Dreaming in Cuban (1992) By Christina Garcia

I suspect we are witnessing the end of a genre.  In 1959 a revolution led by Fidel Castro succeeded in toppling Cuban President Batista, a puppet of the United States, resulting in a shutdown of relations between the two countries -- one authoritarian dictatorship replaced by another.  In 2015, the “normalization” process, brokered by Pope Francis, began, its future is still largely uncertain. 

Between those two dates are 56 years of intense, controversial, fiercely debated, history and culture; tinged with enough conspiracy theories to keep Hollywood and the National Inquirer in script for decades.  This background includes the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, the (John) Kennedy assassination, the Peruvian Embassy & Operation Peter Pan, the Mariel Boat Flotilla, the Tropicana and the “Mob,” the Buena Vista Social Club, and the Malecon, … not a complete list.  And, let’s not forget that decidedly Cuban-American cultural icon from my childhood, Ricky Ricardo.

Much has been written about these 56 years, both fiction and non-fiction, including a fun little book I read earlier this week called Dreaming in Cuban, by Christina Garcia.  Her book is almost unique in the “Cuban Revolution” genre because it let its characters make the value judgements, not the author, and the characters have different takes on their shared history.  It’s also interesting because in this decidedly “macho” culture, its main characters are entirely female.

The copy I read has a library stamp in it from the International School in Panama, which is probably an interesting story in its own right.

 

The characters span a multi-generation family who are divided politically.  The matriarch is Celia, a devoted follower of El Lider (Fidel Castro).  She provides much of the history of the rich-poor divisions in the country that allowed the revolution to happen in the first place.  She has two daughters and a son: Felicia, is a practitioner of native religion and ends up being institutionalized for mental health reasons – Celia raises Felicia’s son (who plays only a minor role in the book, until the very end); Lourdes, marries a wealthy man, they lose everything in the revolution, fleeing to the U.S. and eventually settling in Brooklyn (her father will eventually join them); and Javier, who is raised in Cuba and joins the Communist Party, eventually taking a teaching position in Prague – when his wife leaves him, he returns to Cuba to drink himself into oblivion.

Playing an outsize role in the book is Lourdes’ daughter Pilar, raised in the U.S., she is a fan of Lou Reed and all things punk – the contrast between her political indifference, and her mother’s vehement anti-Castro tirades are the core of the book. 

Recommendation: Because of its many dream sequences, the book is confusing at times, but it is also an interesting read.