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Memory: A Way of Expressing its own Personal Identity

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Memory: A Way of Expressing its own Personal Identity

The Different Characters’ Perceptions of Recollection in Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban

 

In Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban as well as in the chapter “Memory” in Edwards’ Postcolonial Literature textbook, the theme of memory is at the centre of attention and is addressed from different points of view. On the one hand, Edwards approaches the theme in a broader view, introducing different works from authors with different issues about memory. On the other hand, García’s novel presents an opposition between characters concerning the perception of memory. However, keywords such as truth and identity are linked to memory in both authors especially in the novel Anil’s Ghost in Edwards and related to Lourdes, Celia and Pilar in Dreaming in Cuban. Thus, in comparison to Anil’s Ghost, this is throughout the different perceptions of memory on the one side of Lourdes and Celia and on the other side of Pilar, that the women recollect past events in order to express or forge their identity.

The perception of Celia that recollection lies in the beauty of a creative memory, is linked to the freedom of expressing a personal identity. At the beginning of the novel, while Celia is cooking for her grandchildren and looking at the sea, she “realizes” (García 1992: 47) that a restricted memory is atrocious and lets no personal recollection “Memory cannot be confined, Celia realizes, looking out the kitchen window to the sea. It’s slate gray, the color of undeveloped film. Capturing images suddenly seems to her an act of cruelty.” (García 1992: 47-48). The ambiguity in the second sentence of whether the sea or the memory is “slate gray” (García 1992: 47) is open to interpretation. One possible interpretation is that even though the sea could have seemed gray, “the color of undeveloped film” (García 1992: 47-48) mainly refers to a photograph so to “confined” (García 1992: 47) memory. In this way, it is related to Celia’s viewpoint that beauty is found in the apperception and reconstruction of the authentic experience and not in captured “images” (García 1992: 48). What is more, Celia not only “realizes” that “memory cannot be confined” (García 1992: 47) but “capturing” pictures also “suddenly” appear to her as “an act of cruelty” (García 1992: 48). To some extent, these words demonstrate Celia’s rapid awareness that unforgettable and unchangeable memories are terrifying. In this way, in order to exaggerate her profound disagreement about limited memory, Celia uses the hyperbole “act of cruelty” (García 1992: 48). Thus, this liberty to recollect the events as she wants to remember can be linked to the expression of a personal identity as she is free to perceive the world as she wishes. Relatively in his Postcolonial Literature textbook, Justin D. Edwards puts in relation the recollection with personal identity as it appears in the novel Anil’s Ghost “In this narrative of recollection, we witness not an identity that is fixed and given, but improvised, constructed, negotiated in the conditions of danger and trauma.” (Edwards 2008: 137). To some extent, though Anil’s Ghost and Dreaming in Cuban are narratives about memories and the characters have the liberty to remember the events as they want, Celia does not have to confront “danger” and “trauma” (Edwards 2008: 137). In Anil’s Ghost, the protagonist Anil faces traumatic memory recovering “Sri Lanka’s national crimes and murders” (Edwards 2008: 136) in order to discover a part of her identity. In Dreaming in Cuban Celia forged her identity during the independence time in Cuba so at a time where major advances have been made in the country and living conditions were favourable. Hence, whether for Anil or Celia the identity is constructed through living memories and not an imposed recollection of the past.

Along the same lines Lourdes agrees with the perception of Celia regarding creative memory but opposes her daughter Pilar who needs the truth from the past to find her identity. Lourdes evaluates the lives of others from her point of view, which is claimed by Pilar “Mom filters other people’s lives through her distorting lens. Maybe it’s that wandering eye of hers. It makes her see only what she wants to see instead of what’s really there.” (García 1992: 176). In this saying, the vision of Lourdes that she sees and interprets the world in her own manner contrasts with Pilar’s conception of memory and past events. This latter wants to know the events as they happened so “what’s really there” and not how her mother “wants to see” them (García 1992: 176). However, each character, even Pilar, has over the years a “distorting lens” as memory selects instants it wants to keep and those it wants to forget. Thus, it increases the difficulty of recounting memories without interpretation nor a particular point of view. Following the same idea, as Felicia says to her son, retelling events or truth from the past depends on how the mind transform the facts and give them sense “Imagination, like memory, can transform lies to truths” (García 1992: 88). In other words, what is relevant is not the event itself or what happened in the past but how the characters decide to link them. In the case of Pilar who is searching her identity, having events told from a constantly changing memory of her family is insufficient. Even if she “remember[s] everything that’s happened to [her] since [she] was a baby, even word-for-word conversations” (García 1992: 26), she was only two when “[she] left Cuba” (García 1992: 26) for America. Thus, she needs original and reliable information about her grandmother and events that happened before her birth in Cuba to discover where she belongs. In this way, Dreaming in Cuban is similar to the novel Anil’s Ghost because as Edwards points out: “Anil’s Ghost is a fiction that uses memory as a subject to explore the complexities of truth.” (Edwards 2008: 137). While Anil uses her own memory to get to the truth and recovers her own history, Pilar deals with the intricacies of truth through the memory of her relatives to have her questions answered and find her identity.

To conclude, while Lourdes and Celia perceive the beauty of memory in the interpretation and rearrangement of remembrances, Pilar relies on the truth of the events. The fact that memories change throughout the years and depend on how the characters want to rally them does not concord with Pilar’s perception of memory. In this way, Lourdes and Celia express their personal identity across recollection as they are free to have their own conception of the world. On the contrary, Pilar as Anil in the novel Anil’s Ghost, focuses on the reality of what happened in Cuba or the past of her grandmother with the aim of determining her identity.

 

 

Bibliography

  • Edwards, Justin D. “Chapter Twelve: Memory.” Postcolonial Literature. New York:

Palgrave Macmillan. (2008): 129-138.

  • García, Cristina. Dreaming in Cuban. New York: Ballantine Books. 1992.

 

 

 

The Inner Conflict of Pilar: From Cuba to Brooklyn in Search of an Identity in Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban

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Dreaming in Cuban, written in 1992, is the first novel of author Cristina García, a Cuban-born American journalist and novelist. The novel takes place both in Cuba and the United States displaying three generations of a family. In this essay, the focus will be on two of the main characters namely Lourdes, one of Celia’s daughter, and Pilar, the daughter of Lourdes. The passage focuses on the analysis starting on page 137 “Most days […]” and finishing on page 138 “[…] a cut on my tongue that never healed” presents Pilar’s desire to return to Cuba and her determination to find answers concerning her native country and her mother. This is throughout the verbs choice and tense as well as figures of speech that Pilar searches her own identity in order to discover where she belongs.

Firstly, although Pilar is rebelling against the Cuban regime, she still considers herself as a Cuban and wants to return to her native country. All along the story Pilar appears as a rebellious and strong-willed teenager and in this passage she is anew intemperate saying “I resent the hell out of the politicians and the generals who force events on us that structure our lives, that dictate the memories we’ll have when we’re old” (p.138). Not only is this saying exaggerated through the hyperbole “I resent the hell out”, but also the verbs that describe how the politicians and generals act are significant: “they force events”, “structure [people’s] lives” and “dictate the memories” (p.138). To some extent, these verbs are representing the precept of the communism which is the control of the country by the state letting no liberty and choices for the citizens. Thus, on the one hand Pilar’s youth and character lead her to amplify her saying but on the other hand she is mindful of what happens in Cuba under the communist regime. Though Pilar does not agree with the whole Cuban regime and lives in the United States for a long time, she still considers herself as a Cuban speaking in the first person plural: “who force events on us”, “structure our lives” and “the memories we’ll have […] we’re old” (p.138). To some extent, Pilar shows her belonging to Cuba through the we-pronoun. In addition to, she expresses a wish to return to her native country claiming: “Every day Cuba fades a little more inside me, my grandmother fades a little more inside me.” (p.138). The repetition underlines Pilar’s desire to visit Cuba and her grandmother in order to strengthen the decreasing relations with her roots. Then, before her return to Cuba and the answers to questions that have remained open for years, Pilar can only imagine “where [her] history should be.” (p.138). Relatively, because of her life in Brooklyn and the refusal of her mother to talk about Abuela Celia and Cuba, this is through her imagination that Pilar maintains her links to Cuba.

At this point, Pilar not only wants to return to Cuba to see her grandmother and to visit the country but also because she is searching her identity. Through the verbs choice and tense used by Pilar, she questions herself and her relatives about her roots. Most of the verbs used by Pilar are in the present tense signifying that she speaks at the same time the plot takes place. All along the passage, the verbs either describe her thoughts and feelings “I resent” and “I think” twice, her determination “I can” and “I want” or her questioning “I ask” and “I’m prying” (p.138). Concerning Pilar’s thinking “I think he stays in his workshop” and “I think we should have moved to a ranch” (p.138), the situation is hypothetical because that is only what Pilar believes about her father but nothing is confirmed. Then, Pilar shows once more that she is perseverant and self-confident using two modal verbs “I can do not to hijack a plane to Havana” and “I really want to know, why mum hardly speaks to Abuela” (p.138). The context in which she uses “can” shows that it is not a question of physical capacity but of permission. Pilar cannot “hijack a plane to Havana” (p.138) because it is an illegal act which is punishable by law.  Moreover, when Pilar asks her father about her mother and Cuba this is because she “really want[s]” explanations of why her mother “keeps her riding crops from Cuba” (p.138). While she has a strong wish which is accentuated with the adverb “really” placed before “want” (p.138), the phrase “keeps her riding crops from Cuba” bears a deep meaning. Pilar makes a connection with what happened to Lourdes in Cuba such as the rejection of her mother (p.48), the loss of her child (p.70), and the violent rape by a soldier (p.71) without knowing these facts. Finally, Pilar “ask[s]” her mother about Abuela Celia and has the feeling of “prying” into secret information. These two verbs imply the desire to have answers which is what Pilar aims for. Thus, even though Pilar has a strong desire to learn about her roots and grandmother and is aware that Lourdes has bad memories concerning Cuba, she is determinate to find where she belongs.

Following this, Pilar’s lack of knowledge about the exact events that happened to her mother in Cuba makes her feeling resentful towards Lourdes and this adds to the recurrent mother-daughter conflicts. Pilar wants to learn about her grandmother Celia, nonetheless each time she asks her mother about it “she gets annoyed” and “shuts [her] up quickly, like [she’s] prying into top secret information” (p.138). The irony of Pilar in the phrase “top secret information” shows her ignorance concerning the reason why her mother is distant with Celia. What is more, Pilar’s father accentuates the contrast between Lourdes and Pilar when this latter questions him “why [her] Mom hardly speaks to Abuela or why she still keeps her riding crops from Cuba.” (P.138). Most of the time he answers “refeering the fights” (p.138) between Lourdes and Pilar instead of the question. Consequently, due to the paucity of information about the past of her mother as well as their constant conflicts about the revolution and Cuba, Pilar has to face at a time a mother-daughter conflict and an inner-conflict linked to the search of her identity.

To conclude, the omnipresence of Pilar’s search of identity is seen through a desire to return to the country and her perseverance to obtain information from her relatives. Additionally, the verbs used by Pilar are meaningful and affirm her determination and her importance of where she belongs. However, the contrast with her mother’s view as well as the lack of information about her life leave Pilar in an inner conflict of discovering if she is a Cuban, American or hybrid girl.