The Family Nexus in Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban

Abstract

Cristina García’s work emerges from the 1990s’ and 2000s’ flowering of US Latina literature, a broad interethnic and transnational designation within which García, a Cuban-American, frequently intervenes in Cuban history and culture, most notably in her first three novels, Dreaming in Cuban (1992), The Agüero Sisters (1997), and Monkey Hunting (2003), as well as her most recent, The King of Cuba (2013). The author has admitted, “Really, it was only when I was halfway through Monkey Hunting that I realized that what I was trying to do, literarily, was to amplify an appreciation for the complex history that is Cuba” (“Interview” 178). Readers will discover that García succeeds in her subconscious/self-conscious project of demonstrating the island’s complexity, as one finds interwoven in these narratives Cuba’s syncretic culture, composed as it is of Spanish, African, and Chinese threads; its Revolution and aftermath; its involvement in the Cold War; and its diaspora, to cite a few key aspects.KeywordsSocial SolidarityDomestic SphereNatal NationCuban RevolutionNarrative FrameThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.