Dreaming in Cuban Chapter 4: Celia's Letters: 1935-1940 Summary

  • This is an epistolary chapter, entirely made up of some of Celia's unsent letters to her lover Gustavo.
  • They are written on the eleventh of every month and run from 1935 to 1940.
  • In them, Celia reports on her marriage to Jorge, her pregnancies, Jorge's abandonment of her to his cruel mother and sisters, and her descent into depression.
  • Celia chronicles her stay at the asylum, where her BFF Felicia (a husband-killer) is burned in her bed. She had planned to escape with Felicia.
  • She recalls her Tía Alicia who taught piano to children and took care of her.
  • Towards the end of the chapter, her letters become more like domestic reporting and we learn in the last letter (about a life-threatening accident Jorge had) that Celia has come to love her husband.
  • She also comments on the poverty of the Cuban countryside and the vulnerability of its children.