“Like Water for Chocolate,” has always been a delectable tale of food, love, and the power they wield when intertwined. Now, Salma Hayek Pinault reimagines Laura Esquivel's 1989 classic as a story of women’s resilience in the face of a turbulent political landscape.
Woven throughout the storyline of Tita de la Garza and Pedro Muzquiz’s forbidden love is the power struggle between a small pool of wealthy landowners and politicians and the people who serve them. Backroom deals, violence and fear tactics are tools the ruling class employs in the series to maintain the status quo and achieve their desired outcomes. The country is on edge as the fight for control breaks out, and yet the show still takes time to explore the human spirit’s desire to love and be loved.
Today’s political upheaval mirrors the struggles of this fictional tale. With a second Trump term underway and a desire for escapism and reassurance, now might be the time to dig into the new series on HBO.
The show debuted right after Election Day, and I watched it to escape the new, oppressive reality. I doubt the show’s themes of feminine survival would have stood out to me as much had Trump lost.
I half-expected a frame-for-frame modern retelling of the story of two unrequited lovers, set against the backdrop of Mexico’s Revolutionary War. Instead, I got luscious set pieces as Hayek and her team explored the various ways women wield — and at times, give up — their power.
The series became the most watched Latin American content on Max worldwide and climbed to rank among the top three most watched series on the platform during its premiere month of November and has already been renewed for a second season.
“This second season of the series will complete the story, fusing essential aspects of Mexican culture, such as magical realism and gastronomy, acting as forms of expression and connection,” said Mariano Cesar, SVP of General Entertainment Content and Programming Strategy at Warner Bros. Discovery for Latin America and US Hispanic upon news of the show’s renewal. “These themes are developed from a female perspective, in which the questioning of social and family mandates reinforces the current relevance of the narrative.”
We need your help to stay independent
In one memorable scene Azul Guaita, who plays Tita de la Garza — a sweet character kept apart from her lover by her mother — uses her calm demeanor to talk down revolutionary soldiers set to raid her family’s ranch of food and resources.
Irene Azuela plays her mother Elena, who aims a shotgun at the group’s leader, firing it with no fear and precision to scare them off her land. With guns raised by both sides, Tita steps in between the two to prevent bloodshed.
The revolutionary leader, once a servant to the De La Garza family, agrees to Tita’s request to leave without violence (calling Tita jefa or “boss” in the process), but orders his men to grab provisions on their way out. Tita turns to her mother with a smile on her face that implies she’ll be praised for the outcome of the exchange. Instead, she’s slapped by her mother across the face as she spits out the word jefa out to her.
The women here are sweet and vicious. They take orders and give them. They’re mothers and killers. Some use words to get their way, others use guns and food.
“Women have always had to fight to have a voice or control over our destiny,” Hayek Pinault stated during the premiere of the show’s press conference. “Women participated in the revolution. They had to defend their homes, protect their families. The contributions of women is often overlooked in all the political conflicts all over the world.”
With a new Trump administration, I’m reminded of the old adage that “history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." The horrors of the past won’t be the same, but new challenges — and moments of sweetness — will help us endure. A reminder that what is old, can be new again. So to survive the present, it feels only natural that we should look to the past.
What the past tells us, in both fiction and non-ficition, is survival is crafted moment by moment. You look for the light, to get you through the darkness. Tita and her lover Pedro find connection in mundane, routine moments. They’re kept apart but their love burns bright through stolen looks, shared laughs and electrified touches where their hands brush past each other. Where they find each other, they find love, magic and a way through. Love is revolutionary and imbues people with the power to do incredible things. For Tita, love gives her the ability to survive the unbearable agony of a lifetime of injustice.
This superhuman strength reminds me of the moment Miss Pross, an average woman at best, overpowers the vicious and bitter Madame Defarge in Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities.” How does she do it ? With “the vigorous, tenacity of love, always so much stronger than hate.” Dickens' story is over 160 years old and still inspiring audiences today (The Dark Knight Rises is a modern retelling of the French Revolutionary tale and one of the highest grossing films of all time). The past cannot predict the future but it can remind us of universal truths. In this case, there is a range to love. Tita uses it to escape her reality, Miss Pross employs it to kill.
This new version of “Like Water for Chocolate,” brings us familiar characters imbued with new elements — much like the current political landscape in the U.S. And what the past tells us is that there is power in radical love and we will survive. It won’t be unscathed, but the parts of us that make it will have a story to tell and it is the responsibility of future generations to make meaning of it.
Shares