Food as a Means of Feminist Expression in Hispanic American Women In most cultures it is not surprising that the ideal place for a woman is the kitchen. Especially in Hispanic culture, women are taught from a very young age that their place is mostly to cook meals for their husbands and children three or four times a day, and most people believe this is a submissive role stated by men to rule over women. In this paper I address how women can turn food from an oppressive way of thinking into a source of power.
Laura Ezquivel’s Como Agua Para Chocolate was published in 1989 and is the first novel by this author. Joanne Saltz claim in her essay that this novel is “an example of magic realism that evokes the Mexican/ U.S. border. A love story that highlights the kitchen with recipes blending “amores y remedios caseros” (Saltz). Ezquivel’s novel is mainly set in the kitchen and as a form of a cookbook. This novel shows women roles in the kitchen and how their food is a representation of their feminist power in society. “A verbal image emerges of the model Mexican rural, middle-class woman. She must be strong and far cleverer than the men who…show more content… Another statement Joanne Saltz makes in her essay “In Como Agua para Chocolate the kitchen is a metaphor that blends the traditional nurturing aspects of the female role with the violence of the slaughtering, disemboweling and dismembering of animals used for food. The chopping, cutting, mixing and heating of both plant an animal ingredients create an alchemy that is socially acceptable outlet for the aggressions of the oppressed that later are served up to the powerful in a palatable fashion” (Saltz). This is a space for women who are strong and are not afraid to oppose to regular social