Paul Celis
Dharan Jaisankar
CHI 010 A01
Enrique’s Journey Paper Rough Draft Sonia Nazario’s groundbreaking nonfiction book Enrique’s Journey brings to the forefront the reality of undocumented immigration, giving the reader insight into the true stories behind immigration through the story of Enrique, a sixteen-year-old Honduran boy who sets off on a perilous journey to reunite with his estranged mother, Lourdes, who left him eleven years earlier seeking work and a better future for her and her family in the United States. The heartwrenching exposé delves into the realities behind people’s compulsion to make the deadly trip from Central America to the United States while emphasizing the numerous challenges that undocumented immigrants face,
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Faced with the prospect of having to feed two children off the meager income she earned in Honduras, Lourdes is faced with a self-imposed ultimatum, either live in constant poverty or seek the better opportunities that the United States seemingly offered, with the hope that in the future, she would be able to send back money to her children back in Honduras. Her reasoning shows that many immigrants do not make their journey out of want or greed, but out of absolute necessity, a desire to pull their children out of poverty and give them a better life. However, she is unable to return to Honduras for fear of not being able to come back to her sliver of security in America and coming home empty-handed. All the while, Enrique is similarly faced with poverty, as after being abandoned by his estranged father, he must provide for his grandmother, who he is living with “Enrique loves to climb his grandmother’s guayaba tree, but there is no more time for play… After school, Enqirue sells tamales and plastic bags of fruit juice from a bucket.” (Nazario, 11) Unfortunately, he is unable to escape the harsh cycle of poverty introduced to him at birth, thus setting the stage for his own journey at sixteen years of …show more content…
A decade of separation had created a huge emotional rift between them, having lived separate lives thousands of miles apart. Enrique, who had felt a sense of abandonment after having been separated from his mother for so many years, had grown to resent her for taking away from him a normal childhood. Simultaneously, Lourdes has to come to the realization that her idealized version of Enrique as the same boy that she had known eleven years ago was no longer innocent, but an emotionally distant soul, hardened by his brutal journey on “El Tren Devorador, The Train that Devours.” (Nazario, 88) Their experiences parallel the widespread issues faced by other families that separated for similar reasons, with children unable to come to terms with their parents, who they felt had forsaken them, and the parents unable to recognize their children, who had changed with
The book I am reading is Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario. I predict that the author will explore the human rights issue of Immigration Laws and the plight of illegal aliens in the United States. I believe that this issue will be important in the story because Enrique the main character in the story is very driven to find his mother who has gone herself illegally to the United States to earn money to provide an education for her children and to better the life of her family. I made this prediction because Lourdes leaves her children in Honduras as she goes to make money in the United States and her son Enrique is left saying “Donde esta mi mami?” “Where is my mom?”
In chapter two of the book Enrique’s Journey, Enrique has made a total of seven attempts trying to cross the borders. In the first attempt, la migra caught Enrique and his friend, Jose del Carmen Bustamante, while they were riding the train from Honduras and to Veracruz in Central Mexico. They got sent back to Guatemala on El Bus de Lagrimas, the Bus of Tears. In the second attempt, Enrique traveled alone and got caught by the police. They, once again, put him on the bus and sent him back to Guatemala.
While reading Enrique’s Journey, written by Sonia Nazario, a lot of themes were brought out throughout the book that served different meaning in Enrique’s story. The theme that stood out to me, was his journey because Enrique traveled all the way from Honduras to find his mom, who stayed in the United States. There are times in the book when he falls victim to his own shortcomings: doing drugs, tantalizing his mother, mismanaging his finances. He is ready to take yet another journey, this time marked by responsibility instead of adolescent rebellion and resentment. However, Enrique's journey is not only physical, but also mental as he grows from a boy to a man.
Many children from Central America have migrated to the United States but have been deported back to their country or killed by gang members during their their journey. Sonia Nazario, author of "Enrique's Journey" and "The Children of the Drug Wars: A Refugee Crisis, Not an Immigration Crisis," mostly talk about the lives of migrant children and the tragedy of their homeland. "Enrique's Journey" is about Enrique and his journey to reunite with his mother and Enrique is traveling on a train but faces challenges and problems during his journey. " The Children of the Drug Wars: A Refugee Crisis, Not an Immigration Crisis" is about Sonia Nazario giving her opinion about helping the children that are in danger and trying to get them safe from violence
According to Hernandez, “ Mexicans in the borderlands, regardless of immigration of citizenship status, were subject to high levels of suspicion, surveillance, and state violence as border patrol officers aggressively policed not only the U.S and Mexico border but also Mexican communities and work sites” (Hernandez Pg. 2). In her book, Hernandez tells the story of how Mexican immigrant workers became
To begin with, Enrique's Journey, by Sonia Nazario shares the journey of a boy named Enrique who lives in Tegucigalpa, Honduras with his mother, Lourdes, and his sister, Belky. Enrique
Similarly, Lupe is worried about her mother being detained and deported. Unlike Maria and Lupe, Daniel’s parents’ status is not provided, but the article talks about his political involvement that puts him at an advantage from his friends, as he is well informed of his and their rights (Kohli, 2017). All three students are concerned about their future and what holds for them and their immigrant friends and relatives. They are all advocates for equality and use their activism as a way to inform the community of their rights, and as a way to escape their overwhelming realities that can lead psychological disorders such as an increase of
Julio, on the other hand, lives in highly ethnically diverse Los Angeles as one of the immigrant children devoid of family ties. This immediate environment of family is what Bronfenbrenner calls the microsystem. Luis enjoyed a physical presence and handling of the eleven family members in their home. But for Julio, it was a negative experience when aspect of physical development as she just a mere immigrant without parents around to give her moral support. On a worldwide perspective, both Julio and Luis desire a better world beyond theirs.
Lourdes, Enrique’s mother, loved her children as every mother does and did anything in her power to provide for them even if it meant to travel 1,619 miles into a foreign country. Many parents like Lourdes have left their entire families for job opportunities and risk their lives through the dangerous journey but they have the hope and motivation because of love— love for their sons and daughters. Even Enrique found himself doing the same for his soon-to-be-born baby which was one of the components that made him persevere in his
Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario is the story about a boy in Honduras whose mother left him to pursue a better life in America. This story encompasses the coming of age period of Enrique’s life and many of his experiences can be related to by other children, even in different situations. Nazario develops an interesting novel that both documents the journey of Enrique to the United States but also creates a dramatic tone like a fiction novel would have. Through her diverse use of rhetorical strategies, Nazario was able to explain the positive and negative effects of family relationships through the life of Enrique. She does this by utilizing different literary devices, most evidently, nomos, in which she relates with the story and also opens
Many people are undermined by the drawbacks of belonging to a low socioeconomic status. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is raised in a poor, Latino community, causing her to be introduced to poverty at an early age. This introduction of poverty affects Esperanza in many ways, one including that she is unable to find success. Esperanza struggles to achieve success in life because the cycle of poverty restricts her in a position in which she cannot break free from her socioeconomic status.
In search for a better life outside of the Dominican Republic, Anita’s whole family tries to move to America. One day sitting in her room, Anita look out her window to see no one left on the compound. Anita explains, “I look out the door and down the dark driveway. The whole flock of our family has fled. Only Mami and Chucha and I are left (pg.100 p.9).”Her whole family has gone to America to be free, leaving everything behind.
As the story comes to a close i can see how this will continue to happen in future events. Enrique wants to believe that his family won’t be too hurt by his decision but he cycle of disappoint will most likely continue in my opinion. He tells mayor Carrasco that he does not think it is worth the time and money for doctors to save travelers like Enrique “This is what they get for doing this journey,” He says of migrants. Yor carrasco disagrees.
Enrique is the central character of Enrique’s Journey authored by Sonia Nazario (2007, 2014). Enrique’s journey is a touching account of the repercussions of an economically distressed society and the effects that this circumstance has on the citizens of Honduras. Enrique is five years old when his mother Lourdes is forced to leave Tegucigalpa, Honduras to the United States where she believes she has a better opportunity of earning an adequate amount of money to support Enrique and his sister Belky. As years pass, Enrique becomes more disheartened and decides to take the dangerous trip of traveling North to be with his mother.
As a young child, after being told of how poor her houseboy Fido was, Adichie did not believe his family could also be hardworking. “Their poverty was my single story of them. ”(Adichie) She also details how later, on a trip to Guadalajara she was overwhelmed with shame because her only image of Mexicans was the “abject immigrant” due to the “…endless stories of Mexicans as people who were fleecing the healthcare system, sneaking across the border, being arrested at the border, that sort of thing.” (Adichie)a She was caught by surprise when she saw Mexicans happy and at work in the marketplace.