Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban problematizes the issue of memory which relates to postcolonial theories. The disruptive narration embodied by different female characters invites to view the Cuban’s social situation. This enables to consider through unreliable narrators what makes a story true. In the same way, this narration calls upon the actions of remembering and telling a story from personal experiences. Therefore, the theme of memory allows to acknowledge the character’s experiences that link with their present life. Thus, Celia and Lourdes’s mirroring of their opposite attitude ambiguously reveal that they share a similar ambition. The comparison of what links them to their past participates to the construction of their respective identity.
Celia’s identity appears through her letters in which her younger self delivers her feelings. Though she writes to Gustavo, her Spanish lover who left her, it seems that this fictive epistolary relation functions as a diary. However, these letters have a broader role than storing feelings, it acts as a memorial, as Justin D. Edwards suggests on a broader view (Edward 138). Celia’s letters of the 1942-1949 period embody this function, she tells about the Cuban miserable condition in 1945 as if she wanted a trace of it: “Memory is a skilled seducer. I write to you because I must. I don’t even know if you’re alive and whom you love now.” (Edward 97) she uses the imperative “must” and personifies memory as to illustrate the appeal to writing. Therefore, Gustavo appears as an excuse that these letters could address anyone when she says that she knows no more information about him (97). Thus, the hypothesis that she might address the world appears when she asks: “Have you read about the tidal wave that hit Cuba?” She draws intention to the suffering of Cuba’s situation as if it went in the newspapers by naming “Cuba” which installs the geographic distance. She goes the same way in another letter: “Don’t you see how they’re carving the world, Gustavo? How they’re stealing our geography? Our fates? The arbitrary is no longer in our hands. To survive is an act of hope.” (99). The vocabulary Celia uses in her questions conveys her despair for the citizen’s situation. The vocabulary of injustice with “carving”, “stealing”, “arbitrary” and “survive” shows the violence of the situation.
The orality in Celia’s letters contributes to the construction of her identity as an ambitious revolutionary woman. Indeed, she expresses herself in the first person which supports her subjectivity: “Yesterday, I took the bus to Havana to join the protesters in front of the palace. We marched for the release of the rebels who survived the attack on Moncada.” (163). She speaks in her name and then includes herself to the unity of community. The “We” regroups the protesters into one entity expressing its disaccord. Celia’s revolutionary spirit for the revolution links with her present devotion towards “El Líder” (Fidel Castro). This claim links with Justin D. Edwards’s words on memory: “[…] memory becomes an important way of uniting the past with the present and engendering a sense of national unity.” (130). Indeed, memory acts as a tool linking the past to the present in order to achieve actions benefiting the nation as in the revolution for example. Celia acts in the same way as the narrators says: “Celia makes a decision. […] she will devote to El Líder, give herself to his revolution.” (44). Indeed, “El Líder” symbolizes the revolution which emphasizes the submission of Celia as “devote” and “give herself” denote.
On the other hand, the mirroring of Lourdes and Celia, though it underlines their different political positions, emphasizes their similar feverish engagement towards their rights. Indeed, Lourdes stands for what belongs to her as illustrates the flashback of the incident back in Cuba, when she confronted the soldiers: “She jumped from her horse and stood like a shield before her husband. ‘Get the hell out of here’ she shouted with such ferocity that the soldiers lowered their guns and backed toward their jeep.” (70). Lourdes’s words are reported through direct speech which allows her voice to fully express her mood. Her vocabulary is powerful and rude which expresses her disappointment through the expression “Get the hell out of here” which appears as an English idiomatic expression. Her opposition to the Cuban soldiers appears both physically and linguistically. Indeed, she displays a strong energy which connects her resistance to iron’s through the simile “like a shield” (Edward 70).
Though she seems strong and stubborn, Lourdes’s relationship with her memories is internalized and complex. Indeed, it seems that she accesses to her painful memories only when her father’s ghost manifested to her. As Edwards says: “the trope of haunting continues to return in postcolonial writing. It is presented in the articulation of traumatic events that cannot be forgotten or ignored.” (Edward 128). Though Jorge’s presence (Lourdes’s father) appears at several moments of the story, the last time he speaks to her links to this recurrent trope. Jorge’s direct allusions to her painful memories impact on Lourdes who difficultly tolerate it: “Lourdes cries and searches the breeze above her. She smells the brilliantined hair, feels the scraping blade, the web of scars it left on her stomach. […] Lourdes collapses on the walkway, her lungs swelling with air.” (Edward 196). Her reaction shows that the trauma remains vividly in her body as she struggles to breathe normally as if she were living the event a second time.
Finally, Celia and Lourdes have opposite political views but their attitudes display a similar fervor to defend their beliefs. However, their attitudes towards their memories oppose completely. Celia confronted her painful experiences by reporting it in her letters which enables her to learn from the past. She seems to accept her past and she tries to make the changes she always longed for. On the other hand, Lourdes avoids her memories in her daily life until she is forced to remember by Jorge’s revelations. Therefore, Lourdes challenging and stubborn personality seem to reflect her internal conflict between the past and the present.
Bibliography:
Garcia, Cristina, Dreaming in Cuban, A Novel. New York: Ballantine Books, 1992.
Edwards, Justin D., Postcolonial Literature, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.