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43-466: Cristina García may refer to: Cristina García (journalist) (born 1958), Cuban-born American journalist and novelist Cristina Garcia (politician) , (born 1977), American politician Cristina García Rodero (born 1949), Spanish photographer Cristina García Spínola de Brito (born 1976), Spanish journalist Cristina García (swimmer) , (born 2001), Spanish swimmer [REDACTED] Topics referred to by

86-601: A bachelor's degree in political science from Barnard College (1979) and a master's degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (1981). She has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, and a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award. She is on the editorial advisory board of Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures . She has

129-587: A daughter. García pursued a career in journalism following graduate school after having worked as a part-time "copy girl" with The New York Times . She obtained an intern position with The Boston Globe and a job as a reporter for the Knoxville Journal . In 1983 she was hired by Time magazine. Beginning there as a reporter/researcher, she became the publication's San Francisco correspondent in 1985, and its bureau chief in Miami for Florida and

172-435: A lack of understanding. Similarly, Felicia is ultimately distanced from her entire family. Only the bond across generations seems to last: Celia is close to her grandchildren, Pilar in particular. The friendship that springs up between Ivanito and Pilar suggests that there may be hope for connection within the third generation of the family as well. Fathers and daughters, and mothers and sons also share closer relationships in

215-644: A man named Otto. Whether or not his death was Felicia's fault is debatable. While on a ride, he stands up while Felicia performs oral sex. When the ride begins again, he falls over and lands on electrical wires and is electrocuted, but it is unclear as to exactly how he falls, and later in the story, Felicia says that she pushed him. Meanwhile, the day after Felicia's disappearance, Javier returns home to his mother. Celia learns that his wife has left him and taken their daughter. In his heartbreak, Javier wastes away, just as Celia once did, until he vanishes to die. Felicia returns to Havana and fully embraces santería, becoming

258-535: A mural for the opening. Pilar, unbeknownst to her mother, paints a punk Statue of Liberty for the unveiling, but when the crowd disapproves, Lourdes defends her daughter's work. In Cuba, Felicia meets and marries a man named Ernesto Brito, but he dies in a fire soon afterwards. Felicia blames El Líder for his death, though there is no evidence to support this belief. She descends into madness again, and then vanishes, losing her memory and identity for months. When she recovers herself, Felicia discovers that she has married

301-581: A newly arrived Lourdes and Pilar. They care for her. Lourdes views Cuba with great dislike, but she becomes fond of her nephew Ivanito. Pilar listens to Celia's stories and paints her portrait many times. Lourdes finds herself unable to forgive her mother. She resolves to help Ivanito leave Cuba, taking him to join the defectors at the Peruvian embassy. Celia sends Pilar to find him, and though Pilar manages to do so, she tells her grandmother that she did not. After Pilar and Lourdes are gone, Celia walks into

344-469: A presence in Felicia's life. She drops out of high school and drifts from job to job until she meets Hugo Villaverde. Felicia is enamored with him immediately, and they soon consummate their relationship. Felicia becomes pregnant as a result. Hugo vanishes for seven months before returning and marrying Felicia in a City Hall wedding. He becomes physically abusive almost immediately and then departs to sea

387-425: A priestess. She is still distanced from her mother and children, who do not come to see her. Gradually, Felicia's health fades for reasons unknown and she too dies. In the U.S., Jorge's presence begins to fade from the world, and he goes to Lourdes to ask her to go to Cuba and apologize on his behalf and make amends with her mother. One day while Pilar is out in the city, she encounters a botánica (a store that sells

430-783: A professor of biochemistry and marries a Czech girl, having a daughter with her named Irinita. When Jorge develops stomach cancer, he travels to New York for treatment, where he spends the last four years of his life. His health gradually fails and he is hospitalized. Over the course of her father's illness, Lourdes has a constant desire for food and sex . When Jorge dies, his spirit leaves his body and appears to bid farewell to his wife. She glimpses him briefly, but she cannot understand his words. Felicia turns to santería to make peace with her father, but she becomes mentally unwell again. When Celia discovers Felicia's illness, she takes Luz and Milagro to her home, but Ivanito will not leave his mother. Eventually, Felicia's mental state deteriorates to

473-606: A section telling the story of Felicia's final days. Celia's first-person voice is also heard through the appearance of her letters which help to fill in gaps in the family's history. Dreaming in Cuban was nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction in 1992. The book landed the 65th spot on the American Library Association's list of the one hundred most banned and challenged books in

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516-432: A single family. The novel focuses particularly on the women—Celia del Pino, her daughters Lourdes and Felicia, and her granddaughter Pilar. While most of the novel is written in the third person, some sections are written in the first person and other sections are epistolary. The novel is not told in linear fashion; it moves between characters, places and times. The novel's central themes include family relationships, exile,

559-481: A tree, for example: In Afro-Cuban culture, the ceiba tree is also sacred, a kind of maternal, healing figure to which offerings are made, petitions placed. So absolutely, for me trees do represent a crossroads, an opportunity for redemption and change. In Dreaming in Cuban , Pilar Puente has a transformative experience under an elm tree that leads to her returning to Cuba. Chen Pan, in Monkey Hunting , escapes

602-411: Is Lourdes who supports the family, saving up enough money to purchase a bakery. She runs the bakery herself. Pilar grows up rebelling against her mother and feeling much closer to her father. She becomes a sort of stereotypical "teenage punk artist". Felicia, the second oldest daughter, becomes the best friend of the daughter of a santería high priest at age six. From that time forward, santería has

645-529: Is a darkly comic fictionalized portrait of Fidel Castro, an octogenarian exile, and a rabble of other Cuban voices who refuse to accept their power is ending. Dreaming in Cuban Dreaming in Cuban is the first novel written by author Cristina García , and was a finalist for the National Book Award. This novel moves between Cuba and the United States featuring three generations of

688-467: Is born. Finally, they have a son named Javier, who is born eight years after Felicia. Ideologically, Jorge and Celia are very different. Jorge prefers the American-friendly government, while Celia supports attempts at revolution. Over the years, the three children grow up, and their lives take different paths. Lourdes attends the university and falls in love with a man named Rufino Puente,

731-432: Is cheating on her mother. She tries to run away to Cuba, but she only makes it as far as Miami. She gets caught while seeking out one of her cousins for help. Her mother is called, and Pilar is made to return home to New York. Lourdes becomes an auxiliary policewoman. Her father's spirit begins speaking to her regularly. Eventually, Lourdes’ business becomes so successful that she buys a second bakery. She has Pilar paint

774-521: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Cristina Garc%C3%ADa (journalist) Garcia has taught at universities nationwide, including UCLA; UC Riverside; Mills College; University of San Francisco; University of Nevada, Las Vegas; University of Texas-Austin; and Texas State University-San Marcos, where she was the 2012–2014 University Chair in Creative Writing. García's novels explore

817-412: Is divided into three books. Each book consists of several chapters of narration and one or more chapters of letters written by Celia. The letters all were written prior to the timeline of the rest of the novel. Within each chapter, different sections may center on different characters. These are indicated by the appearance of the character's name along with the year prior to the section. The narration of

860-536: Is exemplified by Pilar's distance from the Spanish language, as she only is able to dream in Spanish after she makes a return visit to Cuba. The rift created by politics is also an important theme of the novel. Politics pervade the novel—it is political conflict due to the revolution that leads to the Puente family's exile. Politics also polarize the del Pino family's relationships. Celia is steadfast in her support of

903-549: Is frozen at that point in the past. Only in her return to Cuba is Lourdes able to revisit the memory of her rape and her lost child. Pilar grows up with a longing to return to her grandmother in Cuba without knowing the reality of life in Cuba beyond her memories. She too is powerless for a long time to reach Cuba—even her attempt at running away fails. She is distanced further from her family roots and her cultural heritage due to her mother's unwillingness to speak of them. This distance

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946-508: Is sleeping; Hugo wakes up just as she drops the rag on him and he flees, never to be seen again. She later gives birth to a son, who she names Ivanito. While the twins resent their mother, Ivanito is extremely close to her. The youngest child of Jorge and Celia, Javier, has a talent for science and shares his mother's support of the revolution and El Líder. As a result of his rebellion against his father, Javier eventually leaves for Czechoslovakia without telling his parents. He goes on to become

989-472: The Caribbean region in 1987. In 1988 she was transferred to Los Angeles . She terminated her employment with Time in 1990 to write fiction. Of García's first novel, Dreaming in Cuban , García said, "I surprised myself by how Cuban the book turned out to be. I don't remember growing up with a longing for Cuba, so I didn't realize how Cuban I was, how deep a sense I had of exile and longing." The book

1032-623: The child. Lourdes reaches the house just in time to find two soldiers holding Rufino at gunpoint. She scares the soldiers off, but the soldiers return later. They claim the Puente estate as property of the revolutionary government. Lourdes tries to resist, but one of the soldiers rapes her at knifepoint. Soon after, the Puente family flees to Miami. Lourdes finds life in Miami intolerable, and soon they drive north until they reach New York City, where they make their new life. Rufino does not fit in well, and he spends his time working on his inventions. It

1075-455: The divisiveness of politics, and memory. Cuban history and culture are important in the novel, including important historical events and the elements of Santería that appear throughout the novel. As a young woman living in Havana, Celia Almeida meets and falls in love with a married Spaniard named Gustavo. The two become lovers until Gustavo returns to Spain. After Gustavo leaves, Celia loses

1118-688: The fact that "there is no one Cuban exile." In 2007 she also said that she "wanted to break free of seeing the world largely through the eyes of Cubans or Cuban immigrants. After the first three novels—I think of them as a loose trilogy—I wanted to tackle a bigger canvas, more far-flung migrations, the fascinating work of constructing identity in an increasingly small and fractured world." At that time García described this "bigger canvas" as including "the entrapments and trappings of gender," partly because "it would be easy, and overly simplistic, to frame everything in terms of equality, or cultural limitations, or other vivid measurables. What's most interesting to me are

1161-619: The memories, histories, and cultural rituals of her Cuban heritage and that of the diaspora in the United States and globally. García was born in Havana to Cuban parents, Francisco M. Garcia and Esperanza Lois. In 1961, when she was two years old, her family was among the first wave of people to flee Cuba after Fidel Castro came to power. They moved to New York City , where she was raised in Queens , and Brooklyn Heights . She earned

1204-405: The next day. Thus, Felicia is without her husband when she gives birth to her twin daughters, Luz and Milagro. Hugo continues to be a sporadic presence in their lives after that. He manages to impregnate Felicia again and give her syphilis. It is during Felicia's pregnancy that her lack of mental stability becomes apparent. She attempts to kill Hugo by dropping a burning rag onto his face while he

1247-412: The novel centering on the older generations—Celia, Lourdes, and Felicia—as well as Ivanito's first section. First-person narration also appears, usually in connection with the youngest generation of the del Pino family. Pilar is the most frequent first-person narrator, but Ivanito and Luz (Felicia's children) also narrate sections in the first person. Additionally, Herminia, Felicia's best friend, narrates

1290-400: The novel generally moves forward in time, but this is complicated by the frequent appearance of memories and the fact that the novel jumps back and forth between different locations and characters. The novel is also written through several different styles of narration. The majority of the novel is told through a third-person omniscient narrator. This style of narration is used for sections of

1333-407: The novel. The relationships between husbands and wives, on the other hand, seem to break often: Jorge and Celia spend the last years of his life apart, Felicia tries to kill two of her three husbands, and Lourdes and Rufino drift further and further apart until they no longer talk. This novel explores the impact that exile has on those in exile and those left behind. The exile in the novel reflects

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1376-401: The ocean a final time. Family relationships are at the heart of Dreaming in Cuban, which explores how they are twisted by physical separation, politics, and lack of communication. Many of the relationships are ruptured in the novel. Mothers and daughters seem largely unable to connect, as nothing is able to close the distance between Lourdes and Celia, and Lourdes and Pilar are also divided by

1419-410: The paraphernalia of santería). The proprietor instructs her in a ritual she must perform and gives her the items she needs. On her way home, Pilar is attacked by boys in the park. Pilar recovers herself and returns home to carry out her ritual, which reveals that she and her mother should go to Cuba. Celia wanders out into the ocean at night after Felicia's burial, and she is found in the aftermath by

1462-513: The point where she tries to kill Ivanito and herself with drugged ice cream. The attempt fails. As a result, Felicia is sent to join a Cuban military brigade and Ivanito is sent to boarding school. Celia becomes a full devotee of the revolution and El Líder, performing a wide variety of tasks and becoming a local judge of the People's Court. Meanwhile, in New York, Pilar discovers that her father

1505-426: The real exile experienced by thousands of Cubans, as the Puente family flees Cuba in the wake of the revolution just as many did in 1961. Celia acutely feels the absence of her granddaughter in Cuba, and she is saddened by the nomadic existence of her children, but she is powerless to change these things. Lourdes uses the exile as an attempt to ignore her past in Cuba and bury the memory of her rape. Her vision of Cuba

1548-525: The revolution, even to the point of suppressing creative works in her role as a judge. Her socialism links her more closely to her son Javier, but distances her from Lourdes and even Felicia, with whom she was once close. At the same time, Lourdes’ zealous pro-U.S. patriotism distances her from her own daughter Pilar. Ultimately, political inflexibility leads to increasing isolation—Celia is left alone in Cuba, while Lourdes returns home without any greater closeness with her daughter or husband. Dreaming in Cuban

1591-408: The same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cristina_García&oldid=873419529 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1634-404: The slow, internal, often largely unconscious processes that move people in unexpected directions, that reframe and refine their own notions of who they are, sexually and otherwise." While García has expressed a desire to avoid overt and propagandistic politics the influence of her heritage is made clear when she discusses the symbolism and characters in her work. She has said, about the symbol of

1677-485: The son of a wealthy family. They are married in spite of his mother's disapproval. After Rufino and Lourdes are married, they live at the Puente family ranch. Eleven days after the Cuban revolution takes place, Lourdes gives birth to a daughter named Pilar. Two years later, Lourdes is pregnant with a second child. One day, she is thrown from her horse while riding frantically to return to the house, and it causes her to lose

1720-495: The sugarcane plantation under the watchful protection of a ceiba tree…In A Handbook to Luck , Evaristo takes to living in trees as a young boy, to escape the violence of his stepfather. He stays there for years, first in a coral tree and then in a banyan. From his perches, he witnesses the greater violence of the civil war in El Salvador and speaks a peculiar poetry, born, in part, of his co-existence with trees. "King of Cuba"

1763-487: The time she gives birth to her daughter Lourdes, her mind has snapped. Thus, for the first months of Lourdes’ life, Celia is in a mental institution and Jorge is the one who cares for Lourdes. When Celia is released, Jorge brings her to a new home on the edge of the ocean in Santa Teresa del Mar. Lourdes is distant from her mother and closely bonded to her father. A couple years later, a second daughter named Felicia

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1806-441: The will to live. Though she has no known medical condition, she wastes away (due to depression). While she is housebound Jorge del Pino courts her and persuades her to marry him. After their honeymoon, he leaves her at home with his mother and sister while he goes on long business trips, punishing her out of his jealousy for her past with Gustavo. His mother and sister are cruel to Celia, even more so after she becomes pregnant. By

1849-682: Was nominated for the National Book Award . Her second novel The Agüero Sisters (1997) won the Janet Heidiger Kafka Prize . García has reported experiencing unease in relating to other Cubans—both with those still in Cuba and those in exile in Florida. Some question why she writes in English. Others take issue with her lack of engagement in anti-Castro causes. She has said she attempts to emphasize in her novels

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