchen utensils away, not knowing she’s being followed by Pedro until he shuts and locks the door; Tita and Pedro then engage in what I can only describe as love making so passionate and powerful that multicolored steam starts flying from the storeroom. Upon seeing this, Rosaura then proceeds to pray, thinking it was Mama Elena’s restless spirit still roaming the ranch due to unfinished business.