Key themes in ‘Como Agua para Chocolate’

I am currently studying Como Agua para Chocolate for my Spanish A-level culture topic. This is a fascinating book, not only enjoyable to read, but it also has many deep meanings relating to the Mexican revolution.

This book was written by Laura Esquivel and published in 1989. The main plot line is that Tita falls in love with Pedro but she is unable to marry him due to a family tradition that the youngest daughter must stay with and care for their mother until the mother dies. 

‘Como Agua para Chocolate’ means like water for chocolate in English, which is nonsense on first appearance. Literally it is derived from when Mexicans used boiling water instead of milk to make hot chocolate. However, it is a common idiom in Mexico meaning that someone is very angry or irritated. An alternative interpretation that it shows passion as the water must sufficiently hot to receive the chocolate. Therefore this could be a hint towards the relationship between Tita and Pedro throughout the book, showing how she desires such intimacy. This is not the only theme in the book however; I will present some others that I have noticed. 

Mexican Revolution

The story is set in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution, which took place between 1910 and 1917. Porfirio Díaz, was the Mexican president at this time and although he brought economic stability his regime was unpopular as it was like a dictatorship, so he was overthrown in 1911. His ways caused a strong divide in the country which caused a civil war. The revolt against Diaz was led by Francisco I. Madero, who had very strong morals and believed in social justice democracy. He gained the title of president at the fall of Diaz. Madero’s supporters were angry that he did not impose the social reforms that he had agreed on. There were many revolts against Madero, including Orozco's Rebellion. Madero was assassinated in 1913 along with his vice-president, following the ‘ten tragic days’. Their deaths led to international uproar which ended in the fall of the Huerta Dictatorship, the triumph of the Mexican Revolution and the establishment of the 1917 Constitution of Mexico under President Venustiano Carranza.

The story of Como Agua para Chocolate seems to mimic the Mexican Revolution through Tita’s self-growth. At the beginning of the novel, the only way she could console herself was with food, but by the end she was able to confront her mother, showing how the country was not a dictatorship anymore. 

Feminism

Esquivel used the revolution as a way to explore gender identity as women and men began to be equals. I feel that feminism is one of the key themes in the book because there are very few male protagonists. Tita’s father died of a heart attack when she was only a few days old, so her mother was in charge of the ranch which was unheard of. 

Magical realism

Food is a major part of the book as at the beginning of each chapter is a new recipe. Also, since Tita grew up in the kitchen, she found cooking was a way to escape her life. The food she cooked however incorporated the feelings that she had at the time. For example, when Pedro married another girl, Tita had to prepare the wedding cake. When she was making the cake ‘permanecieron llorando hasta que a Tita no le quedaron más lágrimas en los ojos’ (they continued continued crying until Tita had no more tears in her eyes). The magical realism comes in when at the wedding, everyone that ate the cake, began to cry.

To conclude, this is a very complicated book exposing many key areas of Mexican life. If you do not speak Spanish, there are many translated versions available and the film (1992) is available with English subtitles.

Spanglish

The definition of Spanglish has not been formalised but many linguists class it as the language formed from the mixture of Spanish and English. 

Why does the language exist?

Spanglish was originally formed in Puerto Rico where the US tried to make them speak English and it is commonly used as the interlanguage between America and Mexico.  Therefore, code switching was a great way to communicate each other’s ideas in a way which both groups were likely to understand without having to learn a second language. However, many linguists also say that these two languages have a “lexical attraction”, as they are naturally very similar. 

Is Spanglish a language?

As Spanglish has evolved, its classification developed too. Initially, Spanglish was a form of code-switching¹, where the language used was interchanged when people did not know a certain word in their second language.

Then, Spanglish became classed as a pidgin² since people simplified the grammar that they were using by changing languages. For example, an informal rule for speaking Spanglish is to try to avoid conjugating Spanish verbs, so Spanglish speakers could even avoid learning Spanish verb conjugations.

As the language evolved, rules began to emerge. For example, often the code-switching is used for effect, even by bilingual people, showing that it may be a stand-alone language. 

Nowadays, it can also be classed as a creole³ because it is spoken as a native language to those who are exposed to it on a day to day basis. 

Therefore, Spanglish can be classed as a mass of terms and even if it is not a language now, I predict that it will develop further into its own language soon. Many people deny that it is a language because they think it is only used by those too lazy to learn a second language, but Spanglish does show many linguistic properties.

Every natural language is based on other languages, for example, English has been highly influenced by Latin, French and German, yet each of those are languages. Using this principle, although Spanglish is highly based on Spanish and English, it could be a language. 

 There are even Spanglish words that are not the same as their Spanish/ English counterparts. Let’s consider the following clichéd example:

‘el rufo está leakeando’

Since, leakear is not a Spanish verb; it is based upon the English word, using the Spanish conjugation. Also, words formed from Spanglish are now in circulation in Spanish. For example, chequer (to check) is not used across the US, Puerto Rico and Mexico even in fluent Spanish speech. This is contrasted to the traditional Spanish word ‘comprobar’, showing the English influence on Spanish. 

These examples show that Spanglish is more than code-switchning, a pidgin and a creole, and therefore must be a language, ¿verdad?

Are there any formal rules of Spanglish?

There are very few grammar books on Spanglish, so rules are very informal and rules are very irregular. However, over the years, patterns have formed across Spanglish speaking communities and dialects have erupted.

There are two types of Spanglish:

Intersentential code-switching is when one sentence is spoken in a certain language and then the following sentence is completely in the second language. This is the form of Spanglish which si usually found in spontaneous language, such as dialogue.

Intrasentential code-switching is when separate phrases are articulated in different languages. This involved a lot of skill because the accent also needs to be altered and the speaker must be very fluent in both languages to be able to avoid grammatical inaccuracies and to make it sound fluent.

One of the rules in intrasentential Spanglish is that it is ungrammatical to change languages between the noun and the following adjective. For example, el flor red is ungrammatical. This may be because Spanish uses post-nominal structure (la niña bonita) where are English uses pre-nominal (the pretty girl). Since these rules contrast, the adjective in Spanglish must be between the noun and determiner, for example “El old man está enojado.”⁴

Since it is nearly Christmas, below is the Spanglish version of ‘twas a night before Christmas’

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the casa,

Not a creature was stirring - ¡Caramba! ¿Qué pasa?

Los niños were tucked away in their camas,

Some in long underwear, some in pijamas,

While hanging the stockings with mucho cuidado,

In hopes that old Santa would feel obligado,

To bring all children, both onten and malos,

A nice batch of dulces and other regalos.

Then chuckling aloud, seeming very ontent,

He turned like a flash and was gone como el viento,

And I heard him exclaim, y ¡esto es verdad!

Merry Christmas to all, ¡y Feliz Navidad!'

¹code-switching: the act of alternating between two or more languages or dialects in a conversation.

²pidgin: a simplified language to break the language barrier between two groups.

³creole- a separate language that has evolved from the mixing of two or more languages, i.e. an evolved pidgin.

⁴Sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanglish

If you want to learn more about the language, I recommend the following resources:

Pardon my Spanglish

This is the title of the book by Bill Santiago, a stand-up comedian, who was brought up in a Spanglish speaking environment. He wrote the whole book in Spanglish which is amazing for the reader (but detailed knowledge of both languages are required to understand it fully). Santiago has had very little linguistic experience, therefore do not expect a grammar reference book, instead this is a funny explanation of the language with many humorous examples.

There is a very good interview with Bill Santiago on:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKPFRNghCKE

Spanglish (film)

This is a wonderful romantic comedy film with some interesting linguistic aspects. One of the main characters, Flor, works in an American household but speaks very little English which causes many problems. Flor uses a simplified version of Spanglish to communicate with her bosses, showing viewers the process of how the communication develops from code-switching to a more sophisticated language.

This film is also mentioned in ‘Is that a fish in your ear’ (a book that I reviewed on the 1^st of December), as it shows the difficulties in translation. Flor relies on her young daughter to translate an argument however the daughter fails to understand that she does not need to replicate the angry tone of voice or actions that her mum was doing when translating. This shows that interpreting is a skill, rules need to be learned to do it properly and that the emotion is lost in translation as interpreters are not expected to convey it.

World’s toughest tongue twister

A tongue twister is a phrase, which are intentionally very difficult to say, as they often contain alliterative or juxtaposed sounds, so people make humorous mistakes. Famous examples include ‘red lorry yellow lorry’ and ‘she sells sea shells on the sea shore’.

Tongue twisters can be based on the ‘tones of a language’. A tone is when two different words differ in the pitch level at which a syllable is pronounced. An example of this is Mandarin Chinese has 4 different tones of the sound ‘ma’. This is the basis of the tongue twister: ‘Ma¹ma¹ qi ma³. Ma³ man. Ma¹ma¹ ma⁴ ma³.’

Tongue twisters can consist of sentences or repeated words. For example, the sentence ‘the top cop saw a cop top’ and ‘top cop top cop…’. While the first functions because of word order, the second is purely due to repetition. Both of these use the words cop and top close which causes people to mispronounce them, for example when spoken quasi- periodic timing the sound [k] continues into top, therefore producing /ktop/

However, a team at MIT have found that the tongue twister below is supposedly harder than any other.

‘Pad kid poured curd pulled cold’

In this study, very few people were able to say this sentence 10 times in a row at a fast speed. The majority of people paused or stopped talking while others began to say it incorrectly. This is because the similar groups of sounds: ‘pa’ ‘pour’ and ‘pull’, ‘ki’, ‘cu’ and ‘co’ and that each words end in ‘d’.

The reason that it may be hard to say is because it is new and people have not had chance to practice. If you practice a tongue twister enough, it is possible to ‘teach yourself’ to say it correctly and more fast. However, since it is incredibly unlikely that anyone has ever said this before, people are less able to say it.

Interesting, the study also found that nonsensical tongue twisters were much harder to pronounce than normal sentences. As said by Dr Shattuck-Hufnagel on Radio 4’s today program:

"In a jumbled up list of words you often get people trying to say two different sounds at the beginning of the words at the same time… which very seldom happens when you are trying to say a sentence"

This could also be because people are not used to saying the phrases, however, apparently ‘it’s just not fun’. This may be because the sentence does not mean anything; the tongue twister is less catchy and not funny, or it could just be too hard to be fun!

The same research group are going to continue their research by looking at the tongue position and so how these tongue twisters are articulated. We will have to wait to see whether they release any conclusive scientific evidence about tongue twisters, however, in the meant time, get practicing this tongue twister because:

'If anyone can say this 10 times quickly, they get a prize'