Question

Read the excerpt from Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban.

I don’t really want to talk about my father but I end up telling Minnie how he used to take me horseback riding on our ranch, strapping me in his saddle with a leather seat belt he designed just for me. Dad’s family owned casinos in Cuba, and had one of the largest ranches on the island. There were beef cattle and dairy cows, horses, pigs, goats, and lambs. Dad fed them molasses to fatten them, and gave the chickens corn and sorghum until they laid vermilion eggs, rich with vitamins. He took me on an overnight inspection once. We camped out under a sapodilla tree and listened to the pygmy owls with their old women’s voices. My father knew I understood more than I could say. He told me stories about Cuba after Columbus came. He said that the Spaniards wiped out more Indians with smallpox than with muskets.

How does the structure of the excerpt add meaning to the passage?

Answer 1

D. it manipulates the chronological order of events to reveal the close relationship between Pilar and her father.

Answer 2

Step-by-step explanation:

Americans in general have a very limited knowledge of Cuba. Most of it, if you are my age was formed by what the press told us about Che Guevara and his exploits and the T shirts had what he said on them. Or maybe we remember what Michael Corleone said about Cuba when he watched the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

This writing could have taken place anywhere. It so happens that it is about a very young daughter and her father in Cuba. It doesn't resemble Fidel Castro, Michael Corleone or Che Guevara. It resembles somewhere like Wyoming where a grown up woman remembers her childhood. She is careful to remember only the good things her father did. She remembered horse back riding, and seat belts (long before they were put in vehicles) and ranch life with all the animals imaginable.

She remembered how her father treated chickens so that they would lay the healthiest eggs imaginable. She remembers the sound of the night and the history he taught her.

All this is placed together one after another so she would appreciate the loveliness of the ranch.

The details are amazing. May everyone eventually be able to write about their childhood like this. The author is very talented and richly observant of what made her life.