Dreaming in Cuban Themes | LitCharts

Dreaming in Cuban

by

Cristina García

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Passion, Romance, and Marriage

In Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina García’s magical realist novel about three generations of the del Pino family, the heat of passion and the stability of marriage are often in conflict. The romance that dominates the novel is that of matriarch Celia for Gustavo, the lover who abandoned her following a passionate, youthful affair, sending Celia into a profound depression. Celia’s ongoing love for Gustavo overshadows her marriage to a good man, Jorge,…

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Intergenerational Conflict

When Lourdes, eldest daughter of protagonist and del Pino family matriarch Celia, announces that she and her daughter Pilar are leaving the country, the resulting scene displays the larger family conflict on a smaller scale: “I was sitting in my grandmother's lap,” Pilar recalls, “playing with her drop pearl earrings, when my mother told her we were leaving the country. Abuela Celia called her a traitor to the revolution. Mom tried to pull…

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Religious Diversity

Cuba’s cultural diversity has resulted in a range of religious expression and identification over the course of the island’s history. Though colonized primarily by adherents of Roman Catholicism, which has a strong legacy in Cuba, there is also a strong tradition of Santería, which is a religion incorporating elements of Yoruban religion (brought by West African slaves) and Roman Catholicism. Sometimes these traditions mix—one might, for example, be a devoutly practicing Catholic while also…

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History and Personal Identity

The question of personal identity is a constant problem in the novel. Given the political upheaval in Cuba over the course of the 20th century and the Cuban diaspora that resulted, individual characters struggle to figure out where they belong. García’s characters take various stances relative to the history unfolding around them. Some, like Celia, commit themselves to Cuba no matter what; others, like Lourdes, separate themselves from their Cuban past. But García…

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Obsession and Devotion

In Dreaming in Cuban, many characters are driven by their devotion to specific desires, dreams, or causes. One of the best examples is the opposite ideologies of Celia and her daughter, Lourdes. Celia truly believes in the Cuban Revolution and works for its advancement; Lourdes vehemently denounces it, having fled to the United States in search of greater personal freedoms. By portraying Celia’s and Lourdes’s divergent political devotion against the backdrop of personal…

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Celia’s Letters: 1959

Celia’s Letters: 1959

Passion, Romance, and Marriage

Passion, Romance, and Marriage