Dynamic Characters In Dreaming In Cuban By Cristina Garcia

Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia emphasizes the intense connections and relations among three generations of Cuban women during the Cuban revolution. Their memories, dreams and hopes are gradually revealed and connected, and the importance to them of Cuba and what it means to be Cuban is explored. Every character in the novel Dreaming in Cuban has been through a specific struggle, whether it is physical, psychological or even both. The novel focuses on the similarities of their different experiences of each character, and the family ties, intuitions, and dreams that bind them together. One of the most dynamic characters in the novel is Pilar. A young, rebellious teenager who is stuck between the realities of her life in America and her

Born in Cuba and raised in New York City, Pilar does not feel Cuban or American. Pilar believes that she was sent to America against her will and towards the beginning of the novel feels that she belongs in Cuba. This is primarily due to Pilar’s deep connection with her grandmother Celia, as they both share the same gift: to hear others' thoughts, see the future and visions of the dead. Pilar often communicates secretly with Celia in the night through visions and dreams. In the beginning of the novel, Cuba represents something that was stolen from Pilar and she really wants it back. It is something she wants to be apart of, something that she feels like she lost. She feels like her mother Lourdes is preventing her from returning to Cuba and therefore uses rebellion and abstract art to get her message across to her mother. An example of Pilar’s rebellious ways

Her first attempt to run away to Cuba occurs when she discovers her father Rufino is with another woman who is not Lourdes. At this point, Pilar feels extremely betrayed by the only other person whom she felt a connection with other than Celia, but she gets only as far as her uncle’s house in Miami. Pilar desires for the Cuba she has never known, fearing that “Every day Cuba fades a little more inside me, my grandmother fades a little more inside me. And there’s only my imagination where our history should be” (Garcia 135). Pilar grows up with a longing to return to her grandmother in Cuba without knowing the reality of life in Cuba beyond her memories. She creates a façade of the Cuba in her dreams not knowing the actual reality of the revolution and why her mom despises it so much. Pilar even states “Yankee Doodle bakeries have become gathering places for these shady Cuban extremists who come all the way from New Jersey and the Bronx to talk their dinosaur politics and drink her killer espressos” (Garcia 177). She resents her mother’s extremist views because it forces her to hide her Cuban legacy. At this point, the biggest challenge for Pilar is to find a way to bring the two sides of her identity into balance so that she doesn't have to hide one side from public view. Pilar strongly believes that a return to Cuba will put all