Telling it to the Dead: Borderless Communication and Scars of Trauma in Cristina García's Dreaming in Cuban

Abstract

Summary Cristina García's novel Dreaming in Cuban (1992) is preoccupied with the three key stages in the title of this volume: “healing, working through, and/or staying in trauma”. This article contextualises the novel by referring to the life history of the character Lourdes Puente and the trauma of her exile and exodus from Cuba. A scar on her stomach inscribes a rape, a miscarriage and her failed attachment to her mother Celia. It is suggested that the scar constitutes a visible representation of her trauma designed to prevent her experiences from remaining permanently repressed and unclaimed. Only when Lourdes starts a series of conversations with her deceased father is she able to relate to the wound/scar and to pose questions about her trauma. This article addresses the traumatically marked literary language used to depict Lourdes's experiential world, and discusses how death, or rather the company of her dead father, turns into a safe space in which she confronts her traumatic past and heals herself. The article also considers how the novel participates in processes of healing and reconciliation in a wider Cuban context.