Sonia Nazario 's ' Enrique 's Journey

According to Jie Zong, Jeanne Batalova, and Jeffrey Hallock, the U.S. has been “the top destination for international migrants since the least 1960, with one fifth of the world’s migrants living there as of 2017.” It is well known to numerous people that hundreds of immigrants travel from all over the world to the United States, but what exactly does it take for many of them to get here? One such author, Sonia Nazario, manages to capture the gruesome journey of one immigrant boy, who like many others, is attempting to make it to the United States. The author reveals the brutal realities and the main reason countless of young children make their way to America. In her novel, Enrique’s Journey, Sonia Nazario utilizes pathos, reputable sources,

Life is like a game of blackjack where we unknowingly are dealt good or bad cards. This unpredictability makes it difficult to gamble decisions. Unfortunately many factors can lead to the bad card where in both the game and life, people are trying to prevent us from achieving the goal. There are two choices to change the outcome however, we may either give up (fold) or we may take a chance (call). The beauty of taking the risk is that if lucky, life gives you that much-needed card. When dealt that winning card, a person is immediately uplifted. That one good hand drives a person to outweigh the pros from the cons and continue to strive for the winning pot or in this case, the goal in life. Enrique in Sonia Nazario’s

Putting food on the table may become a difficult task putting the family at risk for hunger (Martin, 2011).

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.

In the novel Enrique’s Journey, Sonia Nazario demonstrates the onerous journey of illegal immigrants. Sonia Nazario aims for the readers to make them understand what most of the immigrants go through during their journey to the United States. By appealing to ethos and pathos throughout the book, Sonia Nazario portrays the path that Enrique undergoes to reunite with his mother.

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.

And as time passes, the situation isn’t getting any better. Still, dysfunctional factors, such as divorce and abandonment are pushing mothers to look for a way to find a better life for their children. The solution, many people think, is the United States. The number of illegal immigrants is increasing exponentially and though the demand for cheap labor is always high, there is now discontent from legal employees that are losing their jobs to cheap labor. This situation has created more pressure towards the government to fix the immigration issue. However, as aforementioned, it’s not a simple matter of sending people back to their country. The kernel lies in countries, like Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and others that can’t sustain their workers with proper wages and living conditions. Due to the pressures to tighten immigration, the journey only becomes harder. Does it discourage people from engaging in such dangerous trip to the north? Unlikely. From the beginning, the people that go through these journeys hardly care about HOW to get there; they only care about getting there. Hence, immigrants suffer more and more and the real issue isn’t being diminished in the

In the book Enrique’s Journey, author Sonia Nazario, takes us through the journey of a young Honduran boy from Tegucigalpa, named Enrique to find his mother in the United States. She makes us relive his feelings, struggles, and risks throughout the book in order for him to be reunited with his mom.

In Sonia Nazario’s Enrique’s Journey, readers are able to view the undeserved hardships migrants, such as Enrique, undergo, all in search of one thing, freedom. Enrique is a 17 year old Honduran boy, whom was left lonesome when his mother decided to take on a dreadful journey to better her family. After many years without his mom, Enrique goes on a perilous mission in order to reunite with his mother, Lourdes. This expedition involved extremely challenging and life threatening missions, which many migrants face daily. Once they arrive to the United States they realize that leaving their culture and families behind was all for a hostile country in which survival is not definite. Little did they know that living in the U.S would not be stable

I am writing my review on my partners book Enrique’s Journey written by Daniel Foley my partner. I believe that my partners review was written very well and that he also was able to convey his message about the grassroots issues in Central and Southern America. This book takes place in Honduras where the main character Enrique’s mother leaves him in search for a better life and a better future for her child. She leaves them in the hope she will be able to bring him with her and send her family money back in her homeland in Honduras. Daniel explains that often times when a parent leaves their children in search for a better life and money that the kids are left to deal with emotional consequences and anger toward their parent because they have left their children.

Johnson describe the link between Mexico and food insecurity as families immigrate to the United states. The article describes Mexican -Immigrant families who run a higher risk of having hunger at school and at their homes. the families lack resources, education, and proper access to food markets that can help them cope with hunger. Hunger is present in the children of the Mexican immigrant families and puts at high risk the development of children and their future. According to” Sharkey, Dean, and Johnson (2011) “Younger children of Mexican-immigrant families have a greater risk for hunger and household food insecurity”

He brings up a multitude of disputes between poverty, hunger, and even the discrepancy within our fast food nation. Though the topics may be bold, the purpose of it all requires all to listen given the importance dawning on the simplistic idea of how anyone can end up in the exact category of in need (Berg 45). Nonetheless, much more can be expanded upon.

This migration was caused by push factors, which were the deprivation of the economy, as well as pull factors, such as the myth of the American dream. This is supported In Enrique’s Journey, by Sonia Nazario, in which she demonstrates the violence and corruption embedded in Honduras because of constant cycles of war and economic deprivation that limit opportunities, thus a social response is constructing a black market and gangs to pushback the oppressive governments regime. She writes, “Immigrants work hard at jobs no American wants to do, at least not for minimum wage with no health benefits or paid vacation time. Immigrants’ willingness to do certain back breaking jobs at low wages provides goods and services to all Americans at reasonable prices” (pg. 252).” She also notes, “36,000 gangsters in Honduras come from families in which the mother migrated north,” which highlights the systemic issue in which children are left in a corrupt society, while their mothers are forced to leave them for

Failing economies and weak institutions are also to blame; corruption and an inability to enforce the law have left citizens to fend for themselves (UNHCR, 2014). Those most vulnerable, specifically women and children, are targets of extortion, forced gang recruitment, rape, torture, and murder on a regular basis. Yet, many policy makers in the U.S. view the current mass migration as an immigration issue, thusly; the policy debate has centered on border security and enforcement rather than humanitarian need. It is the last resort of desperate parents to send a child on a dangerous overland journey of up to 1,500 miles, often times on foot or freight hopping on deadly trains. To better understand the circumstances that would create such a desperate situation it helps to understand how Central America came to be so violent and poorly governed in the first place.