Dreaming in Cuban: Celia’s Letters: 1956–1958 Summary & Analysis

In 1956, Celia writes to Gustavo, speaking approvingly of Lourdes’s new boyfriend, Rufino, a wealthy young man who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty on the ranch. Jorge is jealous. Later that year, Celia ponders what happened to her and Gustavo. She remembers the last time she saw him—waking up to see him rushing across a plaza filled with protestors. She has often wondered whether sudden disappearance was better than growing old together and becoming indifferent. Celia dated other men, but they expected much less of her. None of them expected her to have opinions about the world.

Later that year, after Lourdes is engaged to marry Rufino, Celia complains to Gustavo about Don Guillermo’s pro-American views. She says it’s an open secret that Don Guillermo’s casinos are mixed up with the Mafia, and that Don Guillermo has lunch with Batista every week. She doesn’t like Doña Zaida, either. Doña Zaida keeps her mother, an Indian from Costa Rica, locked in a room upstairs. She wonders how Rufino survived such parents.

Celia tells Gustavo that she and Jorge made love for the first time in ages. When she initiated this, Jorge began to cry. Meanwhile, Zaida is ruining all of Celia’s plans for Lourdes’s wedding. Rumors abound regarding rebels looking to oust Batista, especially their leader, who has a bearlike beard and always wears an olive cap. Jorge fears a rebel victory because it might threaten his job. Celia tells him that there will soon be more jobs for all. As Celia predicts, Lourdes’s wedding turns out to be a “circus,” and she predicts that Zaida will be “among the first to hang” in the revolution. The following summer, Celia tells Gustavo that she’s going to be a grandmother.