Finally, many of the characters have supernatural visions. Jorge Del Pino, Celia’s dead husband, appears regularly to a number of the characters, both in Cuba and in New York. The characters so visited invariably take these appearances as quite real. While there is a certain amount of insanity in the family (two of the women have been institutionalized), the supernatural seems to play a very real, seemingly rational part in everyone’s lives. In some ways, Jorge actually appears as the most rational character in the novel, despite his supernatural form.

Dreaming in Cuban, at its deepest level, is actually a consideration of reality and the way humans perceive that reality. Dreams, waking life, supernatural visitations, and insanity are so intertwined in the narrative that it is often difficult for the reader to decide which events are actually taking place and which are imagined.