Dreaming in Cuban

The history of the Cuban Revolution and its aftermath are more than a backdrop within Dreaming in Cuban; instead, they are deeply woven into the fabric of its narrative, and the impact of these events reverberates through successive generations of Celia’s family. Because she herself is a member of the multiple waves of émigrés that the Cuban Revolution produced, García wants her readers to understand that both communist ideology and the tumultuous revolution that it inspired continue to have real impact on the lives of ordinary Cubans and on members of the Cuban diaspora.

Although the Cuban Revolution took place in 1959 and this novel primarily depicts the years immediately leading up to Castro’s rise to power and the two decades that followed, the seeds for revolution were planted long before. At issue for many Cubans in the years preceding the revolution was the inequality produced by the United States’ involvement in Cuban business, politics, and affairs. The two nation’s histories have long been intertwined, and in 1903, the United States ratified the Platt Amendment, a treaty between it and Cuba that was intended to protect Cuba’s independence from foreign intervention and prevent its takeover by foreign powers. The Platt Amendment legalized extensive US involvement in Cuban affairs both foreign and domestic, and in practice, it solidified the position of American-owned firms and businesses operating on Cuban soil. American investments in Cuba ballooned during the years following the Platt Amendment, and although this involvement was lucrative for the United States, it did not bring widespread economic prosperity to Cuba or its people.

As Celia notices several times during the course of the story, Cuba was rife with inequality during the years leading up to the revolution. She is profoundly affected by the poverty that was especially prevalent in the countryside. The Cuban economy at that time was largely dependent on monocrop agriculture, and in Cuba, sugar was king. In spite of the island’s extensive network of lucrative sugar plantations, the nation remained impoverished because the wealth was concentrated in the hands of a small group of elite planters, many of whom were American. Their sprawling properties churned out massive quantities of sugar, but their profits were funneled out of the country and their workers remained under-resourced and underpaid. The family of Lourdes’s husband Rufino owns one of these large estates, or fincas, as they are known in Cuba, and although Rufino’s family is Cuban, their ties to America run deep. Thus, the swirling rumors that organized criminals are among their professional contacts highlight another endemic societal issue in pre-revolutionary Cuba: the widespread presence of the American Mafia in Cuba. Looking to escape prosecution in the United States, many mobsters, the most famous of whom was Charles “Lucky” Luciano, moved their operations from the East Coast of the United States to Cuba during the years leading up to the revolution. Their casinos became a magnet for American tourists, especially during the years of Prohibition, for alcohol remained legal in Cuba even after the 18th Amendment prohibited the production and sale of alcohol in the United States. These operations were tremendously profitable, but as with the production of sugar, the casinos’ profits were largely sent out of the country. However, the presence of organized crime within Cuba was encouraged by the Cuban government, because although the profits of casinos, alcohol sales, and other illicit enterprises were rarely enjoyed by Cuban workers, those in power did receive a cut of the money that such businesses produced. Although a new democratic constitution had been ratified in Cuba in 1940, the country’s endemic corruption was widely criticized and was seen as an impediment to true democratic progress. As a result, Fulgencio Batista, a military man-turned-politician, seized power in 1952, in part to address that corruption, or so he claimed. In practice, however, Batista was pro-United States and allied with the wealthiest landowners and businessmen in Cuba, and under his leadership, the situation on the island deteriorated instead of improving.

In 1953, a young attorney named Fidel Castro began to use military and political means to attempt to overthrow Batista’s government. Initially concentrated in Cuba’s mountainous countryside, the rebels gradually gained popularity and control. After years of fighting, they achieved a series of military victories and gained an increasingly widespread base of support amongst the Cuban people, and they were finally able to oust Batista on January 1, 1959. Castro then took control of the government in Havana and began to implement a series of socialist reforms, including the nationalization of private properties and businesses. This aspect of history is invoked within the narrative of Dreaming in Cuban when the government seizes Rufino’s family finca. Although Castro ensured that everyone in the country would have free access to medicine and education, he also consolidated his political power, violently suppressed dissidence, and ended the freedom of the press. Just like García’s real-life family, Lourdes, Rufino, and Pilar are part of the first wave of political exiles from Cuba.

However, after that initial wave, Castro tightly clamped down on emigration, and until a group of would-be exiles stormed the Peruvian embassy in 1980 and demanded permission to leave, it was very difficult for anyone to escape Cuba. This event, which is dramatized in the last few chapters of Dreaming in Cuban, would earn moniker of the Mariel Boatlift. It involved the massive departure of Cubans via planes and small, chartered boats that were often captained by Americans operating out of Miami and the Florida Keys. Many people were driven to leave Cuba at this time because of widespread food shortages, the pervasiveness of the Castro’s surveillance state, and the brutality with which he treated political dissidents. During the Mariel Boatlift, many Cuban émigrés in the United States paid for their family members to join them, and the United States government adjusted their immigration quotas accordingly. In the context of the novel, Lourdes ensures that young Ivanito will be among those allowed to leave. In choosing to begin her narrative with Castro’s rise to power and end it with the storming of the Peruvian embassy, García brackets her text with two of the largest emigration events in Cuba’s history: the Cuban Revolution itself, and the Mariel Boatlift.