Sunday Synopsis

Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother by Sonia Nazario
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sonia Nazario does a fabulous job with the account of Enrique including circumstances of his family, home, education, personal life, and his long trek to the United States from Honduras.

Enrique embarks on the journey to be reunited with his mother who had left her starving children 11 years earlier in hopes of making enough money to feed and clothe them or buy them safe passage to the U. S. Seventeen year old Enrique is tired of waiting. He knows that the only choices he has to survive in Honduras will involve drugs, starvation, low economic opportunity, and/or street gangs.

Enrique leaves with his mother's phone number written on a slip of paper and inside the waistband of his pants. Most of the trip is taken by climbing onto moving trains, risking losing life or limb if he is sucked under. He is robbed, hungry, sleep-deprived, beaten, and caught by Mexican policemen along the way, who are almost as corrupt as the gangs. When he is able to sleep, it is in a tree, a clump of grass, or a cemetery. He finds a few people who help along the way without whom he would likely be dead.

I believe you will enjoy this book. It was truly a page-turner. You will see another side of immigration and perhaps understand a little more of the motivation that drives some Central Americans to consider the long, difficult journey to the States. I highly recommend this!

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