Sonia Nazario’s background is that she is the child of immigrants, her motivation for writing this story, and the process that she begins as she prepares to research and write Enrique’s story. Sonia Nazario tells how and where she finds Enrique and how he is a representative of the children whose story she needs to tell. She started with the story that her maid Lourdes told her about leaving her children behind in Honduras. She began to prepare for her research by spending two weeks with him on the Rio Grande in Nuevo Laredo. She followed him around day and night and was constantly interviewing him. In 1980 the refugee act was instated, this removed refugees as a preference category and established clear criteria and procedures for their …show more content…
He left Honduras with little money, one change of clothes, and his mother’s phone number written on a piece of paper and on the inside of his jeans. He attempts this journey eight times before he finally succeeds. During the first seven attempts he talks about how he was beaten, robbed, deported and constantly humiliated. Enrique has discovered several important things about Chiapas. In Chiapas, do not take buses, which must pass through nine permanent checkpoints, never ride alone, do not trust any authority figures, and even to be aware of the local residents. Gangsters aboard the train are seen in a negative way because they are ruthless, and have no respect for authority, others, or even their own lives. On the other hand, the positive view about them, is that they offer protection from the police. They even at point let Enrique join them, which benefited him as he did not travel alone and did not have to worry about …show more content…
Except it is Maria Isabel who leave their baby Katherine Jasmine behind with Maria Isabel’s aunt. I believe that the author ended her book this way to show that the efforts of the U.S. to stanch the flow of immigration, both in terms of the harm it does to humans and its futility. “When we build 700 miles of fence, honestly, we do not understand this kind of determination,” she said. Sonia Nazario also believes that mothers make mistakes especially in the eyes of their children when they leave them behind in order to give their children a better life. She also believes the best way out is to put resources and policies toward the goal of improving those circumstances in the countries of where all these undocumented immigrants originated
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.
Through the view of a young girl, this story really captures what it’s like to feel like immigration is the only option for a family. In the story, set in the 1960’s, Anita lives in the Dominican Republic, a country with a dictator named el jefe. One day at school, Anita’s cousin is called out of class, and Anita is asked to go with. She finds out that her
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...
Enrique and many other Central American kids have a hard life. They come to America where they think their mothers will magically solve their problems because their mothers are supposed to be perfect. Enrique and others realize this isn’t true and goes on to accept it. Migrants resent their mothers a little bit, but come to start loving them as the migrants did before their mothers left. Migrants also learn about life lessons on the trains. Migrants learn that people should not be trusted, but not all people are bad. The migrants just have to learn which people are bad and which aren’t. Migrants also learned that you shouldn’t have high expectations of everything and also that you shouldn’t put your problems on one person and expect them to go away. You have to figure life out on your own.
In The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail, Oscar Martinez comments on the injustices that occur while migrating from Central America. Central Americans are forced to leave their countries in fear of the inevitable consequences. The systematic abuse Central Americans endure while migrating is founded on that fear which results in more repercussions for migrants. The psychological effects of migrating is used by Martinez to give insight on the atrocities that happen in Central America. The corruption involved while migrating in Central America is against human rights and should be brought immediate attention internationally. Martinez uses the experiences of migrants to expose Mexico’s passivity on the subject and to expose readers’ to the hard truths that occur while migrating.
Martinez, Demetria. 2002. “Solidarity”. Border Women: Writing from la Frontera.. Castillo, Debra A & María Socorro Tabuenca Córdoba. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 168- 188.
First to start out, we should get some facts straight. A conquistador is basically a Spanish conqueror. Their main goals were to search for gold and other riches from the Caribbean and draw them back to the mainland. The absolute most important conquistador in all of history is Hernan Cortes.
Bestseller journalist, Sonia Nazario, in her literacy non-fiction, Enrique’s Journey, describes a young man’s journey trying to reconcile with his mother in the United States, but has to go through many obstacles to reach her. Nazario’s purpose is to inform readers about how immigration affects children and their mothers in Central America. She adopts an optimistic/determined tone in order to reveal to her readers the difficulty and bravery the children have to face to get to the United States. Nazario begins her credibility with ethos to retrace an abandon teenager’s journey through Central America, pathos to follow the mother son relationship, and logos by giving facts and statistics for illegal immigrants in the U.S.
Knowing the circumstances of Eva Perón’s birth and youth, it seems inconceivable that she would become the unstoppable political firebrand whose memory evokes wails even today. Her father, Juan Duarte, worked as a ranch manager for a wealthy family. He received a portion of the estate’s yields and owned a small ration of the land. As such, he was influential: a distinguished estanciero, affluent within the context of the flat and desolate pampas where he resided. By the time Eva was born, it had been eighteen years since he had arrived in the village of Los Toldos, leaving behind a wife and three children in the nearby town of Chivilcoy. Although they visited him frequently, he managed to hide his affair with one Juana Ibarguren. Together, Juan and Juana had five children; Eva, born in 1919, was the youngest. Though not legally, the family took the Duarte name. Father Duarte returned to Chivilcoy when Eva was a baby, leaving her mother to sew clothes for the villagers to avoid starvation. The family’s reputation as “illegitimate” plagued them far more than their poverty. Eventually, the family would leave Los Toldos for a town called Junín. And at age fifteen, Eva Duarte would leave for a town called Buenos Aires.
That feeling of leaving his parents in the Philippines to go with a stranger when he was 12 years old is truly unfortunate, but his mother was looking looking out with his best interests in mind. She just wanted her son to get a taste of the American dream, and have a better life in America rather than suffering with her in the Philippines. Vargas’s essay moves the reader emotionally as he explains when he was finally successful in getting the highest honor in journalism, but his grandmother was still worried about him getting deported. She wanted Vargas to stay under the radar, and find a way to obtain one more chance at his American dream of being
Enrique’s dilemma is to either stay in the United States or return back home to Honduras. After showing resentment he hoarded towards his mother for abandoning him by departing back to North Carolina he still loves her as shown in this quotation, “He even begins to make plans to move… He does not want to live apart from his mother anymore.”(Nazario 235) This section of the novel indicates Enrique’s desire to remain in the United States. His actions in this quote explain greatly how much he loves his mother, despite the fact they had numerous rebellious arguments since their relationship as mother and son is atypical . From their quarrels, Enrique departs back to North Carolina to be with his friends, however he begins to miss his mother still yearning for her affection. Enrique, unable to bear with the separation, returns back to Florida to be with her again.
Many immigrants are threatened with violence, so they leave in order to procure new possibilities in the United States. In The Bean Trees, Esperanza and Estevan have a similar experience to many other immigrants escaping from violence. The two of them
In Eduardo’s conversation with an illegal immigrant, he explains that he is working to get his family across the border
The emotional letter that Juan left for his mother might be one of the most emotional scenes in the documentary. The pure emotions that the letter was written by Juan to her mother leaves the audience with the bonds and emotions felt between the kids and families. Juan Carlos’s father abandoned the family years ago and left to New York, consequently Juan believe it is his responsibility to provide for his family. He also wants to find his father in New York and confronts him about why he has forgotten about them. The story of Juan is not just about migration of children, but also the issue of family separation. The documentary does not dehumanize but rather bring the humane and sensitive lens to the story of Juan where the human drama that these young immigrants and their families live. Juan Carlos is not the first of Esmeralda’s sons to leave for the United states, his nine-year-old brother Francisco was smuggled into California one month earlier. Francisco now lives with Gloria, his grandmother, who paid a smuggler $3,500 to bring him to Los Angeles, California. Once Juan Carlos is in the shelter for child migrants his mother eagerly awaits him outside. After she sees him she signs a paper that says if Juan Carlos tries to travel again, he will be sent to a foster home.
Not to mention, Grande’s family was separated because of the United States but her cousin Elida went through the same thing. Her cousin was separated from her mother and was forced to stay behind until her mother send for her. Grande states “She promised Elida that one day soon she would send for her, and although she did eventually keep her promise, Elida had to stay behind for now and watch a taxicab take her mother away”(Grande, 46). By Elida’s mother leaving it shows the physical separation the U.S. causes on families. It separates the child from his parents, as we all know that a parental figure is very important in a child's development. Elida was ripped away from having her true mother by her side and having a real family. This is one