Women, Men, and Food
I grew up in a very traditional Mexican family with my culture interspersed throughout all the food I ate everyday. My mom had a part-time job and stayed home to cook and clean like her mother had done and her grandmother before her. That was the routine from the time I was born until I got to the fourth grade. During that point of my life, fresh homemade tortillas were ready on the table by the time I got home from school with some kind of delicious accompaniment. Anything, from a caldo de pollo con albondigas (chicken soup and meatballs) to a delicious mole. This all changed because of several reasons, some of which could be; my mom getting a full-time job, my dad getting a new job in the city, and our family size increasing …show more content…
Simply by looking at the main characters Tita, Chencha, Nacha, Rosaura, and Mama Elena it is very clear that the women in the kitchen are the ones with the nurturing nature. Perhaps the food and the stigma that people have with women that cannot cook, contributes to this detail. Tita, Nacha, and Chencha, for example, all grew up in and around the kitchen, for one reason or another, and they are displayed again and again in the novel as more of the heroines or true women than Rosaura and Mama Elena. Their ability to nourish the people around them with their delicious recipes plays a big role in the way these women are portrayed. Poor mama Elena and Rosaura do not have the same connection with food that the other women have and are, early in the story, shown as more male-like women because of their other qualities. The way they are described and the way others see them in the book is more correlated to features of strong, dispassionate …show more content…
This only supports my point about the differences we presume in men and women and how this coincides with food. Mama Elena, from Like water for chocolate, used her head in her everyday life and seemed to not display any love at all when it came to food nor her daughters. Contrastingly so, Pulkheria, from Old World Landowners, cooked with the heart for not only her husband, but her guests as
I grew up in a very traditional Mexican family with my culture interspersed throughout all the food I ate everyday. My mom had a part-time job and stayed home to cook and clean like her mother had done and her grandmother before her. That was the routine from the time I was born until I got to the fourth grade. During that point of my life, fresh homemade tortillas were ready on the table by the time I got home from school with some kind of delicious accompaniment. Anything, from a caldo de pollo con albondigas (chicken soup and meatballs) to a delicious mole. This all changed because of several reasons, some of which could be; my mom getting a full-time job, my dad getting a new job in the city, and our family size increasing …show more content…
Simply by looking at the main characters Tita, Chencha, Nacha, Rosaura, and Mama Elena it is very clear that the women in the kitchen are the ones with the nurturing nature. Perhaps the food and the stigma that people have with women that cannot cook, contributes to this detail. Tita, Nacha, and Chencha, for example, all grew up in and around the kitchen, for one reason or another, and they are displayed again and again in the novel as more of the heroines or true women than Rosaura and Mama Elena. Their ability to nourish the people around them with their delicious recipes plays a big role in the way these women are portrayed. Poor mama Elena and Rosaura do not have the same connection with food that the other women have and are, early in the story, shown as more male-like women because of their other qualities. The way they are described and the way others see them in the book is more correlated to features of strong, dispassionate …show more content…
This only supports my point about the differences we presume in men and women and how this coincides with food. Mama Elena, from Like water for chocolate, used her head in her everyday life and seemed to not display any love at all when it came to food nor her daughters. Contrastingly so, Pulkheria, from Old World Landowners, cooked with the heart for not only her husband, but her guests as