Sonia Nizario's novel Enrique’s Journey Shares experiences of immigrants from Mexico (mainly younger kids) creating a journey to the United states, where freedom lives. The main idea of the story is about a little boy named Enrique who is planning on leaving everything behind to reunite with his mother who left him. Her audience appears to be everyone to show them the suffrage these immigrants had basically gone through in order to find freedom. This proves to us these human beings are willing to go through anything to be like the average American. Nazario backs up all her information she provides us with, by providing us with facts. She states “I lived with the near-constant danger of being beaten, robbed, or raped” Therefore she literally went through what the immigrants went through themselves. …show more content…
She writes this novel mainly to discuss what kind of problems there are in other countries, like Cuba, Mexico, Honduras, Dominican Republic and many others. People only know about the pretty vacation areas of those types of countries, and don’t really know what the lifestyle and poverty is truly like down there. It informs us about the kind of lifestyles children have, with barely one meal a day, or not even receiving an education like every citizen in the United states is required to take part in. In the novel she talks about Enrique’s Journey and the links he is willing to go through in order to reunite with his mother, and how bad he wants to have a better living environment, with more rights than he does back at
In Richard Rodriguez’s “Proofs,” Mexican immigrant’s destination is described, as well as their perceptions and expectations of America. Rodriguez describes the passage to the United States as difficult, yet worthy. He states: “The city will win. The city will give the children all the village could not- VCR’s, hairstyles, drum beat. The city sings mean songs, dirty songs. But the city will sing the children a great Protestant hymn.You can be anything you want to be.” He also states: “Mexico is poor. But mama says there
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.
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.
Meaning, this book would be perfect to teach students life lessons that are important. Three of the themes that are good life lessons are: family, perseverance and survival, and humanization and dehumanization. All of these are found throughout the whole book which makes them hard to forget. Family is shown throughout the book because when Enrique’s mom leaves, all Enrique wants to do is to be with her. A short summary from Litcharts.com explains why family is such a big theme throughout the whole book. “Enrique’s Journey, as its title indicates, is the non-fiction story of a 17-year-old boy’s struggle to travel across Mexico to the United States to reunite with his mother. The events depicted in the book are set in motion by an initial instance of abandonment: Lourdes’ difficult decision to leave Enrique and his sister Belky in Honduras, while she seeks work in the United States to send money back to her family.” This whole quote shows, even though it was a hard choice for Lourdes, it was the right one because it was to help her family. Another theme that was found in the book that is a good lesson is about perseverance and survival. Survival is a trait everyone has, but this book highlights its importance, especially on the trains. Litcharts.com says, “He gives himself a time limit that shows his perseverance and the gravity of his decision: he will make it to his mother even if it takes a year. Despite the dangerous circumstances jumping trains, facing corrupt policemen, immigration checkpoints and officers, bandits, and gangsters, Enrique persists.” This teaches the readers that it is important to push through every difficulty no matter what, and that it is highly significant to survive to achieve the goal. The last theme that is found in Enrique’s Journey that is a good lesson for readers is dehumanization and humanization. This theme is found
Enrique grows up pretty much an orphan living with his grandmother while his sister is put in a nice caring home. He is constantly being switched around from family to family and due to his drug problems, he is finally kicked out by his aunt for stealing her jewelry to pay off a dealer. The rich get richer and the poor stay the same is something that Enrique came to understand. He knew that in order to get out of this corrupt society he ...
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...
For immigrants, reuniting with parents who left them is a huge problem in the U.S. Children who reunite with their parents after many years have a lot of problems with the parents. The parents and children tend to argue, the children have buried anger, and both have an idealized concept of each other. According to Los Angeles’s Newcomer School, a school for newly arrived immigrants which is referenced in Enrique’s Journey, a bit more than half of want to talk to the counselor about their problems. The main problem Murillo, the school’s counselor, says is mostly family problems. Murillo says that many parent-child meetings are all very similar and identical to each other. Some of the similarities are that idealized notions of each other disappear, children felt bitter before going to the U.S., and that many children have buried rage. Mothers say that the separations between them and child was worth it because of the money earned and the advantages in America. However, many children said that they would rather have less money and food if it meant their mothers would stay with them.
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.
The narrative Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, tells the true story of a young boy’s dangerous path from Mexico to the United States, in hopes of reuniting with his mother. Along Enrique’s trek he sacrifices his safety, well-being, and even the possibility of his life to be with his mother once again. Lourdes, Enrique’s mother, gives up the ultimate sacrifice of missing her children grow up, causing their love and affection they once held for their dear mother to dwindle, all of which so she can provide money and security for her family. Sacrifice is a key theme in this narrative because without the difficult decisions made and the loss the characters so tragically endured, then they would not have been able to reap the reward of a reunited,
Nazario begins her literacy non-fiction by describing the journey of Enrique through Tegucigalpa, Honduras to Laredo, Texas. He faces lots of obstacles throughout the journey like getting robbed by bandits, beaten up by gangs, running away
I believe it is a non-biased view on immigration. Purely because of the various views that are discussed in the book. Enrique is one of the 48,000 Central American and Mexican children who went to the U.S. alone. Many of these young boys and girls are looking for their mothers who have left for El Norte to find work. Central Americans are treated badly. They are not excepted possibly. This is something I am unsure on a 100% because I was unclear on the reasoning.
Enrique represents the assimilated Mexican Americans of the 1940s, who accepted being segregated in the barrios (Spanish-speaking neighborhoods) and who held low-paying, low-status jobs. They were tolerated by the Anglo society as long as they limited their aspirations and kept to themselves. Enrique is perfectly content to keep his nose clean and deal with the circumstances the Anglo community confines him and other Mexican Americans to. Enrique and the rest of Henry’s family influence the part of Henry that strives to become a model citizen and join the
My mother didn’t work, because my father insisted on providing for his family so as a result, there wasn’t much income coming in to the household. I didn’t have much, but after reading this book I soon realized that what little I had was way more than what Enrique grew up with. And not only about the living circumstances, but the salary my dad made was more than what Enrique and his family earned. “The stone hut becomes his home.” (page 32) Having to live in a place with no electricity and sometimes no restroom, I can only imagine is terrible. And not only would living circumstances be terrible, but the scarce food and job opportunity was just as worse. “It may only be beans, but you always have food her.” (page 17) This is what Lourdes’s mother tells her in hopes that she will return despite the poverty they faced. However Lourdes insists she is doing better and stays in America making little money. At one point she isn’t making any money and has to work as a fichera, or another word for it is some type of prostitute. (page 15) Only due time does she actually get back on her feet with help from
The book shows the horrible thoughts and presentation of the culture and society Esperanza, the main protagonist we follow, is surrounded by. “I believe she doesn’t come out because she is afraid to speak English… She only knows eight words.” From the vignette “No Speak English” This is one of the moments that show the silencing of themselves. She “is afraid to speak English” and by not learning the language of the new land she resides in, she silences herself and makes it difficult for her to have a standing in the community and society she lives in. “No speak English, she says to the child who is singing in the language that sounds like tin.” A silenced child who, when older, will be marginalized for his poor English
The problem being described here in this article is that a woman named Alexandra is escaping hate. Alex is running away from her hometown because she is not accepted for who she is. The problem that Michael Snyder (the writer for this article) is trying to get his audience to understand is that the world is full of hatred. How can people be okay with tearing down a person and their dreams? Alexandra has dealt with every kind of hate that is out there. Gangs that were in her hometown raped, beat and robbed Alex while leaving her bloody body out on the street and everyone in town not caring. The important concepts in this article are all the homicide rates are reported by the Honduran government, have declined by nearly 50 percent since their peak in 2011”. (Snyder,