pp. 136-137 “There’s other stuff…” to “…a huge burning effigy of El Líder”

In Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia draws the complex picture of a family strongly affected by political changes. Each character has its own opinion about politics, which someway defines each of them. Pilar’s relationship to her mother can be seen as a political fight between the two of them. Pilar’s first person narrative expresses this opinion through the passage, as she constantly associates her mother with an excessive patriotism. Rather than describing a familial duality, their relationship is illustrated by these political tensions. In this passage, Pilar argues about three patriotic features of her mother she cannot stand: national pride through parades and national days, American food, and Lourde as a control freak. Nonetheless, these features must be taken from Pilar’s very own point of view. This intimate point of view might be considered as a key to read Pilar’s passages.

Each parade and national day represents a country for its virtues the most vivid way. Here, Pilar quotes the two most celebrated ones: Thanksgiving Day and the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day. As these days are celebrated through the whole country, Lourdes gets naturally enthusiastic. Although Pilar directly states that “the worst is the parades” (137), she then focuses more precisely on what her mother does during those. Rather than identifying what upsets her with national days, she mainly denounces Lourdes behavior. The striking use of irony and sarcasm depicts Pilar’s humor and own language, when she mocks her mother with “like we’re going to starve right there on Fifth Avenue” (137), and “like maybe a huge burning effigy of El Líder” (137). This language, expressed through the first person narration, leads the reader inside Pilar’s mind. It emphasizes the intimate aspect of these reflections, confronting the reader’s neutrality. One can be more distant with the third person narrated passages, but Pilar’s ones require a decision from the reader: to support her or not. This way, a strong opposition between the daughter and the mother is created by the means of language through a political opinion.

Pilar makes numerous comments on her mother’s habits with food. Although she did not experience much of the Cuban food culture, she seems very critical about the American one. Her opinion has much to do with the American lifestyle itself, and its relation to obesity. She ironizes her mother “barbecuing anything she can get her hands on” and “[making] food only people in Ohio eat” (137). At first, these hyperboles seem to criticize American food itself and its excessiveness. But it can also be seen as the characterization of Lourdes’ obsession with food. It depicts a form of patriotism in the food itself. Pilar highlights the place that food takes in Lourdes mind, as if it blinds her from other problems. She deplores they only “sit around behind the warehouse and stare at each other with nothing to say” (137).  This aims again at Lourdes’ behavior more than American food itself. Pilar does not comment or give any bad opinion on it. She rather criticizes the enthusiastic, devoted and obsessional patriotism of her mother, through Lourdes’ relation to food.

Control and security are also patriotic features Pilar blames on Lourdes. They probably are the most problematic ones according to Pilar as she is in a rebellious “teenage” period. The first half of the passage shows very strong words that belong to this specific military lexical field: “spies”, “patrol”, “keep me in line” (136), “tyrant” (137). It is of course another way for Pilar to make fun of her mother. It also relates to her recent new job as an auxiliary policewoman which Pilar does not like. The more zealous Lourdes gets in her job, the more Pilar misunderstands this behavior. Pilar names it a “misplaced sense of civic duty” (136), referring to her own political opinion. This also has to do with her relation with Max, which can be seen as a personification of the young hippie, playing in a rock band. But Pilar seems more concerned with her mother’s way of controlling what surrounds her. She ironically considers Lourdes as a “frustrated tyrant” (137). This hyperbole tends to define her mother like a political identity, rather than using the familial link they share. Max himself uses a more affective term to describes Pilar’s mother, “more like a bitch goddess” (137).

Although she mocks the “ghost patrol” (136) her mother forms with Abuelo Jorge, Pilar directly distances herself with the parenthesis “(which I’m not)” (136). This is written in a “personal dairy” form, and one can wonder whether this really is Pilar’s personal diary or not. The same feature is found on the next page where she describes herself “(five feet eight inch)” (137) and her hair “(black, down to my waist)” (137). This writing feature brings the reader more deeply inside Pilar’s mind than any other narratives in Dreaming in Cuban. It emphasizes the complex and conflictual relationship the daughter and mother share, suggesting to chose a right side.

Considering this relationship from Pilar’s point of view stays narrowed regarding a much more complex outline through the whole novel. Nonetheless, the chosen passage illustrates well Pilar’s emotional aspect through political opinions. Along with others Pilar’s passages, the narrative flow tries to catch the reader’s attention into the daughter’s mind and reflections. Her resistant ideas play a great role in this construction to assert Pilar as the anti-patriotic, rebellious teenage. It also enhances her sensible capacity, which is first presented through her artistic practices. Exaggerating Lourdes’ patriotic behavior draws the relationship in a “more political than affective” way that fits very well to Pilar’s revolted state of mind. Lourdes’ motherhood is depicted in a tyrannical way that can be related to others characters’ experiences in Garcia’s novel.