Dreaming in Cuban and the Cuban Revolution Reaction Paper

Dreaming in Cuban" and the Cuban Revolution

Cristina Garcia's, "Dreaming in Cuban" is a novel that tells the story of three generations of women and their triumphs and tribulations while the Cuban Revolution is used as the novel's context. The structure of Garcia's novel is unique as well and helps provide great insight into the characters, setting and events. In each chapter, several characters have a chance to speak which allows the audience to gain perspective from each character. The four main characters in the novel are Celia, Lourdes, Felicia and Pilar, all of whom have very different reactions to the Cuban revolution, mainly due to the wide spectrum of personalities. The themes of the book include exile, primarily due to the events of the Cuban Revolution, family relationships, the power of political control and memory. These themes, along with Cuban history and culture, are illuminated through the different characters and the events that transpire.

Celia del Pino is best described as the matriarch of her family. Celia, who married Jorge and had three children, is an avid supporter of the Cuban Revolution as well as socialism and El Lider. Her preference for El Lider is evident through many of her actions including that Celia still "dresses up for these all-night vigils, putting on red lipstick and darkening the mole on her cheek, and imagines that El Lider is watching her" (Garcia, 112). Apart from her personal idolization and support of El Lider and the Revolution, Celia also takes an active role in the Revolution as seen when she joined the micro-brigade, "setting tiles and operating a construction lift" when volunteers were needed to build nurseries on behalf of El Lider as well as becomes a judge of the People's Court (Garcia, 111). Celia works in the sugar cane fields to support the Revolution as well as to keep herself busy with tasks (Garcia, 44). As a character in Garcia's novel, Celia effectively captures the individual who is a staunch and avid supporter of the Cuban Revolution.Through her actions and reactions to certain situations and the choices that she makes, Celia provides a background into who the types of people were that did support the Revolution and the things that they did to keep the Revolution actively going by support and working for it. Celia is a representation of the larger faction of individuals that did in fact support the Cuban Revolution.

Lourdes, the daughter of Celia and Jorge, married a wealthy man named Rufino, after they had met in college. Contrary to Celia, Lourdes is not a supporter of the Revolution as certain events in her life occurred that have contributed to great disdain for the Revolutionary government. Foremost, the property of her husband and her was forcefully seized by soldiers in the name of revolutionary government, it also included Lourdes at knifepoint (Garcia, 70). Lourdes and her husband escape to Miami, and eventually make it up to New York where Lourdes….....