Garcia writes about the complex and often tense relations between the Del Pino family. She explores the effect of nationalism, pride, and love on how family members interact. However, in contrast to We the Animals, the ways the family unit fractures are very different. In the latter, the family coalesces to expel the narrator, but in Dreaming in Cuban. The family all leave Celia alone in Cuba, but Celia refuses to accept this, instead hanging onto her fantasies about Cuba.
