Capítulo 12: December/ Deciembre

This months recipe is Chiles in Walnut Sauce, and it is being made for another wedding.  Yes a wedding!  This confused me at first; I was like, who's getting married?!?  And then I figured out that it was Esperanza and Alex's wedding (Pedro and Rosaura's daughter and John's son).  So, Esperanza didn't have the sad fate of being forced not to marry... because Rosaura died.  Kind of sad, yes, but happy that Esperanza was free to live her life and marry Alex.  It was killing me to know whether or not Tita married John, or stayed in her affair with Pedro.  Well...she didn't marry John.  And her, Pedro and Rosaura had decided upon an arrangement that they could all live together in relative peace.  And they all lived that way until the day Rosaura died.  As you can remember what Tita's cooking did to the guests at Pedro and Rosaura's wedding, her food did get a reaction from the guests at this wedding.  Not quite the same reaction though.  This reaction was much more sensual...all the guests suddenly had a strong desire to be 'intimate' with their partners.  So, everyone left the party...hastily...to carry out their 'business'.  This of course left Tita and Pedro alone for the evening.  John had sadly left the wedding alone, knowing that he was still not the one Tita would choose to be with.  With Esperanza grown, married and out of the house; and Rosaura gone as well; Tita and Pedro were free to express their love for one another without shame or fear of getting caught.  The ending scene in this book is quite powerful, and full of magic realism.  At the end of their intimate night, Tita finds Pedro dead on top of her; he died of extreme emotions and love for Tita-he couldn't handle it.  Knowing that Tita will never be happy again, she remembers something that John had said to her long ago about the flame that each person holds inside of them.  If a person's flame were to become too strong or bright, if all their candles were 'lit' at once, they would die.  So, Tita begins eating matches, one by one, and when they are all gone, she clings to Pedro and thinks of all the wonderful moments she had shared with him.  As Tita is remembering, hers and Pedro's bodies catch flame.  Then the bed is engulfed in flame, and then the room, and then the entire ranch is consumed in a massive fire that can be seen for miles.  Tita dies in an embrace with Pedro.  But they are now together in peace.