Question

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

I was only two years old when I left Cuba but I remember everything that’s happened to me since I was a baby, even word-for-word conversations. I was sitting in my grandmother’s lap, playing with her drop pearl earrings, when my mother told her we were leaving the country. Abuela Celia called her a traitor to the revolution. Mom tried to pull me away but I clung to the Abuela and screamed at the top of my lungs. My grandfather came running and said, “Celia, let the girl go. She belongs with Lourdes.” This was the last time I saw her.

How does the structure of the excerpt add meaning to the passage?
It uses several narrators to provide conflicting points of view.
It provides characterization for Celia as it reveals her physical appearance.
It uses a flashback to reveal the difficult relationship between Lourdes and Celia.
It includes dialogue to indicate that the characters in the nonfiction account are real people.

Answer 1

It uses a flashback to reveal the difficult relationship between Lourdes and Celia.

(The narrator recalls the scene from age two, and the remembered dialogue—Abuela calling Lourdes a traitor and the grandfather intervening—shows the conflict between them.)