Enrique's Journey

by Sonia Nazario

An astonishing story that puts a human face on the ongoing debate about immigration reform in the United States, now updated with a new Epilogue and Afterword, photos of Enrique and his family, an author interview, and more—the definitive edition of a classic of contemporary America   Based on the Los Angeles Times newspaper series that won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for feature writing and another for feature photography, this page-turner about the power of family is a popular text in classrooms and a touchstone for communities across the country to engage in meaningful discussions about this essential American subject.   Enrique’s Journey recounts the unforgettable quest of a Honduran boy looking for his mother, eleven years after she is forced to leave her starving family to find work in the United States. Braving unimaginable peril, often clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains, Enrique travels through hostile worlds full of thugs, bandits, and corrupt cops. But he pushes forward, relying on his wit, courage, hope, and the kindness of strangers. As Isabel Allende “This is a twenty-first-century Odyssey. If you are going to read only one nonfiction book this year, it has to be this one.”  Praise for Enrique’s Journey “Magnificent . . . Enrique’s Journey is about love. It’s about family. It’s about home.”—The Washington Post Book World   “[A] searing report from the immigration frontlines . . . as harrowing as it is heartbreaking.”—People (four stars)   “Stunning . . . As an adventure narrative alone, Enrique’s Journey is a worthy read. . . . Nazario’s impressive piece of reporting [turns] the current immigration controversy from a political story into a personal one.”—Entertainment Weekly   “Gripping and harrowing . . . a story begging to be told.”—The Christian Science Monitor   “[A] prodigious feat of reporting . . . [Sonia Nazario is] amazingly thorough and intrepid.”—Newsday

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Book Club, School, Memoir, Politics, Social Justice

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2005

About the author

Sonia Nazario has written about social issues for more than two decades, most recently as a projects reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She holds the distinctions of winning the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, and of being the youngest writer to be hired by the Wall Street Journal.

She grew up both in Kansas and Argentina. She permanently moved to the U.S. as the Dirty War was happening in Argentina.

She is a graduate of Williams College and holds a master's degree in Latin American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She received an honorary doctorate in 2010 from Mt. St. Mary’s College.

Nazario serves on the advisory boards of the University of North Texas Mayborn Literary Non-fiction Writer's Conference and of Catch the Next, a non-profit working to double the number of Latinos enrolling in college. She is also on the board of Kids In Need of Defense, a non-profit launched by Microsoft and Angelina Jolie to provide pro-bono attorneys to unaccompanied immigrant children.

Reviews

[Brina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This September I will be honoring Hispanic Heritage Month by reading Hispanic authored books across many genres. Although the official month does not begin until September 15, I have a wide, varied lineup of books planned out and decided to get off to an early start. Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother by Sonia Nazario was originally a series of Los Angeles Times articles by the author over a span of five years. Winning the Pulitzer for feature reporting as well as additional awards for her work, Nazario details the complexity of decisions made by Central Americans when they choose to leave home for the luxuries of El Norte.

One morning while preparing for work, Nazario happened to have a poignant conversation with her housekeeper about children. From this talk, Nazario found out that her Honduran native employee had not seen her four children in over ten years since she came to the United States in a search of a better life. Intrigued, the seeds were planted for Nazario to research why Central American women flock to the north, leaving their children behind with relatives, in hope that their children would eventually have a better life than the one left behind. Nazario decided to target a teenager who followed his mother north and investigate the pluses and minuses to life in Honduras and the United States. Her search lead her to seventeen year old Enrique and his mother Lourdes, who had already been in the States for over ten years. After meeting Enrique and Lourdes, the reporter decided to recreate his journey in order to bring to light the dangers of immigrating to the United States.

Honduras is a country of few wealthy and many impoverished with the few controlling most of the nation's wealth. Healthy men leave for the north, leaving a population of women and their children. Most women in Lourdes' situation have little more than a fourth grade education because they are expected to work to help with their families' finances. Once these women come of age, they have few opportunities to work, either making tortillas, selling their crafts, or obtaining menial factory jobs. As a result, they can barely make ends meet and the cycle of poverty repeats itself. Women decide to make a dangerous trip north, hoping that they will have enough money to either bring their children to live with them or to build a better future in Central America. Children like Enrique grow up in the care of relatives and come to resent their parents, and many, when they reach an old enough age, make the same trek north.

Nazario decided to make the trip atop train cars in hopes of showing just how dangerous the journey is for those hoping to immigrate to the United States. She had the luxury of protection from the Mexican authorities as well as the choice to check into a motel at any point along her trip. Enrique and people like him face many dangers: deportation, gangs in both Central America and Northern Mexico, jailing, hunger, and grave injuries at the hands of the trains that they hope will carry them to a better life. The ones who do make it become illegal immigrants. They resent the parents who they hoped to reconnect with in the first place and many only obtain the same menial work they could have had in their native countries. Many teen boys join gangs and girls craving attention become pregnant. All wonder why their parents left them and did not stay in their native countries in the first place.

I found Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother to be a compelling story yet one written like an extended newspaper article rather than well crafted book. The story showed Nazario's skill as a human interest writer as the prose was written in basic sentence structure and read quickly. I felt for a young Enrique who had to grow up without parents yet grew frustrated with him as he made poor life choices leading up to his immigration. The research and facts about immigration ended up being more intriguing than the actual story as Nazario tells about the toll that illegal immigrants and their often times legal children take on American taxpayers. This number continues to rise as immigrants continue to flock to the United States and have children at a higher rate than native born Americans. Although this book is from ten years ago, the topic is as relevant as ever as immigration continues to dominate the headlines. Nazario leaves readers with these thoughts to ponder as she does not wrap up Enrique's story as neatly as she began it, as I rate this story 4 for the subject matter and 2.5 for the writing.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stuff I already knew:
-The US/Mexico border sucks and there are lots of shady people making lots of money off of it.
-People leave their countries and come to the US because they are dirt poor and can't support their families

Stuff I didn't already know but learned from this book:
-The Mexico/Guatemala border sounds like it's even worse than ours... not necessarily in terms of how difficult it is to cross, but rather, in the absolute brutality of the gangs and bandits that prey on migrants...
-Speaking of brutality, I wasn't aware that Mexico even had an immigration police, nor was I aware of the vast amount of Central Americans they deport back to Guatemala, nor the frequency of deportations (8 busloads a day)
-Mexicans treat Central Americans the way Americans treat Mexicans... like dirty foreign trash.
-That being said, I was absolutely overwhelmed by the compassion that some Mexicans show toward the migrants... especially in certain more "radical" churches and from people who live near the railroad tracks. There was one amazing woman who took care of amputees who lots their limbs in accidents (usually while trying to board trains or from falling off trains). I was absolutely blown away by their faith and love for their fellow man.

I also think that the book detailed the psychological effects of family separation... This should definitely be read by lawmakers because I know that any upcoming immigration reform will be based on "family reunification." This book makes an excellent case for that type of reform.

My only complaint is that the writing wasn't particularly amazing, but the plot of the story just about tells itself. I definitely tore through this book and I'm not the fastest reader. READ IT. I think it would explain a lot of things to people who know nothing about why "these people" come to our country... and would hopefully instill a little respect for what they've been through.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book rating: social relevance 5 stars, writing 1 star.

Lourdes, a single mother of 2 children, makes the decision to leave her homeland of Honduras for the United States to support her family. She leaves behind Belky (daughter, 8 years old) and Enrique (son, 5 years old) in the care of two different relatives. Eleven years later, Enrique, sets out to find her. The book details Enriques harrowing 4 month struggle to reunite with his mother. The book details the perils of immigrants from trains, bandits, corrupt local police, INS migra agents (government agents who patrol for illegal immigrants), smugglers (hired men who take illegal immigrants to the US). The book was difficult to read - so much suffering, but highly relevant for today's world. I'm glad I read the book.

There were many things about the book that bothered me. Author was repetitious, ie. she introduces you to Enrique's sister Belky about once every 20 pages. She repeats how dangerous it is to ride trains, riders often loose limbs and sometimes die. This is mentioned in just about every chapter with the author detailing specific full names of victims and locations. The author gives a lot of details about supporting evidence with many facts about the acts of brutality and kindness. This seems to clog up the book. Oddly Enrique is treated the same ... we just learn in a cook-book style what happens to him. Author does not give last names for any family members, does not develop Enrique on a personal level. There could be such richness to this story - but the author does not let us emotionally attach to any individual. Sentences are short and static. Unfortunately this made the reading rather dull.

This book was a part of the University of Wisconsin Go Big Read. Due to the writing style, I feared Sonia Nazario's lecture would be dull as well. I didn't attend the campus lecture.

This web site give an update as to where Enrique and his family are now.
http://www.enriquesjourney.com/family...

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone in the US should read this book in order to understand the dangerous journey that Central American immigrants make in order to work in the US. This is not a book that tries to persuade you to feel one way or another about immigration. It is simply about one boy´s journey through Mexico on top of trains and the perils that surround him. He has many flaws, but a deep desire to reunite with his mother (who immigrated to the US when he was 6) and to send money back home to his family in Honduras. This book reminds us that as much as we speak about immigration in terms of economic costs/benefits, it is ultimately a human issue.

[Liz Murray · Rating 1 out of 5]

I confess I didn't read this the whole way through. I was put off in the prologue when the author says that she hopes Latina mothers in the US with children back home will understand the full consequences of leaving their children behind and make better-informed decisions. Latina mothers understand all too well what the consequences are and insinuating that this book will educate them on the topic is horrifically patronising. No one is making this decision without extreme forethought and distress. The role of the US is not mentioned, I don't think even once, and without an analysis of US intervention in the region the whole story rings hollow. The root causes of northern migration are not addressed, a crucial omission, and I am surprised that an investigative journalist would leave that to the side. Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries would be in a very different situation without US intervention and pillage, and without free trade agreements such as NAFTA.

[Ms. Montaño · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Enrique's Journey" completely challenged my views on immigration and helped me identify the challenges that I face as a teacher. Sonia Nazario begins the book by providing a background of information on the immigration policies of the 80's and 90's. She then takes us to Honduras where a mother is about to leave her children so that she can come to the US and have a better life in order to provide a better life for her children. As the years go by, the mother is faced with the decision to risk her life and return to Honduras to see her children or have them risk their lives attempting to cross the US border. Her children slowly lose the respect and admiration that they had for their mother as they grow up in a country filled with corruption fueled by drug and gang violence. The story then takes us through the hardships of immigration as one of her children takes his chances and leaves Honduras for the US. Enrique's Journey is really the story of hardship and struggle of a family trying to make their dreams come true. Enrique faces the most difficult of circumstances traveling alone through the jungles of Guatemala, El Salvador and then Mexico. He joins thousands of pilgrims making the same journey on top of trains, on foot and all while avoiding the immigration agents, police officers and gang members who torture immigrants during the journey. In his attempts to reach the border, he learns about his own weaknesses, and the difficulties that his own mother faced when she made the journey.
I truly recommend this book to anyone who has ever wanted to learn about the hardships of immigration. This book made me appreciate what my own mother went through when she left her country at the age of 17. I also connected with all of my students and their families who are forced to leave their loved ones and start new lives in a foreign country. I rate it 5 out of 5 stars. A must read for everyone!

[Peter Derk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, I hated it.

It's kind of hard to say that because of the book's subject matter. It makes me feel like I'm saying the subject matter wasn't important. It's sort of like being in a writing class where someone writes a non-fiction piece about a past trauma. It's hard to talk about the problems with the piece without feeling like you're invalidating the events and the person in some way.

That said, hated it. It didn't have so much a narrative as it read like a list, a catalouging of atrocities. The only reason I read it was for a book club, and the only reason I finished it is because I downloaded the audiobook and listened to it at 2X speed on my iPod (which I didn't even know was an option, and now that I do I can't figure out what use that option has other than this exact sort of thing).

Also, it really felt like ten separate pieces of journalism slapped inside a cover.

And finally, I have to say, I'm sort of disappointed in this as the pick for One Book, One Denver. It just feels like the kind of book that these programs always pick. Something that addresses an issue, which I understand. We want people to have something to talk about. On the other hand, it feels like we're trying to force people to read things for information's sake as opposed to reading things that are enjoyable as books on some level. Which is why we still have boring books and textbooks that are virtually unreadable.

I don't know. This book. Three Cups of Tea. These kinds of books just leave me cold.

[John Devlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have notions about the illegal immigrant experience as it relates to America you should read this book.

The book does an excellent job of chronicling the grinding poverty of central america, but conversely shows how the journey to America for a better economic life is fraught with physical peril and surprisingly great family discord. Children feel unloved and left behind and gradually grow to resent parents who've traveled to America.

The immigrants risk death from drug cartels, rape from gangs, maiming from trains, and drowning at the Rio Grande. Thousands fall victim every year.

What is to be Done? Under the veil of sympathy many believe that illegal aliens need to be treated better. I agree. The best thing for these folk would be for the US to build a two tiered fenced system with vehicle abutments and a center access for security personnel. If Mexicans and Central Americans knew they had almost no chance of getting into the US they would stay in their home countries and possibly endeavor to make those places more habitable. Additionally, they would avoid the huge family costs that abandonment creates and of course not undergo the terrible risks that traveling through drug infested, lawless lands brings.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot about illegal immigration from reading Sonia Nazario's Enrique's Journey. Nazario, a distinguished journalist for the Los Angeles Times very much takes a "features" approach in her writing, emphasizing the human stories and motivations that create the statistics.

It certainly makes for a compelling read. Enrique's story starts in Honduras with his mother, Lourdes. Lourdes cannot afford to feed and educate her children, so she leaves for "el norte." Her plan is to work hard, save money, and return home. Things don't go expected: her husband marries another woman, abandons the children of this marriage to his mother, and Enrique comes to deeply resent his mother even while idolizing her. By the time he's 17, his girlfriend is pregnant, he is sniffing glue, and he has been kicked out of several households. Enrique decides to follow in his mother's footsteps. I think it would be fair to say that he feels as though without her love, he will never be complete.

Migrants like Enrique travel by train. Readers from North(ern) America are predisposed to romanticize people that "ride the rails," but it's more dangerous than we might expect. In addition to gangs and bandits, Enrique has to dodge corrupt police officers and, of course, "la migra." (I lost count of how often Enrique was deported from Guatemala before he finally made it to Mexico and started getting deported again.) He is severely beaten at one point as well. Nazario emphasizes that gang rape and decapitation by train wheels are common occurrences. However, Enrique is on a quest to reunite with his mother, and he endures.

It is difficult not to become discouraged while reading about all of the people that prey upon the migrants. However, Nazario highlights several instances in which people, often motivated by Jesus' teachings to care for the poor, demonstrate remarkable charity and self-sacrifice.

It's also disappointing to read that life in America is not all its cracked up to be. Children that do manage to reunite with their mothers soon become disillusioned by many realities. For one, their mothers are not ideal, and they still have to work hard rather than spend time with their parents, which aggravates the children's sense of abandonment and deepens their resentment. The mothers, Nazario explains, are not inclined to apologize, viewing their actions as a sacrifice their children cannot understand. These children often turn to drugs, gangs, or pregnancy to find the love that they feel they are missing.

I'm often frustrated when reading the newspaper by how easily journalists are manipulated into spreading a corporate or political message. Here, Nazario seems to have presented a balanced picture. I couldn't think of anyone that she should have spent more time interviewing, excepting perhaps policy makers. She herself follows in Enrique's footsteps, though with guards and visas. She quite effectively illustrates the hardship of this migration while also pointing out the resources that Americans spend responding to this phenomenon.

In many ways, this makes for an emotional reading experience. To what extent is it informative?

I would have preferred to see more discussion and consideration of Nazario's claims about immigration. She often throws out statistics about immigration, and I found myself often frustrated by the lack of detail or analysis. At times, she seems to use the term "immigrant" to refer to both legal and illegal immigrants, which I think confuses the issue. Nazario's notes are quite transparent in the sense that she explains where her claims come from, but still do not really break down how her sources conflict and compliment each other. Considering that this is not an academic text, perhaps the greatest absence is that there is no section that highlights further reading on this issue.

Ultimately, I found that Enrique's Journey provided a human context for a form of migration that most newspapers outline with statistics. I did find myself thinking that I could understand why so many people would risk so much to travel illegally into the land of the free. And I was impressed by her decision to travel the rails, even if she was guarded.

[Lorena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I live in Oaxaca Mexico, and have lived in Veracruz and Chiapas, three places where refugees pass through from Central America to the north of Mexico, or to the United States. These locations figure prominently in Nazario's amazing book. I read it some years ago, just after I had moved to Mexico. Shortly afterward I visited California and was eating in a big Mexican restaurant in SF. Because I had just recently read "Enrique's Journey" I talked to some of the women who were cleaning off the table and found that all of them were mothers from Central America who were sending money home. It gave me a big pain in my heart.

More than the story of this boy's journey, a child who rode on the top of trains from Guatemala to the US border, it is the story of Sonia Nazario's heroic commitment. She herself took this journey so that she could tell it, and the gripping descriptions of what it's like are unforgettable.

Even though Enrique's experience of losing his mother is common throughout Central America, the tragedy continues. Chidren who thought their mothers would return finally give up and make the dangerous journey themselves to the border. The connection they feel to that mother is so powerful that they believe somehow they will find her once they are on the right side of "la frontera," but they almost never do. Instead they end up on the street, taken as child prostitutes, or adopted by gangs. Highly recommend.

[Sheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a book. It's a report. It's straight forward reporting and I admire her efforts to get the full experience, but the ongoing repetition of the same kind of details to make her point was overkill for the general public.

[Robert Early · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly wanted to love this book. I wanted to get lost in the stories of these immigrants. I wanted to feel emotionally connected to them. I wanted to cry. I wanted to smile. I wanted to feel relief. I wanted to feel SOMETHING! Unfortunately, Enrique’s Journey (2006) falls well short of being considered even mediocre in my opinion.

First off, I don’t want anyone to think I’m some heartless monster. I sympathize with Central and South American people who illegally immigrate to the United States. They’re forced into a lose-lose situation (a catch twenty two in a sense). If they stay in their home countries, they get to be with their loved ones, but they’re unable to provide the necessities of life, such as food, clothing, and shelter. If they enter the U.S. illegally, they’re able to make enough money to send back home to support their families, but they run the risk of never seeing their loved ones again—not to mention the risk of death or injury during the dangerous journey up north.

So you’re probably wondering how I couldn’t enjoy a book with such an interesting and emotionally charged topic. To put it simply, I enjoyed the ideas of the book, but I didn’t enjoy the way the book was presented.

Now, I’ve never read anything else by the author, Sonia Nazario, and I’m sure she’s a wonderful journalist; however, I found her writing completely uninspired in Enrique’s Journey. Like I said, I tried to get into the story, but I found Nazario’s prose uninteresting ad downright boring. Granted, there were a few parts of the book that had me on the edge of my seat—especially when Enrique crosses the Rio Grande—but on the whole, I thought her writing style was too straightforward (for lack of a better term). Take this paragraph from page 237 as an example:
“It is spring 2004. Enrique has been gone for four years. Enrique and María Isabel have not spoken for more than four months, since last Christmas. Enrique calls his sister Belky. Go find María Isabel, he tells her. Tell her she must call me.”

I don’t know anyone who would consider this “good” writing—and this continuous throughout the whole book! I felt as if I were reading Nazario’s initial outline for the story, as if she spewed out all of the things she wanted to say and published it without reworking the syntactic and paragraph structures to create flow and coherence. The story is basically a long list of actions that drone on and on and on and on.

I did enjoy the last section of the book titled Afterword: Women, Children, and the Immigration Debate. Nazario does a thorough job discussing the highly politicized immigration issue in the U.S., and she highlights some troubling, yet thought-provoking statistics—for example, the fact that “nearly half of all Central American children who arrive in the United States after the age of ten don’t graduate from high school.” Unfortunately, this 20-page section of the book does not salvage the other 247 pages.

[Tânia Tanocas · Rating 5 out of 5]

5*
As verdadeiras estrelas estão dentro deste livro, são aquelas que desejam e desafiam todos os perigos para conseguir uma vida minimamente decente... Ou talvez não tão decente quanto esperavam...
Opinião aqui: http://baudatanocas.blogs.sapo.pt/a-o...

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think everybody in the U.S. with an opinion about immigration should read Enrique's Journey.

When Enrique is five years old, his mother leaves Honduras for the U.S. so she can support her children. But for Enrique the separation is unbearable, and when he is sixteen, he goes in search of her. Too poor to afford a smuggler, he travels the way that the poorest of the poor are forced to travel: by jumping onto freight trains headed north. The dangers of traveling this way are real and devastating: hunger, exhaustion, sickness, gangs, bandits, robberies, beatings, murder, rape, maltreatment and extortion by Mexican immigration officials, severe amputation or death from falling off the train, and on and on. For these reasons, some migrants refer to this mode of travel as "The Train of Death."

It's a miracle that anyone survives this trip. To make the situation even more extreme, consider that a significant portion of people traveling the trains are children.

CHILDREN.

The book takes the emotional dangers of family separation as seriously as it does the physical dangers of riding the train, exploring in depth the significant psychological damage that growing up in Latin America with parents in the U.S. causes families.

I really can't sum the book up, I just urge people to read it. One of my favorite things about it was that it broadened the picture from the tight focus that many people in the U.S. have on what happens inside U.S. borders, and zoomed out to incorporate the economic distress that drives migration from Latin America. It also discussed Mexican attitudes towards Central American migrants traveling through Mexico, a dynamic of the Central American immigrant experience that many people in the U.S. are unaware of.

I think one of the most important points to pick up on in the book is that people are willing to risk rape, amputation, and death to get to the United States. I think that should inform how policy makers in the U.S. approach immigration. If migrants want to come to the U.S. in spite of any obstacle, policy makers should be focusing more on improving country conditions in Latin America than on cracking down on undocumented immigrants who have entered our borders. No one wants to leave their family or their home; people leave because they're driven to by economic distress and violence.

If you are interested in this topic or this book, you might also be interested in the documentary Which Way Home, which follows several kids traveling the trains.

[Kressel Housman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Latin American immigration to the U.S. has been much in the news lately, but even though the author researched this book in 2000 and updated it in 2012, I still believe it’s an accurate picture of what goes on now, at least south of the border. Enrique’s mother Lourdes left Honduras when he was five and his sister was seven. She called when she could and sent back money so that the grandmother, caring for the kids, could afford to feed them, pay school fees, and even buy some extras, like soccer balls. But even if Enrique’s life improved materially because of his mother’s choice, he suffered emotionally without her. By the time he became a teenager, he’d gotten into drugs, fathered a child, and then decided to make the exact same trek his mother did: get to America, reunite with her, and send money back to Honduras. Along the way, he is repeatedly robbed and beaten by gang members, starves at times, and is always trying to stay a step ahead of law enforcement. The overall picture is a real rock and a hard place for all who face the choice: stay in Honduras with little hope of raising your kids out of poverty and violence or escape to the United States in an inevitably treacherous journey with no guarantee of a happy ending. And now Trump and Jeff Sessions are doing their darndest to make sure happy endings are less likely for these immigrants than ever.

One of the points made in the book is that experts say that the best way to solve the immigration problem is to improve conditions in the Latin American countries so that people won’t have to leave. Indeed, the only light in this whole dark story came from those church networks who housed and fed migrants on their journey. I’m a big believer in the power of charitable action to mend the world, but it will take law enforcement to protect the people from the rampant gang violence bolstering the drug trade and the corruption that allows it to go on. The solutions will be complex and difficult to execute, but on this I am clear: making life even harder for the Enriques of the world is not the answer.

I recommend this book to all Americans. Whatever laws undocumented immigrants have broken do not merit such harsh punishment, especially in light of the brutal conditions they are trying to escape.

[Book Concierge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Subtitle: The True Story of a Boy Determined to Reunite With His Mother

Journalist Sonia Nazario first met Enrique and his mother, Lourdes, in search of a story. She had originally heard of mothers who leave their children behind from her cleaning lady. Her interest piqued, she sought to document what such a journey entails … for the mother who goes ahead, for the children left behind, for the boy who was determined to travel nearly 2,000 miles alone to find the mother he had not seen for more than a decade.

The book began as a series of articles for The Los Angeles Times newspaper. It was original published for an adult audience. But when I requested it from the library, I received the young adult version.

I’m familiar with the difficulties and challenges faced by these desperate migrants. I’ve read other books (both fiction and nonfiction) that depict these journeys. I’ve seen at least one movie that graphically represents the tale. These young people leave an impossible situation for a dangerous trek across more than one country. Along the way they face beatings, arrest, injury, hunger, thirst, snake bites, and the possibility of being sent back or even killed. But they persist. In Enrique’s case, as for so many others who attempt the journey, it’s because they simply cannot go another day without at least trying to reach their mothers.

It’s plenty horrific, though I’m sure the graphic depictions are toned down because I read the YA version. Their stories are heartbreaking and eye-opening.

I’m glad that Nazario followed Enrique and his mother for several years, so we witness not just the harrowing journey, but the ultimate results of their long separation and attempts at reunion.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book although it read more like a newspaper article than I was anticipating. Having worked with many immigrants from Central America, I found myself amazed at what some of them may have gone through to get to this country, as I had not thought much about the actual process outside of paying smugglers. I was also amazed that the author supposedly did some of the same travels, I have to think she had some sort of protection with her other than papers stating who she was...?

We tend to think of many men coming here to work in order to send money home to their families and I never thought much about the (apparently) large number of women who leave their children for this reason and then are not able to go back for so many different reasons. Other reviews seem to state that Americans should read this book to better understand the issues around illegal immigration but although the book tells of the horrific journey that some people make, I think that readers who are adamantly anti- immigration might say that the book just illustrates another argument against it and may not feel much sympathy for people who knowingly endure such hardship & danger to accomplish an illegal act. I have always been rather sympathetic to the plight of immigrants from these countries so I started the book out already feeling for Enrique but I am not entirely sure what the effect of the story would be on someone in the opposite camp? I do think the author did a good job of presenting the story very factually and trying as best she could not to play on the emotions of the readers. I will be interested to hear what my book group has to say.

[Tonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. I found it to be eye-opening as well as extremely thought provoking. I appreciate Nazario for successfully delivering a heart wrenching and sympathetic account of Enrique's and his family's stories yet still allowing the reader to feel that whichever side of the immigration issue he/she stands, it is ok as long as we realize the true matter is so gray and complicated... in no way black and white and obviously having no short term solutions. The only reason I gave 4 instead of 5 stars is because, like my friend and fellow book clubber Lisa reviewed, the book reads extremely matter-of-factual, and the absence of a more intimate portrayal of the plight of Enrique and his family members leaves me feeling like something was missing from the book. Don't get me wrong - I am thankful for the non-wordiness and ease of reading from the article-like style in which she wrote the book... but I also would have been more satisfied with further delving into the subjects' psyches.

All in all, I highly recommend this book for everyone... and, I think this should be on American high school required reading lists.

[Isabelle✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doesn't feel right to rate someone's life story, but this was incredibly eye-opening.

[Lynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This author should stick to her Pulitzer prize winning journalism. The book is written in the short, choppy manner of a newspaper writer. It is repetitive. It supplies way too many names and places that are not crucial to the crux of the story.
The nonfiction story itself is compelling, but not enough to fill 300 pages. Basically, mothers flee Central America, leaving their children behind because they think they can make a lot of money in the United States. They flee in the name of love: they will send lots of money back to their children and save enough money to bring the children to the US. The mother in this story left her two children when they were preschool age, and twelve years later the boy, Enrique, decides to journey to the United States. (the save-money-to-bring-her-children-to-America plan didn't work out after 12 years and Enrique leaves Honduras with no money, no map and only his mother's telephone number.) Enrique's life in Honduras has fallen apart--he quit school, sniffs glue, and runs with a bad crowd. He feels if he could just get to his mother in North Carolina that his life would be better. It is difficult to set aside the abject poverty that Enrique lives in, but you do want to take the kid and smack him for some of his poor life choices. Anyhow, he tries to sneak to the United States seven different times; on the eighth try he is successful in entering the United States illegally and his mother pays smugglers $1700 to deliver him to North Carolina. There are so many bad guys along the boy's trip that you as a reader almost become immune to the misery these migrants face. (and you can easily forget that they are breaking multiple laws) The author acts like a journalist--she supplies the names and places of everyone she used for research to authenticate the boy's journey. It is too much to sort through to try to remember who/what is significant and who/what is not.
I'm not sure why this book would make a "must read for college" list other than to raise social issues about immigration. It is a nonfiction story. However, it does not hold much literary value, and I prefer books that have both.

Merged review:

This author should stick to her Pulitzer prize winning journalism. The book is written in the short, choppy manner of a newspaper writer. It is repetitive. It supplies way too many names and places that are not crucial to the crux of the story.
The nonfiction story itself is compelling, but not enough to fill 300 pages. Basically, mothers flee Central America, leaving their children behind because they think they can make a lot of money in the United States. They flee in the name of love: they will send lots of money back to their children and save enough money to bring the children to the US. The mother in this story left her two children when they were preschool age, and twelve years later the boy, Enrique, decides to journey to the United States. (the save-money-to-bring-her-children-to-America plan didn't work out after 12 years and Enrique leaves Honduras with no money, no map and only his mother's telephone number.) Enrique's life in Honduras has fallen apart--he quit school, sniffs glue, and runs with a bad crowd. He feels if he could just get to his mother in North Carolina that his life would be better. It is difficult to set aside the abject poverty that Enrique lives in, but you do want to take the kid and smack him for some of his poor life choices. Anyhow, he tries to sneak to the United States seven different times; on the eighth try he is successful in entering the United States illegally and his mother pays smugglers $1700 to deliver him to North Carolina. There are so many bad guys along the boy's trip that you as a reader almost become immune to the misery these migrants face. (and you can easily forget that they are breaking multiple laws) The author acts like a journalist--she supplies the names and places of everyone she used for research to authenticate the boy's journey. It is too much to sort through to try to remember who/what is significant and who/what is not.
I'm not sure why this book would make a "must read for college" list other than to raise social issues about immigration. It is a nonfiction story. However, it does not hold much literary value, and I prefer books that have both.

[Garrett Cash · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would give this no stars if I could. Reading this about this painful odyssey is one in itself. Here's the review I wrote of it a long time ago.

"To start this review, I must mention I had to read this book for school. Had this not been a school assignment my time with Enrique's Journey would have been far more short. Now, I am not your average teenager that can't stand anything a school puts in my hands, and cry and whine throughout the oh-so-horrible task of "reading words." I am actually quite the exact opposite. I have been a reader all my life, and I'm currently sitting with a stack of Hemingway, Dickens, and Austen next to me, which I intend to read, and that has been chosen through my own will. As shocking as it is, I do read books outside of the ones that schools assign. So now that my unique view of reading has been established, I must go on to review this garbage.

(Spoilers throughout)

1. The Writing

Reading Enrique's Journey, I frequently thought to myself how much better the book would have been had it never existed. That instead, it stay a newspaper article, and an article only. For the writing is so non-descriptive and jumpy it makes reading difficult for periods of time longer than five minutes. The book frequently tells me what is there, but never how it is. How should I feel any sorrow for our idiotic protagonist when none of the environments he endures are described in any sort of detail whatsoever? This makes the book far less gripping and realistic than it should have been. How am I supposed to endure this writing style for 300 pages? This is the factor that ultimately decides the book being worth your time, and while it clearly isn't from this fact already there are even more flaws this book unfortunately possesses.

2. A Book of Fools

Enrique's Journey is a 300 page story in which none of our imbecilic characters develop. Enrique is a druggie, and a jerk to his mother. This makes it very difficult to sympathize with him. He also makes several incredibly stupid decisions throughout his journey, which had me raging the entire 300 pages. I could go on and on about the complete disregard for thought in this book, but I think it sums it up that Enrique and Maria start the exact same cycle at the end of the book. It's so sad it's almost comedic; they leave their child in a manner very similar to what we saw with Enrique at the beginning of the book. What were they thinking?

3. Thoroughly Predictable

Could a book get more predictable than this? I knew Avatar was bad in that department, but Enrique succeeds on being more predictable than exactly what time your clock will say in one hour. Just judging on the statistics I knew that the book would lead to Enrique making it to his Mother, getting mad at her, rebelling a little bit, then making up. I did not see the whole "start the cycle over again" thing coming, though.

And to sum it all up, this book is terrible and should be avoided at all costs. I believe it could be greatly improved if written in a different style, but it would still have too many problems to be a truly great read.

[Marcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful story of one child, representative of 48,000 children per year, who leave Central America and Mexico each year in search of their mothers in the United States. Enrique's mom, while she lived in the Honduras, scrubbed laundry in a muddy river for others to make money. She sold tortillas, used clothes, and plantains door-to-door. She sold gum, crackers, and cigarettes on a sidewalk curb. Her husband had left her.

Enrique's mom left her family when he was five to go the the United States to get a better job and send home money so that both of her children would have food, clothes, books, and pencils so that they could be educated. His mom, like so many others in her situation, had every intention of saving money in the United States to send for her children within two years.

Enrique was left for a while with his father, who had started a new family. His stepmother did not want him. His uncle took him in, treated him well, and then was killed. Enrique went to live with his grandmother, but when he started to sniff glue and became an addict, his grandmother threw him out of the house. Enrique's mom, out of loneliness, became pregnant with another daughter, and could never save enough to send for her other two children. Her guilt was enormous.

Enrique, like all other children, did not want money. He wanted his mom. He felt abandoned by his mom, his dad, and his grandmother. He only dreamed, day after day, of leaving and finding his mom. Enrique became a "migrant," escaping through Mexico by jumping from the top of one train to another. Like other migrants from Central America, (Central Americans are considered inferior by Mexicans), corrupt police shake them down for money, gangs of bandits rob them, rape women, and kill migrants randomly. So many migrants lose their limbs by jumping from train to train. When migrants are caught, they are sent back to their starting place. Enrique tried to escape many times, each time getting wiser, trying to stay safer on his journeys. He was robbed and beaten, almost left for dead.

This is not a story for the faint hearted. There are, however, good people from the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Veracruz, who throw food, drinks, and clothing to the migrants as their trains pass. There are a few priests who help feed and shelter migrants. Olga, who should be recognized publicly for her heroism, brings migrants to her home, feeds them, and helps those who lost their limbs, heal. She raises money to give the limbless prosthetics.

Once children finally make it and find their moms, by paying "coyotes" money to transport them across the river and keep them safe until they cross into Texas, or other U.S. parts, the "love" they have stored for so long turns to resentment towards the mom. She left. Children were abandoned. The words and actions of the abandoned are hurtful once the reunion has occurred.

I applaud Sonia Nazario for "becoming" one of the migrants to experience their plight and pain. Enrique was her choice, the boy to follow, on his quest to find his mom. He was successful, but at what cost?

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

With tireless reporting--the notes on sourcing are more than twenty pages--Sonia Nazario took up in "Enrique's Journey" the story of one of the Central American youths who travel through Mexico. Enrique is an Honduran teenager whose mother left for better prospects in the United States when he was five. She was ahead of her time; the U.S. Border Patrol has reported approximately 1.8 million apprehensions of unaccompanied children (under the age of 18) from October 2012 through April of this year. Enrique himself was not apprehended, making it across Mexico largely on the roof of a train called "the Beast", running from gangsters and the migration authorities of two countries, eventually crossing with a coyote. Nazario largely lets Enrique and his family tell the story but she does not shy away from the larger implications, including United States support for repressive regimes that have done little to relieve endemic poverty; many of the gangs that now oppress El Salvador and Honduras learned their trade on the streets of Los Angeles, from which they have been deported. The most powerful sections of the book are those that treat this as a human story, not a political one. At least in the days when Enrique crossed Mexico, Chiapas was fierce in deadly, but in Oaxaca and Veracruz, villagers who are themselves poor routinely throw clothing and food to the migrants on the top of the train. The story of the families split apart by migration are harrowing; children are abandoned by parents who find it hard to send money out of their small, sometimes erratic, paychecks. The absent mothers and abandoned children constantly examine their decisions, not always convinced that the emotional cost to the family is too high a price. Living in very crowded apartments, discriminated against in stores and by employers, victims of swindlers who promise a green card, they long for a Honduras, regardless of the poverty. But the pull is great; Enrique himself, at 17, left a girlfriend and daughter behind. And that is perhaps the unstated element: these are families mostly headed by single parents or grandparents; whether it is the modern economy or a decaying social fabric or crime--one of Enrique's uncles is murdered while transporting money--these are families already fracturing without the departure of caregivers. Americans tend to think of migration as statistics, as a threat or a measure of the failure of the Border Patrol and Latin American governments and economies. Nazario finds the tragedy behind the dry newspaper prose or hot cable and web rhetoric, the people. I know they exist; I have met them in courthouses here in Texas: the mother reunited with a daughter conceived in a rape by her half-brother; the girl with a medical condition, trim and lovely, which means that at home the gangsters will be after her; the boy who told me that when he graduates from high school he wants to be a policeman because he believes laws should be respected. Every migration is a hunger for better and at the same time a great loss. Enrique is just one boy, lucky to have his story told in a best-seller; there are many, many more.

[Kimberly Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give this book 3.5 stars.

EVERY American needs to read this book! Journalist Sonia Nazario has done an incredible job illuminating a huge problem in the world that most Americans know virtually nothing about. There are hundreds of thousands of Central Americans, many are little children, riding the trains, a kind of "super highway" up through Guatemala and Mexico to seek a better life in the United States.

Her writing style reads exactly like what I imagine her installments for the LA Times must have been... that journalistic, unemotional play by play of the facts, somewhat repetitive at times (to remind the reader of the most horrifying dangers from the last installment? Or to show how PERVASIVE a problem it is when people fall from a moving train and end up losing a limb as they fall and are run over on the tracks?). And yet it doesn't matter WHAT the writing style is. It's still a horrifying situation, full of heartbreak from every angle, and the material should be read by EVERYONE, regardless on where they stand politically on the immigration reform issue.

It was hard to learn that single mothers, and parents not making it financially in countries like Honduras, have to make such a gut wrenching decision to leave their children behind to try to make a better life. It never is a quick fix, either. They can't return as quickly as promised, or send for their children as soon as they had imagined. So there are all these children who long for their parents, who feel abandoned and neglected, who get into drugs or gangs a lot of the time, and make their countries of origin even worse. Many of these kids strike out on their own, running away to ride the trains to America to find their mothers.

The journey is so dangerous. No officials, police, or border patrol are to be trusted. They are often as crooked as the bandits and gangs who rob and rape, murder and pillage along the route. It was disheartening to read how many take advantage of the already destitute travelers. This is a brutal journey, and young little children are taking it. Many are murdered, die of train accidents, or disappear because of kidnappings. For every person that actually makes it into Texas, 8 busloads A DAY of people are caught along the way and deported back to Honduras. And yet there are some good people along the way, the kind people of Veracruz who throw food onto the train, nuns and especially an eccentric priest in Nuevo Laredo who sees the worth of a soul and does what he can to help the poor, desperate people. It made me want to send him money on a regular basis, knowing that he would put it to good use to ease suffering.

This book will haunt me for a long time. I want to DO SOMETHING about it.

[Melissa Barbier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enrique's Journey is a heartbreaking story about the realities of immigrants. It helps the reader learn about the how and why immigrants come to a country illegally. I was left wondering more about the immigration process and how immigrants could go through the process legally. I was also left wondering why Enrique and his family do not seem to start the legal process of becoming a citizen and I wanted to know why and what was stopping them. I sincerely wonder what the process is like and how it can be fixed in order to help immigrants become legal citizens so that they do not have to hide from police officers every day of their lives for fear of deportation. I enjoyed reading about Enrique's hardships and victories as well as those of his family. It was intriguing to hear different views of immigration from his different family members. At the end, the author tells a little more on the different views on illegal immigration and the reasoning behind those views which is helpful to understand the issue from all point of view. I also found it interesting that those living in Honduras say that the horrible journey to cross the borders would not be necessary if there were just enough jobs that paid enough money to live above the poverty line.
I also finished the book wondering what the differences are between the version adapted for younger readers and the original book. I have seen many poor reviews for the writing of this book and wonder if it is because the readers do not realize there is a version for younger readers as well as another version.
I read this book on the kindle, but checked it out from the library as well to see if there were any pictures. There are a few pages of actual photographs of Enrique and his family members which make the story that much more personable.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY, by Sonia Nazario

HEART-WRENCHING. EYE-OPENING.

"Gripping, heroic and important, 'Enrique's Journey' captures the heart. Most Americans or their forebears came to the United States from other countries. They experienced difficult journeys and wrenching family separations—all in the hope of finding a better life in this new land. Enrique's story is 'our' story, beautifully told."—Edward James Olmos, page 229

"She [Enrique's mother] left for the United States out of love. She hoped she could provide her children an escape from their grinding poverty, a chance to attend school beyond the sixth grade."—page 7

Edward James Olmos, quoted above, says it far better than I could. Migrant stories are quite often not affirmative and uplifting; more often they are filled with hardship, heartache, sorrow, and grief. ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY, by Sonia Nazario, offers up all that plus an up close and personal perspective on how harrowing the migration experience can really be. It could help make some of us third- and forth-generation folks more appreciative of our great good fortune; and of the costs at which it might have come.

Recommendation: 'Entertainment Weekly' says, "...turn[s] the current immigration controversy from a political story into a personal one"—page 229.

ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY is a 'should-read' for concerned folks of every political stripe. Young people, most especially. Read also: ACROSS A HUNDRED MOUNTAINS, by Reyna Grande.

"Many Americans understand that being born in the United States, with all the opportunities that entails, is a matter or serendipity. They are happy to share a bounty few countries possess."—page 193

NOOKbook edition, 231 pages

[Caz Margenau · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an important story to read, a unflattering true story that is truly one of so many millions of true stories that have been left untold about the secret underclass of illegal immigrants in the country. It's hard to knock such an important book, and I am glad that it's success means that it has reached the wide audience necessary to begin a true awareness. But Nazario is not a natural storyteller, and though the excitement of the journey practically writes itself, once Enrique finds his mother and is in the U.S., the story goes flat. True, Nazario could be emphasizing the sad and benignly tragic end to a romantic journey. The final portion of the book is unsatisfying, it's frustrating. Rather than feeling so much empathy for his situation, instead Enrique, the supposed hero, turns out to be weak, immature and irrational. He's human after all, but after building him up as the brave, ambitious hero, it is difficult to praise him in the end as just being a flawed every man.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars. But, everybody in the US should read this book. I don't believe there is a competitor out there. I thought after 6 years of immigrant rights work that I knew something about the risks of getting to the US from Central America. I didn't. It drives home the violence of our failure to achieve amnesty, again, making it now 22 years since the last time folks were given the opportunity to come out of the shhadows, visit their families, travel home or north without risking their lives.
But...this book should have been written by Alma Guillermoprieto. I think that about most books. Certainly anything involving Latin America. Her writing results in a tighter weave of arguments and lived realities and her research grounds you in just what you need to know.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Enrique’s Journey, author Sonia Nazario details the true experiences of a young Honduran boy as he attempts to cross the border into the United States to reunite with his mother, Lourdes. In an effort to escape extreme poverty and starvation, and to provide a better life for her two young children, Lourdes, a single mother, decided to leave Honduras and try to find work in the U.S. She left her children with relatives and promised to return in a few years. Eleven years later, Enrique found himself separated from his sister,lonely, and neglected. He yearned for the love and attention that only his mother could provide. Nazario’s documentation of the journey Enrique undertook will shock and sadden the reader. The plight of thousands of children and young adults who hope to find their parent(s) in the United States is beyond imagining. Children who do succeed in reaching the U.S. often find the adjustment to life here difficult. This book is an eye opener. It provides the reader with a compassionate view of the reasons that people strive to come to the United States. It also reveals the issues that our state and local governments must face in the wake of unprecedented illegal immigration. Enrique’s Journey is the One Book One Denver choice for 2012. It’s not an easy read, but it can give readers an understanding of this very important issue.

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book.

Sonia Nazario presents the story of a mother who leaves her family in Honduras to enter the US illegally in order to make money for them to go to school and eat. She thinks she will only be gone a year. After many years, her son, Enrique, now 15, decides to make the extremely dangerous journey to find his mother. After several attempts and near death experiences (he was very lucky to not die), he finally is reunited with his mom. However, reunification is fraught with difficulties. Nazario is a reporter and is extremely fair and honest in her portrayal of illegal immigrant families and the consequences that surround their decisions. She actually went to Mexico and retraced Enrique's (and tens of thousands of other children's) journey. Nazario treats everyone in this book with dignity and fairness, and it really made me think.