Enrique's Journey

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.

Like many other migrants, Enrique had many troubles with his mother too. When Enrique first arrived to the U.S., Enrique and his mother’s relationship was going well. Lourdes was proud of Enrique for finding a job as a painter and sander. Lourdes would always brag to her friends that Enrique is her son and that he’s big and a miracle. However, Enrique starts going to a pool hall without asking Lourdes’s permission which makes her upset. Enrique often yells obscenities and mother tells him not to, but Enrique tells Lourdes that nobody can change who he is.

A few weeks later after Enrique arrives, there was a phone call from Maria Isabel which not picked ...

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...e mothers didn’t call the children for a day or maybe a week. Even if something came up for the mothers, the children wouldn’t know this and would feel as if their mothers forgot about them. The children also would not feel loved by their mother anymore. This downside works both ways too. The mothers would feel that the children have moved on from their mothers and don’t need them anymore. They would, like the children, feel unloved and forgotten. Another drawback would be not having enough time. The children would have school and the mothers would have a job and different kids to attend to. With this downside, the children and mother would become strangers once again which is something the plan is not intended to do. The plan would still be worth it because the mother and child are communicating sometimes or maybe even often which is better than not doing it at all.