The connection that Pilar Puente has with the world, her mother, her grandmother and painting in Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban

In Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia, each character is a member of the Del Pino family. All along the book, the reader discovers their background, their feelings, their thoughts, etc. Furthermore, the narration gives to the reader the impression of being close to the characters. The passage that begins with “Why don’t we” at page 28 until “her to let me go” at page 29 is about Pilar Puente and her link to the world, her relationship with her mother, her grandmother and her love and passion for painting. Pilar Puente is a teenager with many resources and she will not stop to surprise us throughout the book. In some ways, the character puts in mind to the reader that she is a marginal and young girl who looks for answers.

Firstly, we have to say that Pilar Puente is a round character, she is central to the story because of her constant change. This evolution is due to the fact that she asks her a lot about things that a teenager of fourteen years old would not ask; for example, when she says: “Why don’t I know anything about them? Who chooses what we would know or what’s important? I know I have to decide these things for myself.” (28) Those rhetorical questions reveal that she is lucid about some things; it also reveals some aspects of her personality and the fact that she will have to learn things by herself and not from anyone else except her grandmother, Celia del Pino. Through the passage, her personality is starting to be defined; even though she is a teenager, the reader can clearly imagine that she is mature. She speaks with a certain modernity and ease, she is not afraid of using words, she expresses herself, as she was older. She talks a lot about the conflict she has with her mother (Lourdes Puente) and the fact that first, she refused to let her go to art school in Manhattan: “I won’t allow it Rufino! She cried with her usual drama. She’ll have to kill me first! Not that the thought hadn’t crossed my mind.” (29) Pilar uses irony when she says that, her relationship with Lourdes is complicated and they have troubles because of their visible difference.

Again, her mother is not so enthusiast to the idea that her daughter is going to art school and it started with the painting classes Pilar was taking. Lourdes thinks that artists are a bad element in society, that they are junkies and dissolute. This is one of the many conflicts between Pilar and Lourdes. She does not accept that her daughter is someone different from other people and that one day she could become somebody important, she does not believe in her paintings and has a bold opinion about the topic; “She said that artists are a bad element, a profligate bunch who shoot heroin” (29). Lourdes’ opinion about the artists is very conventional and cliché, knowing that at that time the beatnik movement was growing in New York, she puts everyone in the same bag but cannot imagine that painting makes her daughter’s happiness. Moreover: “My paintings have been getting more and more abstract […] Mom thinks they’re morbid” (29), once more, we see that Lourdes is very severe towards her daughter’s paintings; she only attends what she wants to attend and does not want to understand her daughter and her feelings. In other words, she does not want to encourage her daughter to do what she wants just because of her opinions; their difference is explicit and the artistic soul of Pilar seems to be a problem for her mother, quite the reverse of Pilar’s father who convinced Lourdes to let her go to art school.

Even though her mother does not accept her difference, Pilar is closely attached to her grandmother. In the passage, we can see how strong their relationship is because Celia encouraged her to go to her painting class: “My grandmother is the one who encouraged me to go to painting classes at Mitzi Kellner’s” (29), this encouragement is something important for Pilar because she has not the support of anyone. This support can be interpreted as an identification of Celia when she was younger, like Pilar, she was wild, determined and in some way, marginal. This identification to her makes their relationship easier, Celia understand her granddaughter, and she sees herself in Pilar. Again, the strength of their relationship is clearly expressed when Pilar says: “She tells me stories about her life […] She seems to know everything that’s happened to me […] Abuela Celia says she wants to see me again. She tells me she loves me” (29), the fact she hears her grandmother talking to her and telling her stories shows that she is also attached to her Cuban origins “what the sea was like that day” (29), Pilar wants to know Cuba which she could really have a real idea of what her origins are. In addition to the strength of their relationship and her origins; the term abuela (which means grandma) reveals her intimacy with Celia, after all, she only knew her when she was two years old so it could have been a stranger but she is not just, because they do not forget each other. By the way, they seem to share a mother-daughter relationship, Pilar is like the daughter Celia has never had and vice versa.

To conclude, the passage reveals a strong point about the relationships between Pilar, her mother and her grandmother. The complexity of the situation between her and Lourdes and the huge love she has for Celia. All those things make the character of Pilar important to the story because of her lucidity and her manner to say things. As said, the passage points to the reader the start of Pilar’s love for painting, the passage shows a lot about it and predicts many things about the rest of the book.