Chapter 1, January, Christmas Rolls Summary

Once you start chopping onions it is hard to stop your tears. Tita is especially susceptible to tears… just like her great aunt, Tita, who reportedly cried in the womb. That is another story. Tita's great aunt was born in the kitchen and lived most of her life cooking. Tita takes after her in that respect way. Life, for Tita, is the delight of food, and the kitchen is her realm. When Tita was a young girl, she became good friends with the cook, and they often played games, even shaping the sausage they made into the shapes of animals, as though it were balloons.

The only time Tita was not upset at the frying of her little sausage creatures was when the sausages were offered in the making of Christmas rolls. They embodied everything Tita loved...