The main events of the story occur in Honduras and Mexico. Tegucigalpa, Honduras is where Enrique was born and raised by several family members. In Tegucigalpa, Enrique is shuffled from house to house simply because he is unable to control his emotions. This makes Enrique angry and he begins to rebel against the people he lives with. At the age of 17, Enrique decides to leave his family in Honduras and travel to the United States in hopes that he will reunite with his mother. His journey will take him through Chiapas, Mexico, the most hostile city at the point of his travel. In Chiapas, corrupt Mexican police officers and gangs stop migrants and order them to give up anything in their possession. Enrique was beaten and thrown off a train in Chiapas by gang members who raiding the train. After being thrown off of the train Enrique realizes that the journey is not going to be as easy as he dreamed it was. The second most hostile city of the trip, Oaxaca is where many migrants are deported. The people of Oaxaca have a very distinct way of speaking and behaving. In Oaxaca Enrique is kept on toes, wondering if he will be deported because of his awkward dress and dialect. The last important place in the story is Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Nuevo Laredo is last stop for immigrants travelling to the United States. From Nuevo Laredo immigrants will illegally enter Texas and begin their struggle for financial success in America. Enrique does finally enter Texas after being pushed on a boat from Nuevo Laredo. Once he entered Texas, Enrique takes a cab to North Carolina hoping to find his mother. Sonia Nazario begins the story by describing Enrique’s confusion as to why his mother has left him. He doesn’t understand that she can’t afford food and ...
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...sures such as missing limbs, rape, and deportation as they travel on top of trains to the United States. They persevere through these struggles simply to provide for their family. I believe that the risks the migrants are willing to take to keep their family happy and healthy are courageous and beyond reproach. The mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters who travel to the United States leave behind their country, language, and people in hopes that they will be able to build a life for their family and leave the crime, danger, and joblessness of their home country forever. In my opinion, the main idea of the story is one that should be shared with people from every nationality and ethnic background. This story’s main idea and theme exhibit the importance of family and just how hard people are willing to work in order to maintain happiness and peace within their home.
Starting a new life is very problematic for many Central American children that migrate to the United States. There are a lot of difficulties involved in the process to migrate to the United States including the journey to get there. An extremely common way to migrate is by train. Migrants usually take away many life lessons from the journey to the United States such as the generosity and assistance from fellow Central Americans. On the other hand there’s extreme hardships. For example, the many robberies, and gang violence a migrant can face on the journey to the United States. During the trip, migrants learn that they usually cannot take things for granted, especially how scarce food, supplies, and other necessities are.
In both the movie, La Misma Luna, and the newspaper series, Enrique’s Journey, migrants are faced with many issues. The most deadly and scarring issues all relate back to bandits, judicial police, and la migra or Mexican immigration officers. The problems that arise are serious to the point of rape, robbing, and beating. It is not easy crossing the border illegally and secretly, but the successful ones have an interesting or even traumatic story about how it worked for them.
It also shows some more common ideas, like how all families have secrets, and in just a short time, someone’s life can be turned upside down and they have to find the best way to stay strong for themselves and their families. The most important thing I learned from this book, is how some people in other cultures find life to be very difficult when they are trying to do what is best for their family. Anita kept saying America is the ‘free country’ and I couldn’t agree more. So many people want to come here for so many different reasons, and it makes you realize that if our country is so great that people from all over the world want to move here, we are very lucky to be so highly thought
The book, “Y no se lo trago la tierra” by Thomas River grasp a point of view of a migrant community, as manifestations of Chicano culture, language, and experience as understood by a first person point of a young male protagonist. The setting of the book takes place of a year during the 1950s and uses a variety of perspectives and voices to follow the boy’s passages into adolescence. As the setting of the book moves from Texas to upper Midwest to the ye...
The push-and-pull factors in Enrique’s yearn for the U.S not only allows him to rediscover himself as an individual in a world of uncertainty, it also eliminates his constant fear of failing as a promising human being; in addition exhibits the undying hope of a desperate man found in hopeful migrants. In Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” his mother’s trip streamed “emptiness” into the heart of a once comfortable child and left him to “struggle” to hold memories they shared. Enrique’s life after Lourdes’ departure triggered the traumatizing demise of his identity. He threw this broken identity away while facing many obstacles, nevertheless each endea...
Like many other migrants, Enrique had many troubles with his mother too. When Enrique first arrived to the U.S., Enrique and his mother’s relationship was going well. Lourdes was proud of Enrique for finding a job as a painter and sander. Lourdes would always brag to her friends that Enrique is her son and that he’s big and a miracle. However, Enrique starts going to a pool hall without asking Lourdes’s permission which makes her upset. Enrique often yells obscenities and mother tells him not to, but Enrique tells Lourdes that nobody can change who he is.
Moving from the unpleasant life in the old country to America is a glorious moment for an immigrant family that is highlighted and told by many personal accounts over the course of history. Many people write about the long boat ride, seeing The Statue of Liberty and the “golden” lined streets of New York City and how it brought them hope and comfort that they too could be successful in American and make it their home. Few authors tend to highlight the social and political developments that they encountered in the new world and how it affected people’s identity and the community that they lived in. Authors from the literature that we read in class highlight these developments in the world around them, more particularly the struggles of assimilating
The Life of Two Different Worlds In “Into the Beautiful North,” Luis Alberto Urrea tells a well-known story of life for thousands of Mexican people who seek a better future. He presents his novel through the experiences of the lives of his main characters that have different personalities but share a common goal. Through the main characters we are presented with different situations and problems that the characters encounter during their journey from Mexico to the United States. Urrea’s main theme in this novel is the border that separates both the U.S. and Mexico, and the difficulties that people face in the journey to cross.
When they first arrived to the United States their only hopes were that they would have a better life and that there were better special education programs for Maribel to attend at Evers. Alma imagined that the buildings would look a lot nicer than they really were. The family was surprised that they could take things from the street that someone threw out of their house, but were in working condition. When they arrived they didn’t think that you would actually have to learn English to be able to communicate, but after going to stores and interacting with people they learned that they need to learn English if they want to live in America. They hoped that you could be able to afford anything in America by working, but based off of the money Arturo was making they learned that you can’t buy everyth...
Throughout Enrique’s many attempts at successfully making his way by train to the border between the United States and Mexico, he has encountered people who were more concerned with stopping and harming the travelers rather than ensuring their wellbeing. Therefore this imagery during the journey part of the novel helps to provide the reader with the sense that not everyone in Mexico is out to get the people who are trying to obtain a better
Enrique decides to set out on a journey to reunite with his mother in the US. It takes eight attempts over four months to finally reach her. The first seven times he is robbed, beaten, and deported again and again, yet never gives up. Like most migrants, much of Enrique's journey is atop a freight train, but there are many dangers between Honduras and the US. If migrants aren’t killed by the trains themselves, they must worry about the gangsters, bandits, and robbers beating, robbing, raping, and even killing migrants. Just as dangerous are the corrupt police called la migra that do whatever they want to immigrants before deporting them. On the bright side Enrique meets a variety of people on his journey, many attempting the same voyage he is. They share their stories and advice about where to go and where to avoid.
Similarly, the book’s three leading protagonists ultimately possess a common objective, escaping their unjust circumstances in pursuit of seeking the “warmth of other suns.” For this reason, they abandon the laws of Jim Crow and the familiarity of their hometowns as they flee to a better life. In the process, they all assume a level of risk in their decisions to rebel against the system. For example, Ida decides to embark on a precarious journey while in the beginning stages of a clandestine pregnancy. Any number of unpredictable events could have resulted from this judgment, including fatality. All of the migrants shared an unspoken agreement that the rewards would far outweigh the dangers involved.
One can draw many parallels from Garcia’s book; at the end of Reconstruction in the United States, many African-Americans, left the South, as home rule, and Jim Crow became part of it many, left for the north, especially Chicago. Thus, making El Paso somewhat of a Chicago for the Mexicans –as many Mexicans were fleeing the many deplorable conditions of a México under the rule of Dictator Porfirio Díaz, an era that came to be known as ...
It gives facts and real life story living on this camp. This is actually someone real life story. When Jeanne dad left the family, the family could not bear. Living on the camps it was dusty, cold and windy. Jeanne states at the end that, “Even though her dad was a drunk, the way he drives—like a madman—actually inspires Jeanne with confidence to get past her fears of what life might be like outside of camp”. Growing up with all the racism remarks and surroundings was not easy and it has not been easy learning to remember and talk about her experience at the camp, but she overcame her fear. Jeanne has finally let it be free and be known. She now feels more better than ever about this. Also, even though Americans did not like Japanese she still married a
“The story employs a dramatic point of view that emphasizes the fragility of human relationships. It shows understanding and agreemen...