The novel Dreaming in Cuban written by Cristina García, often addresses the theme of memory, which can be either personal or cultural, and which brings on various other sub-themes such as identity, legacy, and distortion. It is through the analysis of these sub-themes and with the help of the author’s interview as well as Justin D. Edwards’s chapter on Posctolonial Literature, that the reader will be able to determine how important memory is to the construction of the main characters’s truth.

In the book’s reader’s guide, Cristina García explains how memory comes as a “need [for her characters] to reinvent themselves and invest themselves in narratives of their own devising” (García 255). Pilar does feel this need as she devotes herself to “[record] everything down” (García 7) in a diary, making sure that no details of her life are left behind. In fact, she later adds that she made sure to “remember[s] everything that’s happened to [her] since [she] was a baby, even word-for-word conversations” (García 26). According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the verb “to remember” means “to keep a piece of information in your memory,”¹ however in this quote Pilar affirms that she has a memory of every single event that has happened in her life. Indeed, this precision can be seen in her use of the pronoun “everything,” the use of the adverb “even” and the expression “word-to-word.” Although this could be read as being hyperbolic, it shows how important memory is for her, especially since she does not allow any detail of her life to be forgotten. To get a true sense of her identity however, Pilar needs to understand where she comes from and her memory alone is not enough as she says that “[e]veryday Cuba fades a little more inside [her]” (García 138). Since she lived most of her life in the United States and did not really experience the Revolution, Pilar has a lack of knowledge regarding her native country and its past. Indeed, she “do[es] not have [any] personal memories of the hardships, exploitation, cruelty and torture” her ancestors have endured, thus she needs stories which, as Edwards writes in his chapter, “fill in [the] past-narratives [to] help [one] remember where [one] come[s] from” (Edwards 129). These stories can come from people she has talked to as well as books she has read.

When trying to fill the gaps between her own memory and the history of Cuba, Pilar is soon faced with disappointment after she finds out no one has covered subjects she would have been interested in, like the hailstorm in Congo (García 28) for example. History books are thus incomplete, as she realizes that “there’s only my imagination where our history should be” (García 138). The use of the verb “shall” expresses that her expectations have not been met and the adjective “only” emphasizes the fact that imagination is not enough since it is not reliable. In this respect, the author of the novel states in the reader’s guide, that memory is “a product of both necessity and imagination” (García 255). Pilar has the urge to know her cuban history and believes it is the duty of her ancestors to share their history and not hers to create one. At one point, Pilar asks the rhetorical question: “Who chooses what we should know or what’s important?” (García 28) which she later replies to by stating that it is “the politicians and the generals” who she “resent[s] the hell out [and] who force events on [them] [to] rupture [their] lives, that dictate the memories [they]’ll have when [they]’re old.” (García 137-8). The use of the words “resent” and “hell” show how outraged Pilar is, while the use of the verbs “to force” and “to dictate” highlights how powerless she feels before the politicians and the generals. She also feels disgusted “that men who had nothing to do with [her] had the power to rupture [her] dreams” (García 199-200). In parallel, Herminia also feels angry and powerless in front of those who get to decide what is important, as her black ancestors are “only [considered] a footnote in [these] historybooks” (García 185) which is merely nothing. In this regard, Edwards states that “colonial narratives often try to influence collective memory and stories of the past by white-washing the history of conflict, violence and trauma” (Edwards 130). With the term “white-washing,” Edwards means that history is often told by the colonizers’s point of view, while the colonized’s perspective is not taken into account or deliberately forgotten. In Edwards’s chapter, Kincaid claims that “[w]ithout responsibility, there can be no apology, reparation or forgiveness” (Edwards 131). Since the colonizers do not take responsibility for their past actions against african and caribbean people, it is impossible for either Pilar or Herminia to forgive them. Having a collective memory is thus very important since it “plays a significant part in the symbolic relationship between the mother country (the imperial power) and the infantilized nation (the colony)” (Edwards 131). This symbolic relationship is what both Herminia and Pilar strive for, as it would help them find a proper balance in their hybridity, as well as finally find their own true identity. Yet, the informations they get in these history books are only one sided, which means that one part of their identity is totally disregarded. This is the reason why Herminia also questions how she can “trust anything [she] read[s]?” (García 185) which she then answers to herself by stating that she can “[only] trust what [she] see[s]” and “what [she] know[s]” and “nothing more” (García 185). Because of the biased perspective and selective memory of historical books, Herminia feels as if she has no choice left but to trust her own memory exclusively.

According to Celia, “memory cannot be confined” (García 47), which she explains with the example of selling cameras. She believes, in fact, that it is an “act of cruelty” and “atrocity” to sell those as they “imprison emotions on squares of glossy paper” (García 48). She is personally all about writing down her own memories since the act of writing is a “solitary act” (Edwards 43) that lacks the immediacy of photography. Indeed, writing allows her to explore her emotions with all the time she needs as well as to rearrange her memories the way she likes, which is not possible with photography. The last time Celia writes to Gustavo is actually the day Pilar is born. Indeed, she tells Gustavo: “I will no longer write to you, mi amor. [Pilar] will remember everything” (García 245). The fact that Celia no longer needs to write to her Spanish lover is because she finally has someone she can bequeath her memories to. Indeed, Gustavo only represents an idea, since she does not actually send her letters to him. The author of the novel herself, explains that “the letters provide a window into her inner life and yearnings” (García 252). Furthermore, Celia states that “only [her] granddaughter can save [her]” and “guard [her] knowledge like the first fire” (García 222). For Celia, being saved means that someone is going to protect what she values the most, which is her “knowledge.” Cristina García declares in her interview that each of her characters “needs to be a heroine, to believe [they] [are] doing the right thing, choosing the only path to a kind of personal redemption,” she also adds that “[t]hey need their memories in this sense to survive” (García 255). The fact that Celia shares a “box of letters she wrote to her onetime lover in Spain” (García 235) with her granddaughter, is actually the only path for her to attain “a personal redemption” (García 255). By sharing these letters, Celia actually “offers a sense of collective identity” to her granddaughter, which is very important as Edwards himself states that it “links the past with the present” (Edwards 129): the past being Abuela Celia and the present being Pilar. The latter, starts to feel differently after receiving her grandmother’s legacy. Indeed, shortly after she “feel[s] [her] grandmother’s life passing to [her],” she feels “a steady electricity, humming and true” (García 222). She also starts to have dreams in Spanish, which she insists “has never happened before” (García 235). These changes happen because she finally knows where she belongs. Indeed, the lack of information she had about her cuban ancestors is now filled in with her grandmother’s legacy of her memory.

One may argue, indeed, that Celia’s letters are based on her own perception of reality. In this respect, Edwards states that “memory is not always perfect; it can distort or change information” (Edwards 41). Felicia also believes that, as she tells her son Ivanito that: “[i]magination, like memory, can transform lies to truths” (García 88). Indeed, memory is very powerful in the way that it can change someone’s opinion on a memory or on the opposite, make someone keep their opinion. Both cases can be seen many times in the book, as a shared event is told various times by different characters. This causes each character to have their own sense of what is true and what is not. For example, Lourdes and her parents each believe the veracity of their own memory of a shared event. Lourdes has always believed that her mother had intentionally abandoned her but it appears that she was missing an essential piece of the puzzle. Indeed, her father later confessed to her that he was the one that “tried to kill” and “to break” her mother until the point where “[s]he held [Lourdes] out to [him] by one leg and told [him] she would not remember her [daughter’s] name” (García 195). Although Jorge shared his truth, Lourdes decides not to believe it and holds on to her own truth:
She knows that she cannot keep her promise to her father, to tell her mother that he was sorry, sorry for sending her away, sorry for her silent hands. The words refuse to form in her mouth. Instead, like a brutal punishment, Lourdes feels the grip of her mother’s hand, hears her mother’s words before she left for the asylum: “I will not remember her name.” (García 238)
In a way, Lourdes both punishes herself as well as her parents by deciding to keep her own truth and neglecting theirs. A shared memory can thus be extremely distorted, since one person can perceive a truth as a lie, and vice-versa.

In conclusion, it is important to note how memory is closely connected to each character’s sense of self. While some characters are eager to receive another person’s memory in order to complete the missing bits of theirs, others prefer to stay completely in their own truth and avoid other’s perspectives.

Bibliography:

• Edwards, D. Justin. Postcolonial Literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

• García, Cristina. Dreaming in Cuban : a novel. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.

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