Several years ago, Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazrio was the UCSB Reads choice for the year. I didn’t read it at the time and when I was a volunteer at the library, I was amazed by how many copies of this title were on the shelves.
This is a non-fiction account of the trials and tribulations of a Honduran boy to cross the US border illegally in order to find his mother. It is common for parent to leave their children in Latin-American countries to find work in the US. The parents think they are doing the children a favor by making money and sending it back to the remaining family. This story illustrates that the children then come from a broken family, feel abandoned and try to immigrate illegally to find the parents in the US.
The struggle that children endure to travel by foot and by train is tragic. The details of the poverty and peril were so vivid that I felt extreme gratitude that I was born into the country I was.
Although Enrique finds his mother, the struggles don’t end. I followed up on Nazrio’s blog to see if there were updates on the family. The cycle continues of parents leaving their family behind and all of the resentment and hurt that come from it. This illustrates a tragic and vicious cycle that exists in our everyday life.
