Dreaming of Cuba in Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban

The Interlacing of Pilar’s Hybridity through meaning and stylistic figures

 

The political post-Cuban revolution context left many people exiled and evoked the issue of hybridity. Pilar’s inner turmoil concerning her immigrant experience is explored by contrasting the character’s longing for her home country with the slow detachment from her origins. In the chosen passage from page 137 to 138[1] in Dreaming in Cuban, the Cuban-born American novelist Cristina García plays with figures of speech to engage the reader in a reflection about the sense of belonging. By intertwining the meaning of the passage with the employment of stylistic figures such as metaphors, hyperboles and comparisons, a better understanding of Pilar’s hyphenated existence is enabled.

The different ways in which Pilar’s parents react to the separation of their homeland as well as Pilar’s own disruption between instances of longing for Cuba and letting go are explored through the use of stylistic figures. Pilar’s mother Lourdes tries to detach herself from Cuba by refusing to talk about her personal past “It doesn’t help that Mom refuses to talk about Abuela Celia. She get’s annoyed every time I ask her and she shuts me up quickly.” (138). The use of familiar language such as “she shuts me up” as well as the draconic way of showing the resistance of Lourdes dealing with her past “Mom refuses to talk” and “[Mom] gets annoyed every time” highlight the different demands from mother and daughter concerning their past. Pilar is longing for more information about her past while Lourdes is trying not to be involved in conversations concerning her personal history. Opposing Lourdes who tries to break bonds with Cuba, Pilar’s dad, Rufino Puente, is presented as being strongly attached to Cuba “Dad feels kind of lost here in Brooklyn. I think he stays in his workshop most of the day because he’d get too depressed or crazy otherwise.” (138). By using hyperbole “he’d get too depressed or crazy” attention is drawn to the inability of Rufino to find his place in Brooklyn. The trope “feeling kind of lost” is a paradox because it is impossible to be only half lost. The symbolic term “orbit” „he’s [Rufino] just in his own orbit.” (138) indicates his solitary lifestyle in the United States. As Cuba is “mostly dead” for Pilar (138) a parallel can be drawn by showing that Rufino only “looks alive” when remembering Cuba and his past (138). To demonstrate the importance of the instances where Pilar longs for Cuba, a dead metaphor is used: “But every once in a while a wave of longing will hit me and it’s all I can do not to hijack a plane to Havana or something.” (137). By using waves as a metaphor, the fragile and unpredictable state of Pilar’s feelings become evident. Feelings of longing can break out at any moment and when they do, they have a fluctuating impact. Letting Pilar be “hit” by waves exposes the force, the suddenness and also the coming and going of the above mentioned stylistic figure. This discrepancy shown by the dead metaphor “a wave of longing will hit me”, is a strong indication about Pilar’s uncertainness of where she belongs and about her inner conflict of slowly letting go of Cuba but simultaneously longing for it.

By choosing the teenage girl as a limited first person narrator as well as through the use of comparative figures of speech, Pilar’s detachment from Cuba and her ancestors can be examined.  By using antithesis “Most days Cuba is kind of dead to me.” (138), the reader’s attention is attracted to the paradox of this central statement. Firstly, although a country cannot be dead in the literary sense, the dead metaphor “being dead to someone” highlights the finality of the relationship between Cuba and Pilar. Secondly, it is impossible to be “dead on most days” which would have for consequence to be alive on the other days. During Pilar’s reflection she manifests her resentment against politicians and people in power positions, who write history by choosing a certain point of view. “I resent the hell out of the politicians and the generals who force events on us, that structure our lives, that dictate the memories we’ll have when we’re old.” (138). By using hyperbole “the hell” as well as military terminology such as “forcing”, “structuring” and “dictating” the restrictions which the politicians impose on Cubans and which will always remain in their memory no matter the context, are stressed. Through the use of the first person plural pronoun “on us”, “our lives”, “memories we’ll have”, it becomes clear, that Pilar still identifies with Cubans and feels as one of them. Pilar’s detachment from both Cuba and her grandmother occur day by day and is reinforced through the use of repetition demonstrating the slow and reoccurring progress. “Max knows about Abuela Celia in Cuba, about how she used to talk to me late at night and how we’ve lost touch over the years.” (137). The use of the past tense “how we used to” indicates the termination of this mental and emotional connection. Although the trope “losing touch” is a conventional expression, it underlines not only the loss of a mental connection, but also a physical loss. The slow detachment from Cuba, described as “fading”, gives Pilar’s self-reflection a temporality “Every day Cuba fades a little more inside me, my grandmother fades a little more inside me.” (138). Through the use of repetition “a little more inside me” we are brought back to the essential part of the phrase – the slow detachment from Pilar of her origins.

It can be concluded, that Pilar’s hybridity is demonstrated through intertwining meaning with stylistic figures. Through the effective use of drawing parallels and highlighting important elements through metaphors and hyperboles, Pilar’s inner conflict of both longing for Cuba and simultaneously letting go of it is shown. The opposing ways of dealing with the past of Pilar’s parents, reflect on Pilar who is torn between the two extremes: Lourdes who is trying to refuse her past and only lives in the moment and Rufino who is only happy when talking about Cuba. Thus Pilar has to find her own balance of these two extremes. She is torn between the two, struggling with her hyphenated existence and longing to find a way to reconcile the two sides of her life to know where she belongs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wordcount: 1055 words

Bibliography:

García, Cristina. Dreaming in Cuban. New York: Ballantine Books, 1992

[1] From page 137 “Max knows [ … ]” until page 138 “[ … ] about Cuba.”.