Dreaming In Cuban Character Analysis

Throughout history, numerous men have tried to change their country. El Líder in Dreaming in Cuban and Vladimir Lenin both are some of these men. Both men were communist dictators for their countries, and they rose to power after leading a revolution. Through these revolutions they tried to do what they thought was the best for their country even if it was not. El Líder is a character in the novel Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García. Within the novel, El Líder is a rather controversial figure to some people, but to others he is a savior of Cuba. Both El Líder and Vladimir Lenin built up a strong passion for their cause, seized control of their country, and tried to bring power and glory to their country. Lenin and El Líder believed strongly …show more content…
Both men viewed democracy as a way for bias to occur towards one side of their country, so they decided to control it themselves. In Lenin’s case, Russia had “Almost three years of civil war that followed, and The Bolsheviks were victorious and assumed total control of the country” (“Vladimir Lenin, BBC). Once this happened, as leader of the Bolsheviks Lenin made himself leader of Russia. While in control, Lenin was a cruel leader often punishing or taking goods from people for no real reason. For example, when the government was “Lacking funds or goods to exchange against grain needed to feed the Red Army and the towns, Lenin instituted a system of requisitioning grain surpluses without compensation” (Britannica). In this instance, Lenin required the Russian peasants to relinquish even more of their meager income to the Russian government to sustain the red army. By stripping the poorest people in his country of their only source of income, Lenin displayed the qualities of a vicious dictator with the government being put before the people. El Líder used similar tactics by having a revolution for his party to take control. In order to stay in favor with his people once he was in control he often made promises of success for the people of Cuba:”’ There is no need to worry,’ El Líder assures them. ‘Work for the revolution today and tomorrow will take care of itself’” (García 44). Rather than forcing his people to do labor, he was able to use his speech to convince them that volunteering for the revolution would bring success to Cuba, which was his method of controlling the people. Although they employed different tactics for controlling their people, the fact that they were the unquestionable leader of their country is true in both