Enrique's Journey Sparknotes

In Enrique’s Journey, Sonia Nazario illustrated the complexity of immigration problems by noting Enrique, a 17-year-old teenager’s journey from Honduras to the United States. Immigration has always been an existing problem even today. People decide to leave their native hometown to seek for better opportunities or hoping for a reunion with their family members. However, it comes with a great risk. The problem of immigration remains to be ambiguous considering the motives, process and the results of immigrants.

Many immigrants, such as Lourdes, starts off their journey from their hometown from areas like Central America. They were forced to leave their family to pursue job opportunities and send money back home to support the living. Often times, they are law-abiding people who failed to provide for themselves. Without taking any actions, a whole family could just starve to death. Life forced them to make a painful decision of parting with their loved ones. This causes children to grow up with the absence of their parents- and it arises problems. Parents no doubt play a crucial role in a child’s growth, they are important in developing their mental mindset and their overall spiritual growth. With little understanding of why their parents leave them, they might develop extreme emotions towards their parents or even

feel determined to search for their parents – just like Enrique. He was beaten down by numerous of false promises made by his mother. Growing up he did not receive a lot of attention, therefore unfortunately, he got addicted to drugs. Enrique “takes a hit of glue. It makes him sleepy, takes him to another world, eases his hunger and helps him forget about his family.”(5). Many teenagers turn to drugs not because they are bad in nature, but the reality has caused them dreadful pain, and they need an outlet for that. Suffering from great pain in life, Enrique determined to go north and seek for his mother, knowing the possible danger he might face.
Throughout the journey, Enrique encountered 7 failed attempts, but his passions have not lessened. His journey was made extra hard by “surprises” that he did not expect. When one thinks linearly, the journey is as simple as crossing the border in a superstitious manner. However, the process appears to be way more complicated. Enrique met corrupted police and gangsters impersonating judicial officers, who took away all of his belongings, threatening him to "Forget about it, unless you want to have your trip stop here."(4) With all his money being taken, it would be impossible for him to survive and continue on. The author repeats the word “gift” in order to emphasize the importance of it. Along the way, Enrique received unconditional love and blessings, ironically, from the poorest people. They gave him food and clothing, when they might be short for themselves. At Enrique’s eighth attempt, he was finally brought to the U.S territory by a smuggler. In each and every journey, Enrique came across new events that might create a motivation or a setback to him. It applies the same to any other immigrants, it is never certain to know what to expect.
Some might find themselves lucky like Enrique, who successfully made it to the United States.

However, after a long and harsh journey, one will change. When Enrique examines himself during the journey, “he sees a battered young man, scrawny and disfigured.”(3). Immigration might distort a person both physically and mentally. Coming from an impoverished environment, one might also be bombarded but cultural issues. "I'm afraid of them. They talk funny. They are dirty."(4), said one of the local people. Enrique was fortunate enough to be accepted by his family and acquire a job to provide for himself. Not everyone was as well off

though.
Immigration brings new opportunities and reunites a family, however; there are negatives too. The journey of Enrique illustrated to us was too risky, and it generates new problems. At the end of the day, Enrique and his wife, Maria Isabel made the same decision as Lourdes, they left their baby Jasmine behind. After undertaking such dreadful experiences, Enrique perhaps realized the best thing to do, indicating the problem that remains unsolved.