Dreaming in Cuban

(1975)

Lourdes is an auxiliary policewoman in a five-block square area of Brooklyn near her home. She enjoys the sense of authority that she feels while on patrol. She is fiercely protective of her neighborhood and has a tough-on-crime attitude that Pilar characterizes as prejudicial. Lourdes racially profiles African Americans and Puerto Ricans because she feels that the bulk of the area crime is committed by these groups. She reflects on the neighborhood as she walks, noting the first waves of Jewish immigrants’ recent moves away from the neighborhood, and the new wave of largely Caribbean immigrants taking their place. She thinks also about her own family, about how headstrong and opinionated Pilar is, and about how ill-at-ease Rufino has always been in their new country. In his heart, he is still in Cuba, on the finca where he grew up. He has never acclimated to the bustling hub of New York City.

Lourdes herself never quite adjusted to the Puente family, and she recalls her early lack of interest in the life of leisure that most of Rufino’s female family members had. Immediately after getting married, she redecorated and modernized his family home, and her mother-in-law, Zaida, was so enraged at the changes that she and Lourdes stopped speaking permanently. In exile, these women were no longer wealthy yet still clung to the trappings of their formerly affluent lives. Lourdes thinks about the impact of communism on her homeland; she still misses Cuba but does not want to return. She recalls the book on revolutionary Cuba with a photograph of Che on its cover that Pilar tried to give her. She destroyed it. Lost in thought, she catches sight of a crouched figure ahead in the darkness just as it jumps into the river. She radios for help, but it is too late.

Pilar (1976)

Pilar loves 1970s-era counterculture and always plays Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and The Ramones when she is painting. Her boyfriend Max is in a band, and the two enjoy attending loud, brash concerts. Her mother dislikes her boyfriend, but her father is more interested in getting to know him. Pilar feels so much antipathy for her mother’s zealous patriotism; Lourdes sees her bakery as an attack on the privations of communism. Pilar also loathes her mother’s auxiliary police work, and dismisses her belief that she can speak to Jorge’s spirit. Pilar herself feels that she can communicate with Celia’s spirit in Cuba, and part of her longs for Cuba although she does not quite understand the nature of her relationship to her home country.

Lourdes asks Pilar to create a mural for her bakery. Although Lourdes typically disapproves of Pilar’s art, she would like a large mural with a patriotic theme. Pilar initially balks at the idea but acquiesces on the condition that her mother cannot see the project until it is finished. She creates a punk-rock Statue of Liberty that initially feels authentic and important to her, but by the day of the unveiling, she worries that she has gone too far. When her painting is revealed, the spectators hate it, and so does her mother. And yet, when a man attempts to deface it, her mother intervenes. In that moment, Pilar feels a newfound sense of love for Lourdes.

Ivanito

Ivanito is a gifted student of languages. He learns English from his Abuelo Jorge’s old textbooks, and he learns Russian in school. He is the best in his class, and his teacher Mikoyan praises his innate ability to master the complexities of Russian grammar. Mikoyan, however, is sent back to Russia amidst allegations of inappropriate behavior with his male students, and Ivanito is taunted by his classmates, who assume that because he was often kept after school, he must have been Mikoyan’s “pet.”

(1978)

Felicia contacts a santero to help her find a new husband, but the prediction she receives is not positive. After a ritual in which they consult oracular seashells, Felicia is told that she is not fated to marry again. She is given instructions on how to perform her own purification ritual, but on the way to do so she falls desperately in love with a pale man named Ernesto. The two decide to marry at once, but he is killed right before their wedding. She blames El Líder and his spies within her community. One such woman, Graciela, comes into her beauty shop, and Felicia burns off the woman’s hair with a caustic solution that she mixes herself. At that point, Felicia’s memory cuts out.

When she awakens, she is in an unfamiliar home and is wearing a gold wedding band. She is able to piece bits of memory together. She is married to a man named Otto who works at a carnival. She met him one night while wandering aimlessly behind a spare parts warehouse. To him, she is beautiful and mysterious. Gradually, the memory of her previous life returns, and she remembers Ivanito and realizes that she must go home.

(1978)

Javier returns to Celia from Czechoslovakia. His wife has left him and he is as bereft as Celia had been in the wake of Gustavo’s departure from Cuba years ago. He drinks, lies in bed, and is so inconsolable that Celia steps back from her revolutionary activities to care for her son. In spite of her nursing, Javier’s condition does not improve. She consults a santera, but when she returns from the woman’s home, Javier has gone.

Celia writes to Gustavo and asks if he is a good father. She tells him that between Jorge and Javier, there is a distinct distance, and that she and her son are much closer than Javier is to his father. She tells him that Batista has “stolen” their country and writes about attending protests spearheaded by a passionate young revolutionary (Castro) who is a lawyer, as Gustavo was. She writes of her daughter Lourdes’s antipathy toward the revolutionary movement, and of the distance between herself and the girl. She worries about Felicia, who is passionate and emotionally volatile. She tells Gustavo that Javier has won a prize at school, and Felicia has found a job. The revolution continues, and she is swept up in its fervor.

(1977)

Lourdes has stopped eating and has lost 82 pounds so far. Pilar is away in Rhode Island at art school, and Lourdes continues to hound the girl, calling her to accuse her of having pre-marital sex with the “hippies” in her classes. She exercises feverishly and spends many hours in conversation with her father. They talk about her bakery, about rising crime, and about leftist support for the communist regime of El Líder in American universities and in the media. By the time Pilar returns for Thanksgiving, Lourdes has lost 118 pounds. Rufino has prepared a lavish meal, and although Lourdes intends to eat very little, she devours helping after helping of food.

Pilar (1978)

Pilar first knew she wanted to become an atheist the moment she heard her mother speaking derisively about Celia’s atheism. She feels a kinship with her grandmother that is lacking in her relationship with her mother. She thinks that her mother’s version of history, both familial and general, is revisionist, and she and Lourdes disagree on nearly everything. She knows that her mother hosts groups of anti-Castro, dissident Cuban circles in her bakeries, and there too she finds fault. She has a new boyfriend named Ruben whom she met at Barnard, where she transferred after growing disillusioned with art school and studying abroad in Florence. One day, she walks in on Ruben cheating on her and flees, upset. She peruses the want ads in the Village Voice to calm herself and finds an advertisement for a used bass. She buys it and instantly feels as if her new life has “just begun.”

Herminia Delgado (1980)

Herminia first met Felicia on the beach when the two were six years old. They had been collecting shells, which Celia forbade in her home because she thought they brought bad luck. However, Herminia’s parents believed shells to be sacred to Yemayá, the Yoruba goddess of the seas. Herminia recalls being teased at school because the other students claimed her father was a witch doctor who bit the heads off of live goats. She was also ridiculed because she was dark-skinned and wore her hair in plaits. Felica was forbidden to visit Herminia’s house, but she defied her mother’s orders. It was from Herminia’s father that she first learned of the purifying attributes of coconuts. Her fascination with them would be lifelong. The two girls developed a lifelong friendship, and Herminia notes that Felica is the one person she knows who truly does not see skin color. Prejudice was rampant in Cuba before the revolution, and although the situation improved for the Afro-Cuban population since then, elements of discord remained. Herminia tells the story of Felicia’s adoption of Santería. Felicia claimed to have killed her husband Otto, and she began to attend ceremonies with Herminia and La Madrina to purify herself. Celia disapproved, but Felicia was eventually officially initiated into the religion and adopted the all-white clothing of the santeros. In spite of recent progress, her health began to decline. Whereas other novices typically thrive, Felicia became listless, ill, and dead-eyed. Her children, remembering the summer of coconuts, worried. Eventually, Celia broke into Felicia’s home, broke all of her seashells, and tried to resuscitate her. It was of no use, and she held her daughter until Felicia died.

Ivanito

After his mother’s death, Ivanito is lonely. He receives a radio in the mail, perhaps from his father, and he listens to it on the beach, trying to tune in to the radio stations in Key West.

(1979)

Jorge fears that his ability to appear to and speak with Lourdes is near its end. Lourdes asks him why he finally decided to leave Cuba and wants to know more about her mother Celia. Jorge responds that Cuban doctors are no good, but also that Celia fell in love with the revolution and had no room in her heart left for him. Lourdes asks if Jorge truly loved Celia, and he confirms that he did. One month later, Jorge appears to Lourdes for what he says will be the final time. He tries to make her understand her mother’s mental state during her own infancy and takes partial blame for Celia’s unhappiness: He wanted to punish her for loving Gustavo, so he left her with his mother and sister, knowing that they would mistreat her. He also had her committed to a psychiatric institution, knowing that the treatments would be difficult and draining. He wanted the doctors to make her forget her life before him. Jorge also tells Lourdes that Felicia has died. He tells Lourdes that he loves her, and then he is gone.

Pilar (1980)

Pilar sifts through records in a shop in New York and reflects on the commercialization of the punk scene. The bands she loves have gained popularity, and the stylistic elements of punk have become absorbed into mainstream fashion. She wanders into a botaníca and watches as the white-clad owner prescribes a statuette of La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, a candle, and several scented oils to a customer. As she examines the beaded necklaces, the elderly owner approaches her, calls her a daughter of Changó, and gives her a mixture to add to her bath. She feels disconnected from Cuba, and she excitedly takes the packet and makes her way home to begin the ritual. She remembers hearing about Changó, the Yoruba deity of fire and lightning, from the nannies who watched over her as a young child in Cuba. While she is thinking, she is accosted by three boys who threaten her with a knife and begin to sexually assault her. However, she remains calm, and they are distracted by her packet of herbs and powders. Inexplicably, they leave, and she is able to escape. At home, she begins a series of purification baths that inspire her to begin a new painting. On the ninth day, she calls her mother and tells her that they must go to Cuba.

Celia writes to Gustavo that Lourdes is to marry a wealthy young man named Rufino. Although she is pleased, Jorge is not. She states that Felicia is envious of her sister’s engagement. Celia and Jorge recently dined with Rufino’s parents, and she was chagrined to realize how pro-America they are. Their businesses are so entangled with the American mafiosos who control Cuba with the tacit approval of American and Cuban authorities. At the dinner, she tried to remind everyone that the Americans have been interfering in the affairs of Cuba for centuries, but her ideas fell on deaf ears. She writes about the unhappiness in her marriage and tells Gustavo that she still misses him. She writes about the way that Rufino’s family has meddled in the wedding plans and describes the growing unrest and rumors of a revolution to come.