Cultural identity originates when the feeling of security from ones own native land is over taken by a foreign place. Cristina Garcia in Dreaming in Cuban depicts how what seem to be more then one or two narratives depict their life with different viewpoints.
The novel seems to depict in a very confusing manner the conflict of several generations of a Cuban family and their lives both in their native land and in the United States. Celia in the beginning of the novel is sitting outside her home keeping watch of what maybe another revolution, the fear still intense in the hearts of the Cubans during that time. Also through Celia it shows how overjoyed she becomes having seen her grandchild keep a private diary hidden from her mother. It seems as if Celia's daughter Lourdes has become grown to a more liberal way of life, away from her cultural upbringing.
English: A Grandmother with her new born Granddaug...
Dreaming in Cuban
Celia Thaxter in Her GardenCelia sees the difference in generations that cause this distance from cultural identity in her grandchild when she states "Pilarâ¦writes to her from Brooklyn in a Spanish that is no longer hers." She implies the Spanish language is not as pure and precise as it would have been growing up in Cuba for Pilar, that her new language is most likely English. Celia fears that "Pilar's eyesâ¦are no longer used to compacted light of the tropicsâ¦" and also "imagines her granddaughter pale, gliding through paleness, malnourished and cold without the food of scarlets and greens." The pale and malnourishment is probably the feeling Celia has about her grandchild not being able to receive the 'soul food' Spanish cooking, which is easily replaced by 'American' dishes.
Although the first pages were very hard to grasp, the overall concept shown through the narrative eye's of Celia is the fear of the...