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Enrique's Journey |  | Author: Sonia Nazario
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Seller: firsttrust_books
Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 7905
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0812971787
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.23089687283073
EAN: 9780812971781
ASIN: 0812971787
Publication Date: January 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780812971781 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
In this astonishing true story, award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother in the United States.
When Enrique is five years old, his mother, Lourdes, too poor to feed her children, leaves Honduras to work in the United States. The move allows her to send money back home to Enrique so he can eat better and go to school past the third grade.
Lourdes promises Enrique she will return quickly. But she struggles in America. Years pass. He begs for his mother to come back. Without her, he becomes lonely and troubled. When she calls, Lourdes tells him to be patient. Enrique despairs of ever seeing her again. After eleven years apart, he decides he will go find her.
Enrique sets off alone from Tegucigalpa, with little more than a slip of paper bearing his mother’s North Carolina telephone number. Without money, he will make the dangerous and illegal trek up the length of Mexico the only way he can–clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains.
With gritty determination and a deep longing to be by his mother’s side, Enrique travels through hostile, unknown worlds. Each step of the way through Mexico, he and other migrants, many of them children, are hunted like animals. Gangsters control the tops of the trains. Bandits rob and kill migrants up and down the tracks. Corrupt cops all along the route are out to fleece and deport them. To evade Mexican police and immigration authorities, they must jump onto and off the moving boxcars they call El Tren de la Muerte–The Train of Death. Enrique pushes forward using his wit, courage, and hope–and the kindness of strangers. It is an epic journey, one thousands of immigrant children make each year to find their mothers in the United States.
Based on the Los Angeles Times newspaper series that won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for feature writing and another for feature photography, Enrique’s Journey is the timeless story of families torn apart, the yearning to be together again, and a boy who will risk his life to find the mother he loves.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 57
 Fascinating March 22, 2006
R. Spell (Memphis, TN USA)
40 out of 43 found this review helpful
This is a fascinating book concerning the flood of young Central Americans coming to America and the treacherous journey they must undertake. But it looks at the influx of illegal aliens into America in a new light. These youths who travel by train up to 1,600 miles north through Mexico are coming to find their Mother's who have left them years ago to have money to support their kids back in Nicaragua, Honduras or Guatemala. Years before these mothers faced raising kids as a single mother as the tight Catholic families in these countries are pulling apart. With limited jobs, these women smuggle to America and send money back. But the emotional toll on these kids is traumatic and many choose to journey to America, many at an age much too young.
The Pulitzer Prize winning author rode the trains and researched completely the significant danger in the first state of Chiapas where the risk of being robbed, raped or killed is the greatest. The next state shows the true spirit of the Mexican people as many bring food and clothing to this rag-tag group of refugees. Great detail is spent describing areas to avoid and relationships with smugglers, police and "la migra", the immigration police.
The final part of the journey across the river to America is also traumatic and great detail is spent on different ways of crossing, many involving paying "coyotes" significant money to cross with no guarantees they will not be robbed.
But this book does not end there as finally Enrique finds his mother in North Carolina. But is she really a "Mother" since she hasn't seen her son in about 10 years? Obviously their relationship is unique and the book delves in to the difficulty.
You will be educated on a significant human rights issue effecting America. On so many levels this is a book that needs to be read and whatever your current thoughts on immigration on our southern border, this will "humanize" the issue, give you greater insight and probably change or soften your position. Is there an answer? Probably not. We are blessed in America and these people want just a small piece of this dream and are willing to risk everything to change the future of their family.
I do have one complaint about the book. The ending. I would have liked a better or more complete resolution. But this isn't fiction, it's real life. Read this book to learn. It is a fast read as it is so engrossing.
Moving, Gripping April 7, 2006
Sreeram Ramakrishnan (Lynnfield, MA)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
In an excellent book based on the famous news feature series by the same journalist, the trials and tribulations of immigrant populations in economic, social, cultural, and emotional contexts is well highlighted. It is sheer coincidence that I happen to read this book the same day the US Senate reached a "compromise" on immigration reform. Lost in political debates of immigration, is the sheer human facets of the people involved. This book (just as the series did a few years ago) provides a human side to relate to when politicians/"experts" debate about immigration. The author is very careful not to condone illegal immigration by focusing on the human tolls of the people trying to get to the U.S. in any form, irrespective how miserably the previous several attempts have failed. Using the story of one teenager's quest for finding his mother as the central theme, the book explores the motivation of those who make such seemingly improbable decisions, the dangers of the travel itself, the role (or lack thereof) of governments, religious/charity organizations, communities along the travel route, and the misery from which these 'optimists' are trying to escape from. Any amount of objective analysis will not take away the immense emotional impact the book will have on a reader - the strains of motherhood and the pensive childhood of those left behind are exposed without any sensationalism. The sheer gravity of the story is compelling enough.
Written in a simple, yet powerful, narrative style, the author clearly enables the reader to imagine the journey described in the book. An absolute must-read, and perhaps one of the best non-fiction books. You will never view immigration as a political issue again (whether thats good or bad, is upto you)..guaranteed.
GREAT teaching book, GREAT read February 21, 2006
Elizabeth Q. Hutchison (Albuquerque, NM USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Nazario's LA Times stories on Enrique's journey have been hugely successful with undergraduates in my Latin American History courses. Enrique's journey (as told by Nazario) is a gripping, intimate account that reveals the many structural and personal factors that motivate the desperate northward migration of Central American children every year. Like the now-abundant testimonial literature that we profs use to bring Latin American experiences into the classroom, Nazario's text has both troubled and inspired my students. Unike many testimonials, however, Nazario's account skillfully weaves context (and nuance) into the extensive interview materials. One finds here the results of her exhaustive research into US, Central American, and Mexican migration policies and practices; the work of NGO and government agencies with migrant children; the transnational labor market in female domestic service that leaves Central American children in the care of family members; and the train-top world of migrants, gangs, and police in relation to the communities they pass through from Honduras to northern Mexico. After a long semester of powerful but often distant historical study, Nazario's account brings home (literally, across the border) many pressing issues in contemporary US-Latin American relations. I highly recommend this work, both for classroom and personal use.
Compelling and deeply moving February 26, 2006
E. Kramer
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Every year, thousands of Central American children journey up through Mexico on "the train of death" to join their mothers in the U.S. Along the way, they are robbed, raped, and murdered by gangs, maimed by the trains, and generously aided by many who are very poor themselves. Nazario, a pulitzer prize winning reporter for the LA Times, spent months traveling with these children at great personal risk. She tells their compelling and deeply moving story with a clear and simple style.
Best non-fiction book of the year February 27, 2006
Annmarie Jones (Newbury Park, CA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
I read this story when it was in the LA Times and couldn't wait for the book.
I read the story cover to cover in a weekend and thought it was the best non-fiction work I have read in years. Obviously, Ms. Nazario's story shows that our immigration problem isn't as simple as it seems. I was very moved by this story and urge everyone to read it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 57
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