How we cite our quotes: ("Abbreviated chapter name," page)
Quote #1
"[Lourdes] imagines her footprints sinking invisibly through the streets and the sidewalks, below the condensed archaeology of the city to underground plains of rich alluvial clay. She suspects the earth sheds its skin in layers, squandered of green." ("Going South," 18)
Dreaming in Cuban has a kind of historical syncretism working for it, where the characters elide their emotional states with the story of things around them. It's a variation of magical realism, in which the extraordinary or impossible works its way into everyday life. Here, Lourdes "makes her print" on the streets of New York as she patrols her beat. Perhaps this is her way of making the experiences of her life significant in the eyes of the universe.
Quote #2
"I was only two years old when I left Cuba but I remember everything that's happened to me since I was a baby, even word-for-word conversations." ("Going South," 26, Pilar)
It's an impossible situation, but let's say Pilar has a gift. She doesn't need anyone else to tell the story of her early life to her, since she can reach all the way back into infancy to grab those memories herself. On one hand, it's a good thing: she can interpret her life as she sees fit and doesn't need her mother to reconstruct her life in Cuba for her. On the other, it means that she doesn't need her mother to—already a problem in their strained relationship.
Quote #3
"If it were up to me, I'd record other things. Like the time there was a freak hailstorm in the Congo and the women took it as a sign that they should rule. Or the life stories of prostitutes in Bombay. Why don't I know anything about them? Who chooses what we should know or what's important?" ("Going South," 28)
Both Pilar (who is speaking here) and Herminia lament that other people get to decide what's important. Whether it has to do with cultural memory or political decisions, it's horribly frustrating to them to have to rely on the whims of those in power for something that feels so personal and personally defining.