Enrique's Journey Sparknotes

Enrique’s journey, by Sonia Nazario, is the story of young immigrant boy’s journey to the United States. The importance of family and the persistence of an adolescent is what the book tries convoy to the audience. Sonia Nazario, the autor of the book, is a journalist who was known for her work with the publisher, the Los Angeles Times. She has won the Pulitzer Prize for her rigorous work in the field of journalism. What she wanted to achieve with the novel was to shed some light on the young kids making the same journey Enrique does and the dangerous they endure to reunite with their parents or leave their life of poverty. Sonia Nazario was born in the United States and holds her degrees in Latin American Studies.

In the Prologue of the novel

the inspiration to write about the struggles of immigrants was revealed. While talking to her housekeeper Carmen about children, Carmen explains her current situation to Nazario, she let her know that she has 4 children in Guatemala that she hasn’t seen for more than a decade. The abandonment of her husband left her without being able to put ends meet on the table so for the better of her children she travels to the United States in look for better economic opportunities to provide for her family. She reveals that her situation is common in central America, that mother must leave their kin behind to provide a better future. The arrival of Minor, Carmen’s eldest son, peaks Nazario’s interest. Minor explains the dangerous that the journey consists of and the persistence it takes. The embrace of his mother was driving hope for his success in making to the United States.
The beginning of the novel starts with the departure of Enrique’s mother on January 29th, 1989 when he is just five years old. Lourdes leaves Enrique and Belky, Enrique’s older sister, for economic reasons. Her husband leaves her, and her 2 children stranded in Honduras, a country crippled by it’s poverty. She is forced to make a decision to move to the United States to provide the income that is needed. Although, Lourdes plans on returning in a year, two at most, when her family is financially stable, eleven years go by and she has come to the realization that she may never return to Honduras. Lourdes’s departure has many repercussions Enrique is sent to live with his father but after a short time he finds a new woman to start a life with leading to a repetitive cycle of abandonment in Enrique’s life. His sister Belky is sent to live with her aunt in a better living environment than Enrique.
Lourdes arrives in the United States in hope to get to the city of Miami but, her smuggler decides that Los Angeles is as far as she will go.

While she is there Lourdes finds work in a factory sorting tomatoes for a measly wage. After several months she is able to get her hands on a fake social security card and finds a job in Beverly hills as a nanny. Though the thought of taking care of children while hers are in Honduras drives Lourdes to quit and instead search for new opportunities. Lourdes faces these problems and perseveres to provide for her family in Honduras. Enrique while his mother has been in the United States has been living with different family members. He lives with his grandmother while there he develops an addiction to sniffing glue due to the depression of being alone without a mother or a father this however makes his grandmother scold him and forces him to sleep in a stone hut outside the house. He moves with his uncle and establishes a close relationship but in an attempted robbery he is killed, and Enrique is yet again left alone. Enrique’s decision to leave Honduras is to find his mother he feels that their reunion well make him feel whole and give him a sense of

nurturing.
Enrique’s journey to the United States was only completed because of his perseverance to be with his mother.

Before making it to the United States his journey was filled with hardships that many immigrants go through. He is caught seven times before the success of the eighth. In those attempts Enrique recalls the beating he took from six men while train hoping. The people of nearby cities in Mexico not wanting to help and, in some cases, turning them into the authorities. Corrupt police officers robing them and being tracked by notorious gangs with the only outcome being death if caught. Although, Enrique saw the possibility of injury and death was high he didn’t want to go back to Honduras to an empty filled life. He persisted to find his mother at the cost of his own life. The conditions that children face when making the journey from Central America to the United States are gruesome. They face the consistent harassment of corrupt police officers who rob them and even beat them to death. Gang violence surrounds the immigrants’ routes, the gangs have no problem killing and raping the young immigrants. The females who take part in trying to make it to the states are a much higher percentage of rape throughout their

journey.
When Enrique finally reaches his mother in the United States the reunion is all he hoped it would be with cheerfulness and rejuvenation. However, feeling of resentment and anger towards his mother arise and arguing becomes natural to them. The reunion quickly turns negative as Enrique feels what his mother did is unforgivable and that the abandonment he felt is all her fault while his mother thinks what she did was a sacrifice to give him and his sister a better life. Enrique’s past addictions come back to him in the United States as he realizes that life is not better just because his mom is in the picture. Speeding tickets, drinking excessively, and smoking marijuana are all habits that get Enrique in trouble with the law for. This causes Enrique to stop sending money to his pregnant girlfriend Maria Isabel and lose contact. The issues with his mother only worsen as she confronts him, and he leaves of to sleep in a cemetery for the night. At the end of the novel Enrique understands the sacrifices his mother made because he must make the same to provide for his daughter Jasmin which he left behind in Honduras. The book ends the same way it started with a child being abandoned by a parent who is trying to provide a better life. The author’s get her point across that the people of central America do everything in efforts to better life for their families even if that means leaving them behind to seek economic opportunity. She explains Enrique’s story because she wants the young children that are making this journey daily to be protected from the dangers that crossing the border brings.
My final assessment of the book is that the topic at hand is very relevant with an excess of young immigrants coming to the United States every year. These young immigrants are victims of murder, gang violence, rape, and police corruption and should be spot highlighted and guided in other direction. I would recommend this book to my peers as it is a great story of perseverance and what people would do for their families.