Cristina García (journalist)
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Cristina García (born July 4, 1958) is a
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
n-born American journalist and novelist. Her first novel ''
Dreaming in Cuban ''Dreaming in Cuban'' is the first novel written by author Cristina García, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. This novel moves between Cuba and the United States featuring three generations of a single family. The novel focuses p ...
'' (1992) was a finalist for the
National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...
. She has since published her novels '' The Agüero Sisters'' (1997) and '' Monkey Hunting'' (2003), and has edited books of Cuban and other
Latin American literature Latin American literature consists of the oral and written literature of Latin America in several languages, particularly in Spanish, Portuguese, and the indigenous languages of the Americas. It rose to particular prominence globally during the ...
. '' A Handbook to Luck'' (2007) follows three children from Cuba, over twenty-six years through sacrifices and forced exiles. In 2009, Garcia was hired as the visiting affiliate professor and Black Mountain Institute teaching fellow in creative writing at the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...
. She also taught at
University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
-Austin,
Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...
, and
Texas State University Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...
-San Marcos, where she is the 2012–2014 University Chair in Creative Writing. García's novels celebrate the memories, fantasies, and body rituals of her Cuban heritage and that of the
diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...
in the United States.


Biography

García was born in
Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.
to a
Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
n father, Francisco M. Garcia and Cuban mother, Esperanza Lois. In 1961, when she was two years old, her family was among the first wave of people to flee Cuba after
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
came to power. They moved to
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where she was raised in
Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
,
Brooklyn Heights Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Old Fulton Street near the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Cadman Plaza West on the east, Atlantic Avenue on the south, an ...
, and
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science from
Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
(1979) and a master's degree in international relations from the
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of the ...
(1981). She has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, and a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award. She is on the editorial advisory board of ''Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures''. She has a daughter, Pilar.


Career


Journalism

After returning to the United States, García pursued a career in journalism, after having worked as a part-time "copy girl" with ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. While at Johns Hopkins, she obtained an intern position with ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' and a job as a reporter for the ''
Knoxville Journal ''The Knoxville Journal'' was a daily newspaper published in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, between 1886 and 1991. It operated first as a morning and then as an afternoon publication. On December 31, 1991, its last owner, the Persis Corp ...
''. In 1983 she was hired by ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine. Beginning there as a reporter/researcher, she became the publication's San Francisco correspondent in 1985, and its bureau chief in
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
for
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
and the
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
region in 1987. In 1988 she was transferred to
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. She terminated her employment with ''Time'' to write fiction full-time in 1990.


Novels

Of García's first novel, ''
Dreaming in Cuban ''Dreaming in Cuban'' is the first novel written by author Cristina García, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. This novel moves between Cuba and the United States featuring three generations of a single family. The novel focuses p ...
'', (1992) García said, "I surprised myself by how Cuban the book turned out to be. I don't remember growing up with a longing for Cuba, so I didn't realize how Cuban I was, how deep a sense I had of exile and longing." The book was nominated for the
National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...
. Her second novel ''The Agüero Sisters'' (1997) won the Janet Heidiger Kafka Prize. García has reported experiencing unease in relating to other Cubans—both with those still in Cuba and those in exile in Florida. Some question why she writes in English. Others take issue with her lack of engagement in anti-Castro causes. She has said she attempts to emphasize in her novels the fact that "there is no one Cuban exile".Johnson, Kelli Lyon (May 9, 2005)
"Cristina Garcia – b. 1958"
''VG: Voices from the Gaps''. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
In 2007 she also said that she "wanted to break free of seeing the world largely through the eyes of Cubans or Cuban immigrants. After the first three novels—I think of them as a loose trilogy—I wanted to tackle a bigger canvas, more far-flung migrations, the fascinating work of constructing identity in an increasingly small and fractured world." At this time García described this "bigger canvas" as including "the entrapments and trappings of gender in my novel", partly because "it would be easy, and overly simplistic, to frame everything in terms of equality, or cultural limitations, or other vivid measurables. What's most interesting to me are the slow, internal, often largely unconscious processes that move people in unexpected directions, that reframe and refine their own notions of who they are, sexually and otherwise."Abani, Chris (Spring 2007)
"Cristina García"
''
Bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...
''. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
While García has expressed a desire to move away from anti-Castro sentiments, the influence of her heritage is made clear when she discusses the symbolism and characters in her work. She has said, about the symbol of a tree, for example:
In Afro-Cuban culture, the ceiba tree is also sacred, a kind of maternal, healing figure to which offerings are made, petitions placed. So absolutely, for me trees do represent a crossroads, an opportunity for redemption and change. In ''Dreaming in Cuban'', Pilar Puente has a transformative experience under an elm tree that leads to her returning to Cuba. Chen Pan, in ''Monkey Hunting'', escapes the sugarcane plantation under the watchful protection of a ceiba tree…In ''A Handbook to Luck'', Evaristo takes to living in trees as a young boy, to escape the violence of his stepfather. He stays there for years, first in a coral tree and then in a banyan. From his perches, he witnesses the greater violence of the civil war in El Salvador and speaks a peculiar poetry, born, in part, of his co-existence with trees.
"King of Cuba", is a darkly comic fictionalized portrait of Fidel Castro, an octogenarian exile, and a rabble of other Cuban voices who refuse to accept their power is ending.


Works

*''
Dreaming in Cuban ''Dreaming in Cuban'' is the first novel written by author Cristina García, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. This novel moves between Cuba and the United States featuring three generations of a single family. The novel focuses p ...
: A Novel'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992) *''Cars of Cuba'', essay, with photographer Joshua Greene and creator D. D. Allen (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1995. ) *'' The Agüero Sisters'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. ) *'' Monkey Hunting'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. ) *''Cubanisimo!: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Cuban Literature'', editor and introduction (New York: Vintage Books, 2003. ) * "Introduction" to ''
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair ''Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair'' ( es, Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada) is a collection of romantic poems by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, first published in 1924 by Editorial Nascimento of Santiago, when Neruda was ...
'' by
Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
924(New York: Penguin Classics, 2004. ) *''Bordering Fires: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Mexican and Chicano/a Literature'', editor and introduction (New York: Vintage Books, 2006. ) *'' A Handbook to Luck'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. ) *'' The Lady Matador's Hotel: A Novel'' (Simon & Schuster, 2010. ) *''King of Cuba: A Novel'' (Scribner, 2013) *''Here In Berlin (Counterpoint, 2017)''


Awards and honors

*''Dreaming in Cuban'' a finalist for the 1992
National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...
*1996 Whiting Writers Award for fiction *1997 Janet Heidiger Kafka Prize for ''The Agüero Sisters'' *2008
Northern California Book Award Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...
for Fiction for ''A Handbook to Luck''


See also

*
List of Cuban American writers See also * Cuban American literature * List of Cuban writers * List of Cuban women writers * List of Cuban Americans * Before Columbus Foundation References Bibliography * (Anthology; includes writer biographies) * (Anthology; includes w ...
*
Cuban American literature Cuban American literature overlaps with both Cuban literature and American literature, and is also distinct in itself. Its boundaries can blur on close inspection. Some scholars, such as Rodolfo J. Cortina, regard "Cuban American authors" simply as ...
*
List of Cuban Americans A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...


References


Bibliography

*"About the Author" and "A Conversation with Cristina García" in ''The Agüero Sisters''. Random House Publishing Group, 1998. . *Alvarez-Borland, Isabel. ''Cuban-American Literature of Exile: From Person to Persona''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998. *Caminero-Santangelo, Marta, University of Kansas
"Cristina Garcia"
''The Literary Encyclopedia''. 17 May 2005. The Literary Dictionary Company. (retrieved 14 March 2007) *Caminero-Santangelo, Marta. ''On Latinidad: U.s. Latino Literature and the Construction of Ethnicity''. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2007. *Cox, Annabel. "Cristina García's Dreaming in Cuban: Latina literature and beyond?" ''Latino Studies'' 7.3 (Fall 2009): 357–377. *Dalleo, Raphael. "How Cristina Garcia Lost Her Accent, and Other Latina Conversations". ''Latino Studies'' 3.1 (April 2005): 3–18. *Dalleo, Raphael, and Elena Machado Sáez. "Latino/a Identity and Consumer Citizenship in Cristina Garcia's ''Dreaming in Cuban''". ''The Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 107–132. https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193238/http://www.post-sixties.com/. *Johnson, Kelli Lyon
"Cristina Garcia - b. 1958"
''VG: Voices from the Gaps''. May 9, 2005. (retrieved March 13, 2007) *Kevane, Bridget. ''Latino Literature in America''. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2003. *Luis, William. ''Dance Between Two Cultures: Latino Caribbean Literature Written in the United States''. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.com/articles/2007/05/16/features/arts_and_entertainment/doc464a9519e9ece723665622.txt article mentions Garcia's 2006 move to Napa, California] ''A Handbook to Luck'' May 16, 2007 (retrieved May 16, 2007) *Loustau, Laura R. "Cuerpos errantes: Literatura latina y latinoamericana en Estados Unidos. (On ''The Agüero Sisters''). Beatriz Viterbo Editora, Argentina. 2002. . *Viera, Joseph M. "Exile among Exiles: Cristina Garcia". ''Poets and Writers''. September/October, 1998.


Further reading

* Davison, Ned J. (1971). ''Eduardo Barrios''. Twayne Publishing


External links


Official WebsiteProfile at The Whiting Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Cristina 1958 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American people of Guatemalan descent American writers of Cuban descent American women novelists Barnard College alumni Cuban emigrants to the United States Cuban people of Guatemalan descent People from Napa, California Hispanic and Latino American novelists Hispanic and Latino American women journalists American women journalists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Journalists from California Novelists from California 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers People from Brooklyn Heights