The ability to move up north from southern countries of the United States is a really tough experience for all immigrants that want to have a better life. Immigrants tend to struggle in their journey due to checkpoints that tend to give them trouble and the sacrifices they make on the way up north. Humans heading up north usually are stopped by some special enforcement, gangs and cartels that surround the path to the north. A similar event and story due to these types of situations would be the book of Sonia Nazario; Enrique’s Journey, a novel about the journey of a Honduran citizen emigrating north to find his mother. Which also led to many changes in his life with starting a new family of his own and changing his lifestyle. Enrique started …show more content…
Lourdes has had her own experience late back when Enrique was no older than 5 years old. She tends to sacrifice and leave her family behind in order for them to succeed in life themselves. Money is sent to her kids to see them in great shape with enough food, clothing and school supplies so that they can stay in school. Lourdes does not see the suffering of her kids that they are going through because they are not seeing their mother and their father has left them to begin another family. As lourdes has attempted her first journey up north, she tends to succeed to head up north with nothing stopping her. Women tend to have a faster way up north than men. An abundance of women let themselves free to any men that leads her way up north. As women head up north no cartel, mafia or gangster activity stops them towards their way to the United States. On the other hand, Enrique had struggled heading up north with all the checkpoints and failure that led him back to where he started. Not many mexican authorities love having southern countries travel through their country, which gives them the right to send them south of Mexico which is guatemala. Enrique has experience the bus of tears a huge amount of times knowing that men have trouble heading up north. Money and time was spent throughout the journey which still gave him the courage to still try to go see his mother like many other Central
Enrique and many other Central American kids have a hard life. They come to America where they think their mothers will magically solve their problems because their mothers are supposed to be perfect. Enrique and others realize this isn’t true and goes on to accept it. Migrants resent their mothers a little bit, but come to start loving them as the migrants did before their mothers left. Migrants also learn about life lessons on the trains. Migrants learn that people should not be trusted, but not all people are bad. The migrants just have to learn which people are bad and which aren’t. Migrants also learned that you shouldn’t have high expectations of everything and also that you shouldn’t put your problems on one person and expect them to go away. You have to figure life out on your own.
When it comes to analyzing the “banana massacre” scene in chapter 15, I found three narrative techniques the author used to describe this scene. Therefore, one can notice that this part of the book is the climax. As a result, one infers what the author is trying to say about Latin American history and politics.
In both the movie, La Misma Luna, and the newspaper series, Enrique’s Journey, migrants are faced with many issues. The most deadly and scarring issues all relate back to bandits, judicial police, and la migra or Mexican immigration officers. The problems that arise are serious to the point of rape, robbing, and beating. It is not easy crossing the border illegally and secretly, but the successful ones have an interesting or even traumatic story about how it worked for them.
The writing of Secret of the Andes is beautifully, descriptively and simply written by Ann Nolan Clark.
Meaning, this book would be perfect to teach students life lessons that are important. Three of the themes that are good life lessons are: family, perseverance and survival, and humanization and dehumanization. All of these are found throughout the whole book which makes them hard to forget. Family is shown throughout the book because when Enrique’s mom leaves, all Enrique wants to do is to be with her. A short summary from Litcharts.com explains why family is such a big theme throughout the whole book. “Enrique’s Journey, as its title indicates, is the non-fiction story of a 17-year-old boy’s struggle to travel across Mexico to the United States to reunite with his mother. The events depicted in the book are set in motion by an initial instance of abandonment: Lourdes’ difficult decision to leave Enrique and his sister Belky in Honduras, while she seeks work in the United States to send money back to her family.” This whole quote shows, even though it was a hard choice for Lourdes, it was the right one because it was to help her family. Another theme that was found in the book that is a good lesson is about perseverance and survival. Survival is a trait everyone has, but this book highlights its importance, especially on the trains. Litcharts.com says, “He gives himself a time limit that shows his perseverance and the gravity of his decision: he will make it to his mother even if it takes a year. Despite the dangerous circumstances jumping trains, facing corrupt policemen, immigration checkpoints and officers, bandits, and gangsters, Enrique persists.” This teaches the readers that it is important to push through every difficulty no matter what, and that it is highly significant to survive to achieve the goal. The last theme that is found in Enrique’s Journey that is a good lesson for readers is dehumanization and humanization. This theme is found
Enrique grows up pretty much an orphan living with his grandmother while his sister is put in a nice caring home. He is constantly being switched around from family to family and due to his drug problems, he is finally kicked out by his aunt for stealing her jewelry to pay off a dealer. The rich get richer and the poor stay the same is something that Enrique came to understand. He knew that in order to get out of this corrupt society he ...
The push-and-pull factors in Enrique’s yearn for the U.S not only allows him to rediscover himself as an individual in a world of uncertainty, it also eliminates his constant fear of failing as a promising human being; in addition exhibits the undying hope of a desperate man found in hopeful migrants. In Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” his mother’s trip streamed “emptiness” into the heart of a once comfortable child and left him to “struggle” to hold memories they shared. Enrique’s life after Lourdes’ departure triggered the traumatizing demise of his identity. He threw this broken identity away while facing many obstacles, nevertheless each endea...
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.
The Northern and Southern colonies both had an influx of immigration. The Northern colonies’ economic success and religious freedom attracted many immigrants. People like the Germans immigrated to the Northern colonies in hopes of gaining a better economic standing through trade and commerce. “Most were fleeing economic distress, but some, such as the Mennonites, came to Pennsylvania because of William Penn’s policy of religious freedom …”(81). The influx of immigration to the North made the New England and Middle colonies extremely
migrants moved North to escape from Jim Crow and the disgrace in economic opportunities in the South, going North was seen to bring about a better living for individuals and families....
After reading The Book of the Unknown Americans, I realized how difficult immigrating to the United States can be. I am an immigrant also, so just reading the story makes me relate to many problems immigrants experience relocating to a different country. Immigrants often face many issues and difficulties, but for some it is all worth it, but for others there comes a point in time where they have to go back to their hometown. Alma and Arturo Rivera came to the United States to better their life, but also so that Maribel could attend a special education school. While Arturo had a job things had gone well for the family, but once Arturo lost the job and passed away the two of them had to go back because they felt that that was the best option for them. Reading this book made me realize how strong an individual has to be to leave their own country and relocate somewhere else not knowing if this will better your life or cause one to suffer.
Throughout Enrique’s many attempts at successfully making his way by train to the border between the United States and Mexico, he has encountered people who were more concerned with stopping and harming the travelers rather than ensuring their wellbeing. Therefore this imagery during the journey part of the novel helps to provide the reader with the sense that not everyone in Mexico is out to get the people who are trying to obtain a better
On his eighth attempt, Enrique finally makes it to a camp by the Rio Grande. His mother pays a smuggler to bring him safely across the river without being caught by the U.S. border patrol. Finally, he is reunited with his mother whom he hasn't seen in over a decade. His expectation that being with his mother would solve all his problems was soon shattered. Lourdes expects respect for everything she has done for him but is met with only Enriques resentment for leaving him. They fight constantly. Enrique returns to using
The North had confidently been recognized as a manufacturing society. Labor was needed, although not necessarily slave labor. Immigration was an encouragement. Immigrants that were from European regions worked in factories, built the railroads in the North, and developed the West. Very little stayed put in the South.
Most freed slaves were quick to escape their old lives of being slaves. The Urban north offered job opportunities, a fresh start, and endless possibilities. The journey began in the late 1800’s with a man named Tom. Tom was a slave and married Martha, the child of a plantation cook, and plantation owner. The late 1870’s, Tom and Martha were free. The first thing Tom wanted to do was find his siblings because they had all been split up from slavery. This was a really hard task, being that their last names had changed, also due to slavery. Based on Everett Lee’s theory of migration, my family should have motivations for their migration; push and pull factors. The push factors are the reasons why my family left their home land, in this case Mississippi. The pull factors are the reasons why my family wanted to go to the new land, in this case the urban North. Lee’s theory also includes the intervening obstacles of migration, this will be the struggles that Tom and Martha faced while going