A Theme Of Reality In Dreaming In Cuban By Cristina García
Reality is the state of knowing whether something actually exists, opposed to if something is idealistic or nonexistent. Sometimes when people go through hardships in life, they have difficulties comprehending if an event is real or if it is a fantasy. Throughout the book Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina García explores the sorrows characters face, sorrows that create challenges which they then have to distinguish. This book takes place over a span of many years, moving between the United States of America and Cuba, and centers around the life of the del Pino family, mostly the women. Although each woman in the family goes through distinct hardships, they all come together as one when they have trouble distinguishing between what is and is not reality.
Celia del Pino has gone through the most ups and downs in her life, whether it is her beloved husband dying, or her weak relationship with her daughters. Celia phases in and out of reality often. The most prominent moment is one night when she is "guarding" the Cuban coastline from invaders. She sees her husband, Jorge, approaching from the ocean. She then runs out onto the beach to see him, but he disappears promptly. “At the far end of the sky, where daylight begins. Her husband emerges from the light and comes toward her, taller than the palms, walking on water in his white summer suit and Panama hat. He is in no hurry. Celia half expects him to pull pink tea roses from behind his back as he used to when he returned from his trips to distance provinces. Or to offer her a giant egg beater wrapped in brown paper, she doesn’t know why. But he comes empty handed. ”
Celia is awed by the fact that Jorge comes empty-handed. She is awed by the fact that things do not seem to be the same since before he left for New York. She is awed by the fact that Jorge unexpectedly disappears. Celia is blinded by the truth that Jorge is dead and will never return, that is why she truly believes she sees him that night. Therefore, she has trouble facing the reality of her life, without Jorge. Celia was absolutely in love with Jorge and when he passed away she began to go through dark times in her life. Lourdes’s goes through periods in her life where she feels as if no one understands her, and this results in imagining her father and “speaking” to him. “Lourdes is herself only with her father. Even after his death, they understand each other perfectly, as they always have, Jorde de Pino doesn’t accompany Lourdes on her beat because he doesn’t want to interfere with her work. ”
While Lourdes thinks profoundly about the distinctions between herself and other members of her family who came to America, she sees a vast disparity. She feels as if part of her country has broken the standard of stereotypical characteristics of women, while the other half, her husband’s family, has not. Even before Lourdes left Cuba, she refused to act like a conventional woman, by partaking in setting her house up. As her marriage degenerated over the years, she began to feel alone. Lourdes believes she now only has her father, even though he's dead. She feels that they understand one another. Pilar resents Lourdes and finds her mother’s morals offensive. At this time, Lourdes wishes for her son, whom she was going to have before the miscarriage occurred. Because her marriage is close to dead, and her daughter is not obedient, Lourdes results to her father, because he is the only person she has left. Felicia del Pino has always been the strange one in the family. Since she was a young girl, Felicia has been captivated by religion. She has felt a connection to St. Sebastian because of his double death, causing her to obsess over him. As the years have gone by, Felicia has grown to develop delusions. "Felicia del Pino doesn't know what brings on her delusions. . . She can hear everything in this world and others, every sneeze and creak and breath in the heavens or the harbor or the gardenia tree down the block. They call to her all at once, grasping here and there for parts of her, hatching blue flames in her brain. "
Along with having obsessions and delusions, Felicia to has gone through many rough times. Felicia had an abusive husband, Hugo. He then left her when she was pregnant with the twins. Though she went through this, she ends up marrying him. Because he remains horrible and threatening, Felicia lights him on fire. Even though he survives, he goes away and stays away. This was a contributing factor to Felicia’s madness. And a result of her madness is a lack of sleep and much grief.
Reality is a common theme throughout the book which each character struggles with. It causes him or her to do imagine, see or hear things most people would not, and they each have their own ways to cope with it. The concept of reality of fanaticism takes over the lives of these characters.
