In both Bodega Dreams and Dreaming in Cuban certain characters express the need to forgo their pasts in order to move on and live in white America, but then realize that their own personal identities are not complete without their cultural background. Both Chino and Lourdes feel like they should not act Latino/Latina since they are pursuing the dreams in America and they want to act like white Americans do. Eventually they both come to embrace their family’s culture and the area which they live and become better in the long run from it.
Chino is a young college student who is struggling to raise his unborn child and support his wife Blanca. He ends up getting mixed together with Willie Bodega, an up and coming drug lord, and his whole dream gets turned upside down. Willie eventually realizes after Bodega’s death that he cannot change his heritage and should find happiness within his culture. He sees that life in the barrio goes on and is able to support himself with what Willie has taught him and everyone else in the community.
Lourdes moves to America and starts a bakery that has a patriotic theme. She ends up becoming successful, but then everything falls apart with the relationship between her husband causing her to forego her ways and go back to Cuba. She realizes that her family is what is important and without that she would have no one to be close to.
Both characters end up going different directions than their intended plans. They realize that family and having a strong heritage can correlate with the American Dream, and acting out white America is not what will make them happy. The find it in themselves to protect and value their own families and culture, which in turn makes them a better mother, husband, and friend.
You made a really good point here that I hadn't thought about before. It's interesting to me that Lourdes and Chino have so many similarities--or maybe just one big similarity that dictates the way they live their lives--because Chino is so likable... and Lourdes is so UNlikable. It's crazy that two people with the same motives can be so drastically different in personality.
ReplyDeleteI like how you bring up the importance of their culture. It seems that they are more similar, as Lavonne said. They both want to forget their culture, they both want to live where they are now. However, they don't realize how big of a part their culture plays into their lives until things start to go down the drain. They then realize how much their culture plays into their lives.
ReplyDeleteCulture definitely plays an essential role in the development of these characters. I was immediately reminded of Pilar and how she desires to be in Cuba and often can't think of anything else besides being with her grandmother. However, she returns to Cuba and realizes that it is a unique and wonderful culture, but she belongs in the United States more than she belongs in Cuba. For her, returning to Cuba was necessary in order to fulfill her dreams and familial roots, but she recognizes that she can combine cultures and respect both simultaneously.
ReplyDeleteChino, as you mentioned, does seem to find happiness in his culture at the end. Despite his loneliness without Blanca in the final scene, he is able to look around at his community and feel a sense of hope- hope that lives even though Bodega is gone.
Thanks for bringing up the character's struggles to assimilate into mainstream American culture - I had never really thought much about it before. Both Dreaming in Cuban and Bodega Dreams seemed to me to be rather closed contexts (i.e., they took place in insular communities), so I didn't think to look for the pressure that characters would feel to assimilate, but you're right, it's definitely there. I’m glad, too, that you note that they are ultimately able to take the American Dream and apply it to their situation in such a way that it ties into preserving their cultural identity, not abandoning it.
ReplyDeleteBeing in this class has shown me different Latino groups that have assimilated into the American Culture. I think it is important to identify that through the characters. Even though these characters are in America, they feel the need to connect back to their culture. For Pilar, it was to go back to Cuba. For Chino, it is the realization about the importance of community. Culture does influence these characters even when in America. They understand that the American dream can influence to go back and understand who they are and where they came from.
ReplyDeleteNathan,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you bringing up the characters' dislike with making peace with their ethnicity. I feel this was something that was overlooked in the book by me due to mental illness playing a role or two within the novels.
It is important to highlight some within the PR and Cuban communities who do reject their heritage for the sake of attempting to blend in to American society. However, I take note that those trying to blend in to American society never completely do. With some people you know a piece of their heritage is missing from them, and one asks how can they reject who they are.
For me, I am a pre-dominantly Irish/German/Cherokee Indian American. To be honest, I have denied the German and Cherokee Indian in me because I a) didn't want to be associated with the Nazis, or b) did not want to be associated with a group who I felt at the time was just a detriment to the cause of expanding America. However, through the years I have grown to accept my culture and that just because one person is one ethnicity does not make that person bad, but in fact, the person who rejects that ethnicity is committing a sin: not accepting as how God made you.
I like how you pointed out that where they thought they wanted to be was not where they ended up. For me, when Lourdes stuck up for Pilar and her painting even though she didn’t like it was the turning point in Lourdes family relationships. Up to that point she wanted to distance herself from Cuba and sort of drove her family away from her. For Chino, Bodega really showed him the importance of his culture. The dream Bodega had was infectious and the aim of it was extremely pure, to better everyone and make a difference in the world, to stop being second class citizens.
ReplyDeleteWhat does it mean to act like a Latino? What does it mean to act like a white American? Do Chino and Lourdes really want to give up their identities as Puerto Rican and Cuban-Americans, or is it more that they want to participate in the economic opportunities that they expect the "American dream" will provide to people of all races and backgrounds? I think Lourdes' trip back to Cuba has more to do with her relationship with her daughter, as Lynn suggests here--it is after she sticks up for her daughter's painting, even though she doesn't approve of it, that she is willing to return to Cuba with her for a visit. The homeland seems more important in Lourdes' journey than it does in Chino's journey. Chino's journey seems more influenced by Puerto Rican (Nuyorican) ideas of masculinity--the loyalty one owes one's Pana in the 'hood and the expectation he has of providing for his family.
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