Dreaming in Cuban

by

Cristina García

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Dreaming in Cuban: Celia’s Letters: 1935–1940 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
In March, 1935, Celia writes to Gustavo that she’s about to marry Jorge del Pino, a good man who loves her and who tells her to forget Gustavo. She tells Gustavo that she feels like a prisoner in Cuba. A month later, on her honeymoon, she writes that Jorge’s kindnesses to her make her cry. The following January, she is pregnant.
Celia’s unsent letters to Gustavo intersperse the narrative, giving insight into the family’s past. The newlywed Celia knew that Jorge loved her, yet she couldn’t let go of her feelings for Gustavo, setting an obsessive pattern that will last throughout her marriage.
Themes
Passion, Romance, and Marriage Theme Icon
Obsession and Devotion Theme Icon
In August 1936, Celia writes to Gustavo that she hopes to die and that Jorge, away on business, is afraid to come home. If she gives birth to a boy, she plans to sail to Spain and reunite with Gustavo.
Celia tells Gustavo of her hopes to abandon her life with Jorge and resume her affair with him. Yet keeping in mind that Celia never sends these letters, it’s not clear how serious she is about her plan.
Themes
Passion, Romance, and Marriage Theme Icon
Obsession and Devotion Theme Icon
The following month, Celia writes that her baby, a girl, reads Celia’s thoughts. In December, she writes an incoherent letter from the asylum where Jorge has sent her, speaking of “Malaria [that] feeds the hungry clocks.” The next month, February 1937, she writes of Jorge’s visits and a new friend, Felicia Gutiérrez, who burned her husband to death and with whom Celia is plotting an escape. But the next month, she reports that Felicia has been killed, burned to death in her bed. Celia is going home tomorrow.
Celia descends further into illness, her torment in her mother-in-law’s home compounds her already heartbroken state. Much of the content of her letters, like malaria feeding “the hungry clocks,” has no evident meaning and just shows how incoherent she’s become. Celia later gives her daughter the name of her friend Felicia in the asylum, suggesting that the fate of this unfortunate Felicia hangs over her daughter’s life in the future.
Themes
Passion, Romance, and Marriage Theme Icon
History and Personal Identity Theme Icon
The next letter is dated November, 1938. Celia has a new baby girl, whom she’s named Felicia. Celia promises that this time, she’ll be a good mother. Lourdes is now two and a half and asks Jorge whenever he calls, “When are you coming home, Papi?” Lourdes always wears her party dress to await his arrival.
The long gaps in letters go unexplained—it’s not clear whether letters for the intervening months are lost, or whether Celia simply didn’t write. Celia’s remark about being a good mother “this time” suggests that she feels she’s already failed with Lourdes. In fact, Lourdes’s strong bond with Jorge is already evident, even as a toddler longing for his homecoming.
Themes
Intergenerational Conflict Theme Icon
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In 1940, Celia writes that Jorge was in a terrible car crash: his arms, right leg, and several ribs are broken. She tells Gustavo that she was surprised how much Jorge’s accident hurt her. Seeing him in the hospital, she realized that she loves him, even though it isn’t a passion like the one she shares with Gustavo. She thinks Jorge knows and understands this.
Jorge’s car crash forces Celia to reevaluate her feelings for him. Though she rightly concludes that a genuine love exists between them, she wrongly assumes that Jorge has reconciled himself to Celia’s obsession with Gustavo and is content with second place in her heart.
Themes
Passion, Romance, and Marriage Theme Icon
Obsession and Devotion Theme Icon
Quotes