In the annual household survey, conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics earlier this year, it was reported that 84 out of 100 incidents of rape or sexual misconduct were reported by women (FiveThirtyEight). In most cases, when women immigrate to the United States they are either alone or have paid a great deal of money to have a smuggler help them on their journey to reach the US and Mexico border, which means that they are in a situation where they are very vulnerable, which can lead to them getting raped, or even murdered. Throughout the novel “Enrique’s Journey”, Nazario writes about how Enrique witnessed the rape of a seventeen-year-old girl named Wendy while heading to America. She too was immigrating when Chiapas, a gang group, took her. “‘If you scream,’ he says, ‘we cut you to bits.’ Then he rapes her.” (97). Having Nazario write about the gang rape of a young woman immigrating to America has a very powerful effect on the reader because it shows the trauma that thousands of women go through when looking for a better
Enrique’s journey from Honduras to the U.S. unveils the innate loyalty of a loving child to their mother and presents the dangers that a migrant faces on the road with consistent angst; nevertheless, it supports the idea that compassion shown by some strangers can boost the retreating confidence within a person. In Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” he seeks the beacon of light that all migrants hope to encounter; “El Norte.” Like many children before him, it is the answer to the problems of a hard life. While being hunted down “like animals” leading to “seven futile attempts,” he is
Enrique’s Journey written by Sonia Nazario is a work of non-fiction that follows the journey of a young Central American boy to find his mother Lourdes, who left him at the age of five. Before Nazario introduces Enrique she discusses the experiences she put herself through to gain a better understanding of the travels a migrant child and adult go through in their conquest to make it to the United States. While going through the trials that many migrants put themselves through Nazario learns the stories of different migrants and begins her search for a migrant child to bring attention to their story and create awareness about the situation children migrating are enduring to find their mothers in the United States. Nazario traces Enrique’s steps to experience his full journey and to describe the details in depth upon writing about the journey Enrique took to find his mother in the United States.
“On March 20, 2000, he goes to his grandmother Águeda’s house. He stands on the same porch that his mother disappeared from eleven years ago. He hugs Maria Isabel and Aunt Rosa Amelia. Then he steps off” (44).
The hardships one would encounter in their lives have become a part of our society, because they act as stepping stones to build ourselves with trials to reach any higher ground. It’s ready is the best, and worst possible actions we have done to ourselves.
Page 225 of the Afterward asks “Is immigration good for the migrants themselves? Is it good for the countries from which they are migrating? Is it good for the United States and its citizens?” Answer these questions, supporting your answer with information found in the Afterword section of the book.
I can only imagine what immigrating to america is like for these families, everyday children my age and younger are risking their lives to come to America and It really makes me appreciate how much I have. For Lourdes, Enrique, and Maria Isabel in Enrique’s Journey they must make the hard decision of leaving everything they grew up with in Honduras to come to america for a better life. Lourdes, Enrique’s mother, could no longer afford to feed and send her children to school and was struggling to make money with her job. “Lordes can think of only one place that offers hope… Lourdes has decided: She will leave. She will go to the United States, and make money and send it home.” (p.20) Lourdes decides to make the trip because it
Immigration affects families in many different ways. In the book “Enrique’s Journey” by Sonia Nazario, family is a core element. After Enrique’s mother leaves for the U.S., the whole concept of their family gets distorted. The walking out of Enrique’s father and the abandonment of his grandmother help to disband the family even more. Enrique also threatens to repeat the same mistakes his family made with his daughter when he considers leaving her behind in Honduras. Family is the central theme in Enrique’s Journey because of his relationship and resentment with his mother, the rejection of his father and grandmother, and Enrique’s decision to leave his daughter, Jasmin, behind.
Reading Enrique’s Journey emphasized the crime and the need of basic necessities of people in Latin America Countries. The author Sonia Nazario, describes his families’ story and how he struggled to make it to the U.S. People for different reasons make the journey to travel to the U.S. It ranges from finding a love one to wanting a better life. While doing so everyone who dares to go on the journey have different experiences. Men and woman have the hardest journey physically compared to children. They go through many obstacles and sometimes not even make it to the other side. They face many dangers such as
Immigration is a very dangerous and risky journey. Everyday immigrants try so hard to make it to the United States. This journey involves parents trying to support kids back home, families trying to start over, or kids trying to get to their mom; but some do not make it through this hardship. Those individuals, who make it, try like never before to support themselves and the family they needed to leave behind. Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario is a well written novel that uses many pathos, logos, and ethos examples. Each one of them is used effectively because of the way students are persuaded in believing there true. Elements from the quotes can reveal that Sonia is knowledgeable and
Hardships are : test that prove what you really are made of . You’re either a person who succeeds in the attempt or fails. Are you willing to learn from , and overcome problems of everyday life. In life with no struggles their no gain because we learn from our struggles.
According to President Obama (2014), “If we are serious about economic growth, it is time to heed the call of business leaders, labor leaders, faith leaders, and law enforcement- and fix our broken immigration system. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have acted. I know that members of both parties in the House want to do the same” (President Obama, 2014). The United States of American has long been the safe haven for those who seek to escape poverty, hunger, torture, and oppression in their home countries. According to the film, The Other Side of Immigration (2009), in 1970, the United States housed 750,000 immigrants and as of 2009, there are
Each year, thousands of Central American immigrants embark on a dangerous journey from Mexico to the United States. Many of these migrants include young children searching for their mothers who abandoned them. In Enrique’s Journey, former Los Angeles Times reporter, Sonia Nazario, recounts the compelling story of Enrique, a young Honduran boy desperate to reunite with his mother. Thanks to her thorough reporting, Nazario gives readers a vivid and detailed account of the hardships faced by these migrant children.
I never expected Enrique’s Journey to be such a personal work. Being a journalistic book, I expected a lot of research in it, but not to the level Nazario’s gone to. Definitely, the way she introduced herself into the enduring situations that migrants go through when they try to reach the US gave me a new perspective of what to expect from the book. She comes from a migrant family too, so she can sort of relate to the characters in the book. However, as she confesses herself, her journey was nowhere as arduous as what these children go through to find their mothers. And the way in which she involved herself into the situation increases her empathy for Enrique en other numberless children.
Enrique’s Journey focuses and sheds more light and understanding on the aspects and challenges of extreme poverty, family abandonment, systematic issues of an immigration system and what one has to go through in the face of adversity. The book centers on Enrique who starts out as a young boy living in extreme poverty in Honduras with his family. Enrique is an older adolescent, Hispanic, poverty economic status, unemployed most times, and is in a relationship with one child. This case study will further look at Enrique’s personal experiences from a young child up to young adulthood and how that has shaped his development has a person from coming from such difficult environmental circumstances. This will also look at the different environmental perspectives in the micro, mezzo and macro level when pertaining to effects on human behavior.