Extract pp.120-121, “Luckily Milagro and I have each other” to “He is her gullible ragdoll”

In Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia explores the theme of mother-daughter relationships among other things. In a part of the chapter “The Meaning of Shells”, Luz Villaverde temporarily takes over the narration. Close reading this passage allows an understanding of the difficult relationship between Felicia and her daughters through Luz’s eyes. It is the first time Felicia’s older children feelings toward their mother are expressed. It exposes how the girls live with her and her madness. This relationship is unique in the book, because the girls consciously ignore their mother and work together to erase her from their lives.

The excerpt starts with “Luckily, Milagro and I have each other” (Garcia, 120) which illustrates how the sisters handle the situation with their mother: together. Luz is conscious of their luck: they are going through the same situation and can help each other. This sentence summarises their whole relationship with each other and with their family. Indeed, if they “have each other” in such away, it is because they do not have anyone else. The use of the metaphor “We’re a double helix” (Garcia, 120) is a clever way to express the closeness of the sisters. Indeed as twins, they share the same DNA, represented by a double helix. It is then an extrapolation of a scientific truth used to give an idea of how the girls work together so that “Mamá can’t penetrate [them]” (Garcia, 120).

Luz then reports words from her mother. By quoting Felicia she wants to show her mother’s state of mind and thus brings more substance to her argument. The question: “Do you know the meaning of shells?” seems strange coming from a grown up. Indeed, it is usually young children who ask questions like this one. Felicia’s answer, though very poetic, only reinforces the absurdity of the conversation: “They’re the jewels of the goddess of the sea” (Garcia, 120). The comparisons that Felicia then makes are difficult to comprehend: “You’re my little jewel, Milagro. You, Luz, you’re the light in the night that guides our dreams” (Garcia, 120-121). If they were only a way for her to express her love to her daughters it obviously does not work in her favour but they would be understandable in a poetic way. However, if they are supposed to be interpretations of the girls’ names it does not work completely. Indeed, Luz does mean light, but as Milagro means miracle the comparison to jewels is surprising.

That part is followed by a sarcastic comment from Luz and lets the true disappointment both girls experience appear. It starts with the shortest sentence of the passage: “Pretty words” (Garcia, 121), which summarises Felicia perfectly for Luz: she is made of poetic words that her daughters do not understand, and that only her son listens to. The sentence “Meaningless words that didn’t nourish us, that didn’t comfort us, that kept us prisoners in her alphabet world” (Garcia, 121) enumerates all the reasons why the girls despise their mother. The girls will never forgive Felicia for not being a mother to them, and making them feel locked up in her madness, with no way out.

Luz then shows once again the twins’ closeness by revealing their way of distancing themselves from Felicia’s behaviour: they call her “not-Máma” (Garcia, 121). Luz chooses three examples in which they use this nickname. The first is related to everyday life in a household, highlighting their mother’s incapability of cooking a chicken without burning it and cursing. The second relates to their everyday life, when their mother dances by herself in the dark. The third starts with an apostrophe used as a warning addressed at the second sister to “watch out” for Felicia’s behaviour (Garcia, 121). The twins use this nickname “not-Máma” when Felicia’s actions are not ones of a mother, according to them.

Luz reveals that neither her nor Milagro is able to tell their mother they love her even if Felicia wants them to. Felicia’s reaction is to “[look] right past [the twins]” and Luz believes her mother is looking for another pair of daughters who could say what she wants to hear (Garcia, 121). For Luz and Milagro, not answering to their mother’s expectations is a way to stand up for themselves and show Felicia that she does not deserve their love if she cannot take care of them in the ways a mother is supposed to.

The passage concludes with the mention of Ivanito and his relationship with his mother and his sisters. The boy thinks the twins are “cruel to Mamá” (Garcia, 121), but Luz responds by stating that “[Ivanito] never saw what we saw, he never heard what we heard” (Garcia, 121). This shows the differences between the children. The older ones have known their father, who they respect more than Felicia, ready to forgive him anything and accusing their mother of having driven him away. But Hugo left before Ivanito was born and the boy only knows him through his mother’s eyes. The girls have no pity for the situation their mother was in when Hugo was around. They just do not understand why their mother chased their father away. They only see their mother’s illness and do not find it in themselves to try to understand what happened. Luz says they want to “protect” their brother from their mother’s influence and reveals “he doesn’t want to be protected” (Garcia, 121). This explains why the sisters only count on each other and why they have built a wall between themselves and the other members of their household. Luz nails the coffin of their relationship with their brother with the last sentence of the passage: “He is her gullible rag doll” (Garcia, 121), showing little mercy to either their little brother reduced to a puppet or their mother embodying the puppeteer and dismissing them for the time being.

This extract illustrates for the first time the point of view from one of Felicia’s daughter, and shows how they react to her madness, how they do not have the patience to excuse their mother’s behaviour. Garcia’s theme of mother-daughter relationship is once again explored in depth, this time by an unforgiving daughter whose only solace is found in her twin sister who is the only one who can understand everything she lives.