Cristina Garcia's Dreaming In Cuban

The first chapter of Dreaming in Cuban, by Cristina Garcia is very significant as it sets up the characters, what drives them, the place of the novel, societal issues, and establishes relationships to the theme of the novel. The opening sequence displays Celia’s loving character by illustrating the relationship of Celia with Cuba and her husband Jorge. Being voted the primary lookout for Santa Teresa del Mar at the beginning of the chapter, Celia is greatly proud and honored to have such a role. From this, we can see that Celia is very patriotic towards her country and is willing to put in much effort to protect it. Further in the sequence, Celia hallucinates and sees the spirit of her husband come out of the sky. The hallucination shows that Celia has always had her husband …show more content…
Felicia is driven by her health. She cares about her health over anything else and that’s her first priority. The setting or place of the novel is in Cuba, the homeland of the characters. In the first chapter, it introduces the revolution of Cuba and Celia’s dedication towards it. Societal issues presented in the opening chapter include the revolution of Cuba and struggles of Felicia. In addition, it also shows the issues of economic and military problems. Cuba is currently in a revolution and a dramatic changing period as described in the opening sequence. The opening sequence relates to the theme of “love for your roots never gets old.” Celia is shown to follow this theme in the opening chapter due to the pride she has for her roots: her country and her family. She has the thought process of doing whatever it takes to benefit Cuba and the well-being of her family. All in all, the opening sequence of Dreaming in Cuban allows author Cristina Garcia to set up her characters and their motivations and conflicts, an action that is ultimately beneficial to the novel as it sets the plot into