Laura Beatriz Esquivel Valdés (born 30 September 1950)[1] is a Mexican novelist, screenwriter and politician, who served in the Chamber of Deputies for the Morena Party from 2015 to 2018.

Between 1970 and 1980 she wrote the script for children's programmes for Mexican television, and in 1983, she founded the Centro de Invención Permanente, and took on its technical direction.

Her most famous novel, Como agua para chocolate, (1989) is set during the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century and features the importance of the kitchen and food in the life of its female protagonist, Tita.

The novel is structured as a year of monthly issues of an old-style women's magazine containing recipes, home remedies, and love stories, and each chapter ("January," "February," "March," etc.)

[2] Esquivel has stated that she believes that the kitchen is the most important part of the house and characterizes it as a source of knowledge and understanding that brings pleasure.

[7] Esquivel's second novel, La ley del amor (Mexico City: Grijalbo 1995), translated as The Law of Love (trans.

Margaret Sayers Peden, Crown–Random, 1996), is described by literary critic Lydia H. Rodríguez as a "narrative [that] deconstructs the present to create a twenty-third century where remarkable invention and familiar elements populate a gymnastically-paced text" whose "conflicts .

Esquivel's third novel, Tan veloz como el deseo (Barcelona: Plaza y Janés, 2001), translated into English as Swift as Desire (Trans.

NY: Crown-Random, 2001), is set in Mexico City the apartment of Lluvia, a middle-aged divorcée caring for her debilitated father, Júbilo, a former telegraph operator born with a gift for understanding what people want to say rather than what they actually say.

Esquivel's most recent novels are A Lupita le gusta planchar (2014 SUMA, Madrid) and El diario de Tita (May 2016 Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, Barcelona).

[13] In March 2009 Laura Esquivel ran as preliminary candidate of the Local Council in District XXVII[clarification needed] of Mexico City for the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).