Dreaming in Cuban Analysis

García opens the work on the shoreline of Santa Teresa del Mar, a small community on the northwest coast of Cuba, about ten or so miles north of Havana. Celia would have a panoramic view of the oc...

Since García reveals information through many lenses (i.e. Celia reveals things about herself, but other characters supplement that with their own stories about her), the narrative technique is qu...

When an author prints a family tree in the first few pages of her book, it's a pretty sure sign you're heading into a family drama. And in García's work, you'll need that family tree to keep track...

Because we hear the story from so many different points of view and in a variety of voices, you can bet that the tone of the writing shifts quite a bit. Just for grins and giggles, compare the tone...

Dreaming in Cuban is basically, by the author's admission, a poem gone wild, so it's no surprise that the dreamy character of Celia writes letters that could be set to music. The open spirituality...

After Pilar spends some days in Cuba, she realizes that she is "dreaming in Spanish," which she has never done before (235). Listen to the way she describes the experience: I've started dreaming i...

"These casual exfoliations are/Of the tropic of resemblances..."It's not a surprise that García grabs these lines from Wallace Stevens ("Someone Puts a Pineapple Together"), since she kept copies...

If you have absolutely no idea what's happened to Celia at the end of the book, you're in good company. Here's Cristina García on the final scene:I deliberately wanted [Celia's fate] to be ambiguo...

Once you've wrapped your head around the telepathic communications, premonitions, supernatural sightings, mystical healings, wonky timelines and characters with amnesia, this book is a piece of cak...

Mystical Abuela and Her Giant Blue ManIn the opening of García's work, we're brought into the middle of a ... unique situation. Celia del Pino is "guarding" her area of the Cuban coast like a boss...

Recall that García works together many storylines at one time, based on the major characters in the text. So "the call" comes to many—and at different times—rather than only to one central cha...

We are introduced to the major characters, their backstories and the geographical locations in play for this narrative. There are some important structural and literary devices that crop up early o...

Remember the moment when Pilar buys that bass guitar and then goes home to try it out? She pulls out The Velvet Underground & Nico LP, and peels off the sticker on the front. This article will...

Dreaming in Cuban deals with issues of sexuality (budding or out of control) in a fairly forthright manner, despite the beauty and euphemism of its poetic language. Take a look at this passage from...

Federico García Lorca, "Landscape" (in Spanish, "Fire," 44; in English, "Six Days" 243); "Por las ramas del laurel" ("Shells," 109); "Me he perdido muchas veces por el mar" ("Baskets," 156-157)Mol...