Cristina García's Dreaming in Cuban: Latina literature and beyond?

Abstract

This paper expands the discussion surrounding Cristina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban by questioning the evaluations made by certain critics of the cultural identity of the text and its author. It examines briefly some definitions of Latina writing, and the ways in which the text conforms to these. However, the importance of Caribbean identity in Dreaming in Cuban is also asserted, and factors that highlight this are considered. The issue of style is then examined, especially in regard to postmodernism, magical realism and lo real maravilloso, and how these may link Garcia with a postcolonial migrant identity. The problematic aspects of the postcolonial migrant and postmodern classification are also discussed. In conclusion, this paper asserts that Garcia challenges some of the more homogenizing aspects of the Latina category and others to which the work could seem to belong. It posits that Dreaming in Cuban thus redefines not only the Latina, but also the Cuban-American label in reference to some critics' conceptualizations of these.