![]() As conditions in Cuba worsen, the ranch that Lourdes and her husband, Rufino, live on is invaded by Cuban soldiers. Before Lourdes decides to leave Cuba to pursue a better life in America, she is a thin, active, and beautiful young woman who recently married a wealthy landowner. Lourdes’ relationship with language is perhaps the most complex of all of the characters in Dreaming in Cuban. He speaks with her, and while at first, she has a hard time believing it is true, his visits become a comfort to her and she quickly becomes worried that they will not last forever that she will have to say goodbye to her father for a second time once the visits end. The difference here is that Lourdes is actually able to speak with Jorge, they continue their relationship after his death, and one can see that their relationship is actually strengthened with his passing on. In the weeks following her father’s death, Lourdes begins to be visited by Jorge’s ghost. Lourdes, Celia, and Jorge’s eldest daughter, is also visited by Jorge. It is here, very early on in the novel, that the reader realizes that language is to become an entry point into the lives and emotions of the main characters.Ĭelia isn’t the only member of the family that Jorge speaks to after his death. There is a reference to Jorge’s most recent letter to Celia, in which she says she barely recognizes him that he speaks to her as a young and passionate version of himself, one she states that she never actually knew. It is in the next scene that Celia determines that Jorge has died, and he was trying to reach her from the afterlife. The scene ends with Celia calling out to her husband, desperate to understand what he is trying to communicate to her. Jorge attempts to speak to Celia, but she becomes frustrated as she can not hear what he is saying. Suddenly, she sees a vision of her husband (who has been living in the United States to receive medical treatment), walking towards her across the ocean. Celia is sitting on the beach in front of her home, on the lookout for invading Americans. An example of this from the novel can be found in the opening chapter, ‘Ocean Blue’. Her level of devotion towards these letters (most of which she never sends), can be seen as in fact devotion to herself: Celia craves to speak and be heard. In a word, Celia is devoted to her cause, be that her relationship with her former lover, or with Cuba, and eventually Fidel Castro, or, El Lider.Ĭelia’s letters become an inner monologue a diary of sorts in which she records her life’s most important moments, intertwined with the important moments in Cuba’s history. In the same way that Celia is devoted to her former lover, writing him letters every 11th of the month for almost her entire life, she clings to the Cuba she knows, love, and in a sense, worships. While it may seem that Celia has no choice in marrying Jorge, she clings to her freedom through her former lover, who she nearly dies for before recovering and beginning a relationship with Jorge. After a traumatizing breakup, Celia is coerced into a relationship with Jorge. Celia is the core of the family, whether her children or grandchildren accept it or not. One could say that the characters in Dreaming of Cuban can thank Celia, the matriarch of the family for catalyzing their relationship with language. The del Pino family is born from the characters of Celia and Jorge. Whether language is used in a negative or positive way, it is clear that it forms the main characters’ development in the Dreaming in Cuban novel. It is used as an escape, as is the case with Lourdes and Ivanito. In contrast, language is used as a barrier, as is the case with Felicia and her daughters, Luz, and Milagro. Language is also used as a way to connect, as is the case with Celia and Pilar. Even after death, language is used to communicate with the living, as is the case with Jorge. Each character has a special and unique relationship with language, and this relationship shapes them. Celia, Lourdes, Felicia, Jorges, Ivanito, Pilar, Luz, and Milagro are the core characters in the novel, all of whom make up the complex del Pino family. Character interactions, relationships, personal growth, and decline can all be linked to the use of language. ![]() The theme of language is omnipresent in García’s novel Dreaming in Cuban.
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