FOOD FOR THOUGHT: FOOD IMAGERY IN LAURA ESQUIVEL LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE

For feminists, the kitchen is a symbol of the world of tradi tionally marginalized woman. It is a space that associated with repetitive work, lacking any "real" creativity, and having no possibility for the fulfilment of women's existential needs, individualization or self - expression. Latin American women writer Lau ra Esquivel through her debut novel Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances and Home Remedies (Como agua para chocolate: Novela de entregas mensuales can recetas, amores y remedios caseros ) expresses a different, q uite parodic and critical gender perspective that women can use food as a path to power and a part of a cultural cauldron involving sensuality and machismo. This paper is focuses on how food imagery is particularly important in the novel as a voice for wo men and their abundant emotions