Emily Guo
80A-09
Professor Tim
15/10/2014
“Dreaming in Cuban” by Cristina Garcia is a novel that talks about the
intergenerational differences and conflicts between its characters, and there are
certain parallels between the characters in the story and members in my own life.
My family has differences and commons to this Cuban family, especially with
respects to religion and family ties.
Religion is something that my family takes seriously, as do Celia and Lourdes in
“Dreaming in Cuban”. Generally there is a common trend in most of the world,
whether it is the West or the East, to have a decline in conservatism and a
progress towards modernism. This is very evident in my family as well as Celia’s
family. Celia tends to value ritual worship which can be seen in her telling her
daughter to make “a small offering to Santa Barbara” (Garcia, 12) to help her
through life. This reminded me of my grandmother, who also fears the possibility
of suffering if rituals were performed wrongly or if something was done in an
ungodly manner. She often tells my mother to “offer praying” or to have a fire
prayer ceremony in order to pray for hardships to lessen. “Felicia believes in the
gods’ benevolent powers; she just can’t stand the blood” (Garcia, 12). Lourdes on
the other hand is hypocritical, as she rebels against any religious customs and
later on becomes extremely religious as a Roman Catholic, even though she
actually doesn’t follow the Bible at all. She engages in gluttony, lust, having
contempt for the poor and treating people in a rude manner.
My grandparents, being deeply conservative have managed to imbibe several of
their values to my less conservative parents and aunts, who ridicule at some of
the ritual ceremonies of Buddhism, but still believe it is their religious duty to
regularly offer prayer to God regularly. Unlike Pilar, who wonders “why do they
have to ruin beautiful places like this [a nice church with stained glass paintings
and ornate interiors] with religion?” (Garcia 59), my parents allowed me the
freedom to choose of my own. Out of my own choosing, I stuck with Buddhism
and Christian and though I am not very religious at all, I believe it is important to
maintain a spiritual connection with God as a supreme being, and to pray to that
supreme being, even if not regularly, whenever you feel like you should.
Therefore, even though I saw small similarities to my family such as grandparents
being ritualistic, I do not see any sudden disdain for religious faith or the idea of
return to conservatism in my own family, as I see in the novel.
There is no handbook on how to be a good mother, nor is there a correct
way to raise a child. In the novel, Celia is the matriarch of her family. Comparable
to my life, my grandmother was also the matriarch of the family. She raised three
daughters and one son. My aunt Hua and grandmother show a similar
relationship to Loudes and Pilar. Back in China my grandmother owned a grocery
store and forced all her children to work afterschool. My aunt Hua was the most
rebellious of the children and she sometimes refused to go. Pilar describes
working as, “… she forced me to work… every day after for 25 cents an hour. She
leaves me nasty notes on the kitchen table reminding me to show up or else,”
(Garcia 27). Showing hoe pilar does not understand why she has to work and that
she feel unappreciated. On the other hand, Lourdes feels as though she giving
pilar the skill sets of hard work and determination. When my aunt Hua would not
go to work, she would hide under the couch all night, because my grandmother
would try to beat her. My grandmother would beat her because she wanted to
teach my aunt that hard work and determination is the path to a better life. Pilar
depicts how Lourdes would hit her, but Lourdes believes she is teaching her right
from wrong. Due to the fact that pilar grew up in a different time than her mom,
she does not understand the lessons her mom is trying to teach her. Through
Pilar’s eyes it seems Lourdes hates her, Lourdes is just trying to give her a better
life. Lourdes shares to her father, “‘No matter what I do, Pilar hates me,’ ‘Pilar
does not hate you, hija. She just hasn’t learned to love yet,” (Garcia 74). This
quote shows how Lourdes’s passion and emotion towards her daughter is not
expressing that she cares and wants the best for Pilar. Both Celia and my
grandmother were raised during a different generation than their daughters and
the way they show their love does not translate to their daughters portraying the
intergenerational gap.
Family interpersonal relationships between husbands and wives are
different to those in my life, although there are some similarities. No one in my
family to my knowledge has been raped, or has suffered divorces, serious marital
violence, or similar tragedies. Though the idea of love in relationships and
marriage are extremely different in Cuban and Chinese cultures, I did see certain
parallels between my family and the Del Pinos. “Pilar’s eyes Celia fears, are no
longer used to the compacted light of the tropics, where a morning can fill a
month of days in the North…..imagines her granddaughter pale, riding through
paleness, malnourished and cold without the food of scarlets and greens of the
tropics.” (Garcia, 7) This is a relationship that I could sometimes imagine my
grandmother having toward me, as I am a Chinese girl who has often lived in
distant foreign lands, which are more often than not, colder than her hometown
in China, and definitely do not have the same variety of spices and food options
found there. However, the aspect of sexual assault, marital assault, family
starving their daughters-in-law, having an abusive husband that repeatedly cheats
on his wife and gives her venereal diseases, etc. are all very disturbing to me.
Therefore, though there is a tendency for the youngest members of the group to
rebel and question religious behaviors and practices, the meaning and
significance of religion as a whole has been much more conservative, from my
grandparents to me. With regards to relationships between family members, I am
appalled at how badly family members treated each other in the novel as well, as
this would not be something that would be encouraged or tolerated in my family.