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Nacha
Chencha is the De la Garza’s maid and Tita’s friend. She begins working at the ranch at a young age. She skillfully uses hard work and imaginative lies to manage Mama Elena’s cruel dominion. With the other women in the household, she likes to tell fantastical, astonishing stories. As a young woman, her parents separate her from her sweetheart, Jesús. While working at the ranch, she is raped by a rebel troop and suffers a terrible depression. Later, she reunites with Jesús and the two marry and have a baby. Chencha and Tita have a deep, loyal friendship that lasts through the years.
Chencha Quotes in Like Water for Chocolate
The Like Water for Chocolate quotes below are all either spoken by Chencha or refer to Chencha. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7: July Quotes
You know how men are. They all say they won’t eat off a plate that isn’t clean.
Related Characters:
Chencha (speaker), Tita de la Garza
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
134
Explanation and Analysis:
After the bandits rape Chencha, she enters a dark and enduring depression. She explains to Tita that what upsets her most is her fear that no man will want her now that she is no longer a virgin. It is noteworthy that Chencha doesn’t talk about the trauma of her experience or her own sense of anger or loss. What she focuses on is how this experience will affect her future prospects at love and marriage, in a society where men value virginity. The social consequences of rape fill Chencha with anxiety, robbing her of the mental space to process her deeper emotions about the traumatic event.
Chencha’s choice of words in this passage draws attention to the male views of women that Chencha has encountered in her life experience. In the expression she references, women are pictured as the “plate” from which men “eat.” In this metaphor, sexual experiences are the food, men the consumers, and women the medium or vessel from which men consume—a kind of perverse twisting of the (usually positive) food and cooking imagery of the novel. To Chencha, this degree of male objectification of women is not reprehensible but to be expected. Though her society does not condemn men for these views, it is clear that the novel does. Furthermore, the novel offers several positive portrayals of male characters who value women regardless of their virginity or sexual histories, such as Chencha’s future husband Jesús, Gertrudis’ husband Juan Alejandrez, and Dr. John Brown.
Get the entire Water for Chocolate LitChart as a printable PDF.
Chencha Quotes in Like Water for Chocolate
The Like Water for Chocolate quotes below are all either spoken by Chencha or refer to Chencha. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7: July Quotes
You know how men are. They all say they won’t eat off a plate that isn’t clean.
Related Characters:
Chencha (speaker), Tita de la Garza
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
134
Explanation and Analysis:
After the bandits rape Chencha, she enters a dark and enduring depression. She explains to Tita that what upsets her most is her fear that no man will want her now that she is no longer a virgin. It is noteworthy that Chencha doesn’t talk about the trauma of her experience or her own sense of anger or loss. What she focuses on is how this experience will affect her future prospects at love and marriage, in a society where men value virginity. The social consequences of rape fill Chencha with anxiety, robbing her of the mental space to process her deeper emotions about the traumatic event.
Chencha’s choice of words in this passage draws attention to the male views of women that Chencha has encountered in her life experience. In the expression she references, women are pictured as the “plate” from which men “eat.” In this metaphor, sexual experiences are the food, men the consumers, and women the medium or vessel from which men consume—a kind of perverse twisting of the (usually positive) food and cooking imagery of the novel. To Chencha, this degree of male objectification of women is not reprehensible but to be expected. Though her society does not condemn men for these views, it is clear that the novel does. Furthermore, the novel offers several positive portrayals of male characters who value women regardless of their virginity or sexual histories, such as Chencha’s future husband Jesús, Gertrudis’ husband Juan Alejandrez, and Dr. John Brown.
