Dreaming In Cuban By Cristina Garcia

One of the overall meanings of the novel, Dreaming in Cuban, by Cristina Garcia is that “love to family is above all”. The following theme is portrayed throughout the novel, an example being when, Lourdes, is against going to Cuba because of her hatred toward the country. When the death of Felicia occurs, Lourdes is forced to go to Cuba and return to her family, “‘ your sister has died....”’(196 Garcia). Even though Lourdes has a great hatred to Cuba, her own country, she still has to go there to show her love towards her family, If Lourdes doesn’t go to Cuba she will lose lots of respect from her family because it will illustrate that she doesn’t care about her own sister. Lourdes stands nowhere in the world if she cannot show respect to her

By going back to Cuba, Lourdes is reminded of her childhood, “mom tells me how she used to stand on this corner and tell tourists that her mother was dead. They felt sorry for her and bought her ice cream.”(219 Garcia) Remembering her love for ice cream as a child, Lourdes realizes the good aspects of Cuba. Furthermore, at Cuba, Lourdes creates a strong bond with Ivanito. She gets a greater knowledge of him through her interactions with him throughout the trip. “This morning, Ivanito told Lourdes that dancing with her had reminded him of his mother.”(224 Garcia) Felicia, Ivanito’s mother, was sisters with Loudes. To Ivanito, Lourdes symbolizes his dead mother which represents that Ivanito has bonded with Lourdes in such a way that he views her as his “mother”. By dancing with Ivanito, Lourdes starts a friendship with him that they will never forget and this was only possible because Lourdes decides to show her love to her family by going to Cuba, thus placing her love for family above

In the novel, Celia stays in Cuba and doesn't move to the United States like her other family members, “... Abuela Celia’s had plenty of chances to leave Cuba…”(26 Garcia) From this we can comprehend that Celia doesn’t want to leave her home country despite all the chances she has to leave. Celia has made so many memories in Cuba which will cause her to become homesick if she leaves. Celia always has hope for Cuba and wants the best for it. Lourdes, her own daughter, was against Celia in deciding to stay in Cuba and was very paranoid about the issue. Lourdes didn’t understand why Celia loved Cuba so much and thought that it was heading the wrong way due to El Lider. Lourdes had a strong hatred towards Cuba, and Celia still tried to persuade her to not leave it. Despite Celia’s great effort, Lourdes doesn’t change her mind which causes Celia to eventually give up on her daughter. However, the main point is that Celia wasn’t okay with her daughter leaving her birthplace and family. Celia realizes the importance of family and roots unlike Lourdes. A Welsh musician named Joseph Parry once said “make new friends, but keep the old; those are the silver, these are the gold.”This quote is a parallel to Celia’s undying love and attachment towards her roots and origins. From this quote, Joseph Parry is trying to say that things that you have been accustomed to for a long time are better than the new.