As part of the Hispanic Heritage Month* (September 2000), acclaimed writer Cristina Garcia offered the lecture "Dreaming in Cuban, Writing in English: Testimony of a Cuban-American Writer". The event took place on September 20 at the Harris Theatre and had the English Department, Fall for the Book, Hispanic Culture Review and the Modern & Classical Languages Department as sponsors.
    The welcome, opening address, introduction and closing were skillfully handled (in order) by Mr. Art King, Director, Office of Minority Student Affairs, Dr. Karen Rosenblum, Vice President, University Life,  and Dr. Jeffrey T. Chamberlain, Interim Chair, Department of Modern & Classical Languages.

    In 1960, Cristina Garcia's family fled Cuba in the wake of Fidel Castro's overthrow of the government. Her first novel, Dreaming in Cuban, was released to universal acclaim in 1992. Her most recent novel, The Aguero Sisters, has received similar accolades and has been praised as a gifted chronicle of exile's promise and peril. Her lectures deal with topics as diverse as her family history. She illuminates the complexities of a dual cultural identity and details her views of the immigrant experience.

    Cristina Garcia attended Columbia University and began her career as a nationally recognized political columnist in the 1980's. In 1988, Cristina moved to California and began what would be her new career, that of storyteller. Cristina is the former Miami bureau chief for TIME Magazine and is currently a fellow at Princeton University. She lives in California with her young daughter Pilar.

* For further information about similar event please visit GMU's Office of Minority Student Affairs and University Life.