Most people are familiar with the sensation of crying while chopping an onion. Though the body produces tears for many reasons, they most often signify a reaction to grief. Like Water for Chocolate opens with Mama Elena shedding tears as she prepares onions for a dish, however, the onions also affect her unborn child. The first time Tita cries, she is still in the womb—yet her tears provide enough salt for the family’s food for years. Both this salt and Tita’s spontaneity season her dishes with powerful emotions.

Mama Elena forbids Tita from crying, seeing her emotional reactions as a sign of weakness. Crying is often seen as a distinctly female response and is often used to criticize women’s sensitivity. Thus, Tita does most of her crying in private or in the sanctuary of the kitchen. As Tita grows, she allows those whom she trusts to see her cry. When she convalesces at Dr. John Brown’s house, she does not speak, but tears fall down her cheeks as he teaches her about rekindling her spirit. When Chencha visits with oxtail soup, the two women cry so much that their tears flood down the stairs of the house. Tita weeps at the dinner she holds for John, and his Aunt Mary remarks, “How wonderful to see a woman in love weeping with emotion” (160).