JANUARY:
Pg 5 – “Once her wailing got so violent that it brought on an early labor”
- Tita was born prematurely
Pg 6 – “...Mama Elena’s milk dried up from the shock ... Nacha ... offered to take charge of feeding Tita”
- Mama Elena’s husband died of a heart attack, her milk dried up, and so Nacha feeds Tita in the kitchen with teas and
FEBRUARY:
Pg 28 – “Because there’s a chicken inside this egg! Of course Nacha can’t hear it, but I can”
- Tita thinks she hears a chicken inside the egg, this is symbolic of her inability to have children because of Mama Elena. Mama Elena also castrates the chickens, which symbolizes Tita’s ‘castration’.
Pg 30 – “Then she cried without tears, which is said to hurt even more, like dry labor.”
- Tita cries because she can’t have children.
MARCH:
Pg 48 – “...Rosaura – who was expecting her first child...”
- we find out that Rosaura is pregnant
APRIL :
Pg 71 - “They didn’t know when they left that the baby would arrive so soon, for just as they left Rosaura had gone into labor”
- Mama Elena and Chencha go into town to get the last baby supplies and Rosaura goes into labor.
Pg 71 – “... she was the only one present at the birth of her nephew.”
- Tita is the only one left in the house to help Rosaura deliver the baby.
Pg 72 – “Rosaura had gained sixty-five pounds during her pregnancy, which made the labor to deliver her first child even more difficult.”
“Tita had seen some animals being born, but those experiences didn’t help with this birth”
“Her sister’s flesh opened to make way for life.”
Pg 73 – “Nacha whispered in her ear: cut the umbilical cord, in the right place at the right time, clean him with sweet almond oil, bind the navel, and finally dress him.”
- Nacha (who is dead) tells Tita what to do.
Pg 75 – “Rosaura didn’t have any milk”
- Rosaura cannot feed her own child.
“If there was one thing Tita couldn’t resist, it was a hungry person asking for food. But she had none to give. It was sheer toture. Whens he couldn’t stand it a moment longer, she pulled open her blouse and offered the baby her breast. She knew it was completely dry, but at least it woudl act as a pacifier and keep him occupied while she decided what to do to appease his hunger. The baby clamped desperately onto the nipple and he sucked and he sucked. When he saw the boy’s face slowly grow peaceful and whne she heard the way he was swallowing, she began to suspect that something extraordinary had happened. Was it possible that she was feeding the baby? She removed the boy from her breast: a thin stream of milk sprayed out ... It wasn’t possible for an unmarried woman to have milk, short of a supernatural act, unheard of in these times.”
- Tita feeds Rosaura’s baby.
Pg 77 – “...Rosaura never had any milk. Whereas Tita had enough milk to feed Roberto and two more babies besides, if she’d wanted to, from that day on.”
- Rosaura is never able to feed her baby, whereas Tita feeds him until he is able to eat normal food.
MAY:
Pg 93 – “The milk in her breasts had dried up overnight fromt he pain in her separation from her nephew.”
- Rosaura, Pedro, and Roberto leave. Tita is so upset that her milk dries up. She also doesn’t need it anymore.
Pg 97 – “She had been drinking beer all day, not to cool off, but to make more milk to nurse her nephew.”
- a flashback to an afternoon when Rosaura, Pedro, and Roberto where still at the ranch.
JUNE:
//
JULY:
Pg 137 – “When she found out she was pregnant, Mama Elena had planned to runa way with José”
- Tita finds out about Mama Elena’s affair with the ‘mulatto’
Pg 138 – “Rosaura, displaying an enormous pregnant belly, was walking slowly.”
- Tita finds out that Rosaura is pregnant, again, at Mama Elena’s funeral.
AUGUST:
Pg 146 – “... her adorable niece, who had been born three months before, prematurely, just like Tita.”
- We find out that Esperanza, the niece (Rosaura’s daughter), is born early. She has this in common with Tita along with other things, as is explained later on.
SEPTEMBER:
Pg 166 – “The suspicion that she was pregnant hardly brought a laugh to her lips!”
- The reader finds out that Tita thinks she is pregnant. She hasn’t told Pedro yet (since it would be his child).
Pg 173 – “... down to this cursed baby you carry in your belly!”
- Mama Elena’s ghost comes to scare and accuse Tita of doing something wrong. They discuss the baby briefly.
Pg 177 – “If I didn’t know perfectly well that you are a decent girl, I would swear that you are pregnant.”
- Paquita Lobo talks to Tita because she looks ill. Tita avoids the question after reassuring her that she is not pregnant (even though she is).
Pg 180 – “A year later Gertrudis gave birth to a mulatto baby.”
- Tita is forced to tell Mama Elena’s secret to the family in order to save Gertrudis’s marriage.
OCTOBER:
Pg 191 – “... I think you should tell Pedro you’re expecting his child.”
- Gertrudis tells Tita this just as Pedro walks past so that he hears and this causes them to talk about the baby.
Pg 200 – “She wasn’t pregnant.”
- Tita finds out she isn’t pregnant after a fight with the ghost of her mother.
Pg 202 – “... and gave her a recipe the prostitutes use so they don’t get pregnant..”
- Gertrudis gives Tita this recipe right before she leaves to fight the revolution.
NOVEMBER:
Pg 211 – “What you should do instead of inviting him to dinner is tell him once and for all that you’re not going to marry him because you are going to have my baby.”
- Pedro is jealous because Tita is making John a nice dinner before telling him she cannot marry him.
“... because I’m not pregnant.”
- Tita tells Pedro she is not pregnant, he didn’t know beforehand.
DECEMBER:
//