Simone Aparecida Aguiar GEOGRAPHIES OF TRAUMA IN LOIDA MARITZA PÉREZ’S GEOGRAPHIES OF HOME AND CRISTINA GARCIA’S DREAMING IN CUBAN Belo Horizonte Faculdade de Letras Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais 2011 ii GEOGRAPHIES OF TRAUMA IN LOIDA MARITZA PÉREZ’S GEOGRAPHIES OF HOME AND CRISTINA GARCIA’S DREAMING IN CUBAN By Simone Aparecida Aguiar Submitted to the Programa de Pós-graduação em Letras: Estudos Literários in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Mestre em Literaturas de Expressão Inglesa. Thesis Advisor: Sandra Regina Goulart Almeida, PhD Belo Horizonte Faculdade de Letras Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais 2011 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To God, my anchor. To my mother, Odete, for her love. To my brother Anderson, for his unending support and enthusiasm. To my nieces Marina, Melissa, Maria Clara and Monalisa, whose sweetness and laughter have made this task lighter. To all my friends and colleagues, who have helped and brought me relief throughout these two years. In special, to Mariana, Helenice, Milton and Gustavo. To my dearest Angelo. To Professors Tom Burns, for challenging and teaching me so much on critical theories, and Eliana Lourenço, for sharing her knowledge and for helping me in the beginning of the course. To Professor José dos Santos, for his kindness at all times. Especially, to Professor Antonio D. Tillis, for teaching me so much in his course on US Afro- Latina(o) Literature, and for the insight which planted the seed of this research. Also, for his generosity at all times, and for “pushing” me ahead. To my special friend, Professor Helena Gramiscelli Magalhães, for her friendship, invaluable humorous insights and advice. To my advisor, Professor Sandra R. G. Almeida, for her sharing so much of her knowledge on gender, for her generosity, kindness and availability at all times. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1: NARRATIVES OF DISLOCATION AND DISPLACEMENT .................. 8 1.1 Trauma: History Reviewed ............................................................................................................ 8 1.1.1 The Shaping of the Subject ..................................................................................................... 9 1.1.2 The Fragmentation of the Subject......................................................................................... 12 1.1.3 The Paths of Trauma ............................................................................................................. 14 1.2 Traumas in Geographies of Home ............................................................................................... 18 1.2.1 Aurelia: Longing and Rebirth ............................................................................................... 18 1.2.2 Rebecca: The American Dream ............................................................................................ 21 1.2.3 Marina: Rape, Power, and Racism ....................................................................................... 23 1.2.4 Iliana: Resiliency and Spirituality ........................................................................................ 28 1.2.5 The Consequences of Diaspora in Geographies of Home .................................................... 32 2.1 Trauma and Diaspora in Dreaming in Cuban .............................................................................. 33 2.1.1 Lourdes in Diaspora .............................................................................................................. 34 2.1.2 The Search for the Self: Pilar................................................................................................ 38 2.1.3 The Outcomes of Trauma in Diaspora in Geographies of Home and Dreaming in Cuban ........................................................................................................................................ 39 CHAPTER 2: NARRATIVES OF TRAUMA ..................................................................... 41 2.1 The Political Context of Geographies of Home ........................................................................... 42 2.1.1 Trauma and Acquiescence: Aurelia ...................................................................................... 44 2.1.2 Cooped up in Patriarchy: Rebecca ........................................................................................ 49 2.1.3 No-name Child: Marina ........................................................................................................ 56 2.1.4 Ambivalence and Agency: Iliana ......................................................................................... 63 2.2 Nation and People Adrift: Dreaming in Cuban ........................................................................... 68 2.2.1 Passion and Longing: Celia .................................................................................................. 69 2.2.2 Embodying Infelicity ............................................................................................................ 75 2.2.3 Past and Present Voids: Lourdes .......................................................................................... 81 2.4.4 Bridging over Past and Present: Pilar Puente ....................................................................... 87 CHAPTER 3: RACE MATTERS ......................................................................................... 92 3.1 Geographies of Ethnicity and Race.............................................................................................. 92 3.1.1 The Dominican Republic and the USA: Places that Matter ................................................. 98 3.1.2 Racism and Trauma ............................................................................................................ 106 3.2 Ethnic and Racial Issues in Cuba ............................................................................................... 112 3.2.1 Ethnicity, Race, and Racism: Lourdes and Pilar ................................................................ 119 3.2.2 Santeria and Cuba: Felicia, Pilar and Herminia ................................................................. 123 v CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 127 WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................... 133 vi ABSTRACT The scope of this thesis is to provide with a comparative analysis of Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban and Loida Maritza Pérez’s Geograhies of Home . Supported by trauma studies, feminist literary theories, diaspora and cultural studies, I claim that the women characters in both novels suffer different sorts of traumas. The diasporic movements these characters undergo are related to these traumas, either as causes or consequences. Gendering of trauma related to patriarchy, family history, socio-political contexts and sexual oppression are investigated as well as I argue that the characters suffer traumas derived related to these issues. Furthermore, I claim that the racism some characters experience is traumatic and add to other traumas they manifest. The comparative analysis between the two novels evidences that the traumas the characters go through cause fragmentation in their subjectivities and result in some sort of mental disorder. Trauma as a multilayered and complex phenomenon is a category that undercuts both novels. vii RESUMO Nesta dissertação, eu desenvolvo uma análise comparativa das obras Geographies of Home , de Loida Maritza Pérez, e Dreaming in Cuban , de Cristina Garcia. Fundamentada por estudos de trauma, teorias literárias feministas, estudos culturais e da diáspora, argumento que as personagens femininas sofrem diferentes tipos de trauma. Os movimentos diaspóricos que elas realizam estão relacionados a estes traumas, como causa ou como conseqüência. Também investigo o gendramento de traumas sob o argumento de que estas personagens sofrem traumas relacionados ao sistema patriarcal, às histórias familiares, aos contextos sócio- políticos e à opressão sexual. Investigo ainda o racismo como causa de traumas para algumas personagens. Esta análise comparativa evidencia que os traumas que essas personagens apresentam causam fragmentação em suas subjetividades e resultam em alguns tipos de doenças mentais. Trauma é um tema que perpassa em vários níveis nas duas obras. viii She can live the life of a prisoner, she can live the life of a princess, or she can be herself. Chinese saying Casualties , Trans Atlantic Entertainment, 1997. 1 INTRODUCTION The novels Dreaming in Cuban (1992), by Cristina Garcia, and Geographies of Home (1999), by Loida Maritza Pérez, situate similar historical and geopolitical contexts while focusing on the mobility of subjects in the context of diasporic movements to the USA. Garcia was born in 1958 in Havana, Cuba, but her family left for the USA in 1961, after Fidel Castro won the revolution. Besides Dreaming in Cuban , she also published The Aguero Sisters (1997), Monkey Hunting (2005), and A Handbook to Luck (2008). Her latest novel The Lady Matador’s Hotel was published in 2010. Garcia won the National Book Award for her work, and has been granted several fellowships in the USA (Voices from the Gaps). Loida Maritza Pérez was born in the Dominican Republic in 1963, and when she was three years