Starting a new life is very problematic for many Central American children that migrate to the United States. There are a lot of difficulties involved in the process to migrate to the United States including the journey to get there. An extremely common way to migrate is by train. Migrants usually take away many life lessons from the journey to the United States such as the generosity and assistance from fellow Central Americans. On the other hand there’s extreme hardships. For example, the many robberies, and gang violence a migrant can face on the journey to the United States. During the trip, migrants learn that they usually cannot take things for granted, especially how scarce food, supplies, and other necessities are. Enrique, someone …show more content…
Properly boarding a train is very important because it could mean life or death for migrants. Trains can usually go to a top speed of 25 MPH which a dangerously fast speed if you are trying to board a train. The way Enrique climbs a train is by holding on to the ladder at the front of the car and then climbing it. If he fails on his first attempt, he can still use a few seconds to his advantage by moving his body away from rails which, if the wheels catch up, can take a limb from your body. Once, in chapter 3, Enrique fell off the train and his right shin was bleeding, his lip was split, his face was swollen. His eyes were also red with blood filling up. A man named Gomez helped him by calling the mayor which took him to the …show more content…
Enrique is now unemployed and even worse, he is back to doing drugs. Lourdes helped Enrique and Maria Isabel by letting them move into her house. When Enrique moved in with Lourdes, he cut back his drug use, but didn’t full quit. Lourdes reminds Enrique of his daughter, Jasmin, who he is supposed to be a role model for. She also tells Enrique that he could lose Maria Isabel in any moment of his life if he doesn’t quit drugs. Yet, they are still loving with each other. They do not resent each other
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 ...
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.
One day, my parents talked to my brothers and me about moving to United States. The idea upset me, and I started to think about my life in Mexico. Everything I knew—my friends, family, and school for the past twenty years—was going to change. My father left first to find a decent job, an apartment. It was a great idea because when we arrived to the United States, we didn’t have problems.
Except it is Maria Isabel who leave their baby Katherine Jasmine behind with Maria Isabel’s aunt. I believe that the author ended her book this way to show that the efforts of the U.S. to stanch the flow of immigration, both in terms of the harm it does to humans and its futility. “When we build 700 miles of fence, honestly, we do not understand this kind of determination,” she said. Sonia Nazario also believes that mothers make mistakes especially in the eyes of their children when they leave them behind in order to give their children a better life. She also believes the best way out is to put resources and policies toward the goal of improving those circumstances in the countries of where all these undocumented immigrants originated
She must go. She can’t seem to support her son otherwise. With tears in her eyes, she bids goodbye and departs for the United States. Now, every Sunday, her son runs to the payphone, anxious to hear his mother’s comforting voice. But despite the weekly phone calls and toys he gets in the mail, he knows something is missing - his mother’s presence. Parental separation in this example, clearly is harmful to their relationship. Similarly, separation of parent to child, in the nonfiction novel Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, is clearly a key theme. After leaving Enrique at age five, the relationship between Enrique and his mother, Lourdes, is not the same. Enrique’s separation from his mother eventually leads him to going on a journey to reunite
These two stories are incredible, each of their journeys are different and yet have the same outcome, the “American Dream.” They came to improve their lives to better their futures and make something out of their lives and their families’ lives. Today more and more children are passing the Mexican and United States border from Central America in order to meet their parents on the other side and are doing it alone. The government does not know what to do, whether to leave them or deport them back to where they were running from in the first place.
The novel Enrique’s Journey is about love and about family. When we first start reading the book we see in the first chapter a young mother talking to her son. The mother of the child will not look him in his face. The little boy Enrique has no idea of where his mother is going. The little boy feels lost without his mother. The mother of the little boy want even let no one bathe or feed her child. Little Enrique loves his mother so much, without his mother he is so shy. In the novel Enrique journey we see a variety of push and pull factors which are clarified in the prologue and chapter 1 of the novel. The novel shows the story of a young boy dangerous journey to reunite with his mother which he has not seen in years. In the prologue we
In Enrique’s Journey, Nazario states her opinion on illegal immigration explaining that the solution is to provide humanitarian aid to those countries overrun by gangs. Nazario believes that the way to help the children and adults coming over illegally is to provide aid to Central American countries. In her Ted Talk, she states, “...the U.S. is helping bring a new strategy that cuts violence in Central America” (TEDxTalks). This explains that she does not support open borders, but the strategy the U.S. to cut down violence. Cutting down the violence in these countries will keep the children and adults who are running away from the violence in their homelands. Their lives won’t be threatened every day, and they won’t feel the need to flee to
In The Bean Trees, Estevan and Esperanza are a young Guatemalan couple who fled their home country for a better life. They were both in danger in the country because of their affiliation with the teacher’s union and the secretive information they know. Both Esperanza and Estevan were ripped away from their daughter and other loved ones. “‘We have no children,’ Estevan said. Esperanza looked as though she had been slapped across the face.” (Kingsolver, ch.7) After her own daughter and brother was ripped away from her, she was forced into a catatonic stage. She wasn’t able to enjoy her new found freedom and safety in the U.S. Alejandro, a boy whose experience is talked about in the article “Fleeing Violence in Honduras, a Teenage boy seeks Asylum in Brooklyn,” is another example of past traumatic experiences affecting his experience in a new country. Alejandro was a fifteen year old boy who decided to make the treacherous journey to America in search of a better life for both him and his brother Jeffrey. In Alejandro’s home country, San Pedro Sula, Honduras, gang violence is a huge problem, especially when it comes to teens. Gangs will often create massacres, rape young girls, and recruit young teens with the options of join, or be tortured and/or executed. After a news report saying that “unaccompanied minors” will be allowed into the country, the two young brothers set out
Specifically, one of those was the insecurity felt by the children as they traveled through Mexico. At one point in the film, the boys talked about how they were robbed and abused by Mexican authorities. One of them spoke briefly about how it took several Mexican officials to take his watch off his arm, because he refused to hand it over. This issue leads back to one that was described earlier in this paper, the influence organized crime has on the Mexican government. The major issue that was cited in this documentary however, is the growing number of unaccompanied children traveling to the United States. This issue has two sides to it, the social side and the political side. The first side of this issue starts at the home country of each of these children. Their government is not able or not willing to help them, and as a result they live in poverty and without access the basic human needs; water, food, shelter. This leads the children to want better for themselves and ultimately to take the decision to travel to the U.S. On the political side, the unaccompanied children are causing Mexico and the United States to spend more money on Immigration. This because they have to create more detention centers for minors, they have to house and feed them until they are deported to their country of origin. Throughout the film these issues are put into the perspective of the children. The reason the directors did this, was to show the challenges the children face as they made their journey. The reason they used that perspective is because it is a unique one. It is not every day that you hear about a 12 year old who traveled across Mexico and into the United States
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
In The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail, Oscar Martinez comments on the injustices that occur while migrating from Central America. Central Americans are forced to leave their countries in fear of the inevitable consequences. The systematic abuse Central Americans endure while migrating is founded on that fear which results in more repercussions for migrants. The psychological effects of migrating is used by Martinez to give insight on the atrocities that happen in Central America. The corruption involved while migrating in Central America is against human rights and should be brought immediate attention internationally. Martinez uses the experiences of migrants to expose Mexico’s passivity on the subject and to expose readers’ to the hard truths that occur while migrating.
The narrative Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, tells the true story of a young boy’s dangerous path from Mexico to the United States, in hopes of reuniting with his mother. Along Enrique’s trek he sacrifices his safety, well-being, and even the possibility of his life to be with his mother once again. Lourdes, Enrique’s mother, gives up the ultimate sacrifice of missing her children grow up, causing their love and affection they once held for their dear mother to dwindle, all of which so she can provide money and security for her family. Sacrifice is a key theme in this narrative because without the difficult decisions made and the loss the characters so tragically endured, then they would not have been able to reap the reward of a reunited,
In 1975, my mother’s parents had gone to America to try to find a stable job so they could later bring their children, to live a happier life since most of Mexico believed that America was where you
The mother in the story a nameless figure with very little description and almost no voice what so ever. She is a bitter reminder of how society views some woman. They are seen as a permanent stature of a home but not necessarily a figure in society. The kids both very loud and annoying portray a selfish, rude, an almost ignorant way of society such as Jo...