In chapter two of the book Enrique’s Journey, Enrique has made a total of seven attempts trying to cross the borders. In the first attempt, la migra caught Enrique and his friend, Jose del Carmen Bustamante, while they were riding the train from Honduras and to Veracruz in Central Mexico. They got sent back to Guatemala on El Bus de Lagrimas, the Bus of Tears. In the second attempt, Enrique traveled alone and got caught by the police. They, once again, put him on the bus and sent him back to Guatemala. In the third attempt, the Mexican police robbed Enrique while he was sleeping in an empty house near Chahuites and turned him over to la migra, who sent him back to Guatemala. In the fourth attempt, the police caught him in Tapachula, Mexico
I predict that the author will explore the human rights issue of Immigration Laws and the plight of illegal aliens in the United States. I believe that this issue will be important in the story because Enrique the main character in the story is very driven to find his mother who has gone herself illegally to the United States to earn money to provide an education for her children and to better the life of her family.
Nathalie Diaz’s poems “How to Go to Dinner with a Brother on Drug” and “ My Brother at 3 A.M” point out how drug and alcohol abuse cause stress and problems over a family. Diaz explains the struggle that her family has to be through because of her brother addiction. Diaz’s poems show her life and the struggle she needs to experience such as drug addiction, violence, and poverty.
Under the Same Moon (2007) directed by Patricia Riggen is centered around a nine-old-boy, Carlitos, who is trying to find his mother, Rosario, who is in Los Angeles, California. Rosario illegally immigrated to the United States in hopes of a better life for herself and her son. She left Carlitos with her grandmother in Mexico in hopes that he would be safer there and could eventually come over with her. However, after her grandmother dies Carlitos, who wants to escape his tyrannical aunt and uncle, finds two transporters that illegally take him across the border. After he makes it across Carlitos is separated from the transporters and is eventually helped by Enrique who takes him to Los Angeles where they search for the payphone that Rosario used to call Carlitos at 10 a.m every Sunday. After a run-in with the cops, Enrique is arrested, but Carlitos gets away and finds his mother at the payphone she described to him during one of their calls. The film is focused on Carlitos’ travel, but now that he is in a new country with little knowledge about it we should know how to teach a child with his background better English. In reality, Carlitos would know little to no English and one the best ways for him to learn English would be through the language-based theory of learning with a focus on the communicative approach and zone of proximal development.
As a child, he is burdened with worry for his mother because she is not near him for many formidable years of his life. He is troubled by a perceived lack of love from his father, grandmother, and many members of his family still residing in Honduras. Enrique experiences the pressures of living within a low economic status when Lourdes is unable to send a sufficient amount of money for his livelihood. In later years, Enrique uses drug use as a coping mechanism and cannot release the stronghold that drugs have in his life so much so that he still uses drugs today. Enrique is also plagued with the increasing violence in his area. He describes how he is afraid if his drug dealer because he is known to have .57 magnum (Nazario, 2007, 2014). Because of the absence of Lourdes, Enrique has bouts where he is angry at Lourdes and treats her in an aggressive manner “Lourdes Pineda at Eckerd College” (Nazario, 2016).
In Central America, some parents leave their children, and set out a journey to the United States in hopes of making a better life for them. Throughout the years, the children who are left behind eventually go on a journey to be reunited with their family. On the journey, the children acquire many character traits and skills that ultimately make them grow as a person. In the book by Sonia Nazario titled Enrique’s Journey, author Nazario writes about Enrique, a young Honduran boy, who goes on a long and strenuous trip to find his mother. In the article “Desperate Voyagers,” by Ioan Grillo, it talks on the subject of children fleeing their country due to gang violence. The majority of the children who have crossed into the U.S are usually reunited
The stories “Abuela Invents the Zero” and “A Celebration of Grandfathers” follow the past of a very nice, thoughtful man by the name of Rudolfo Anaya, and the present day of a rude, unthoughtful girl by the name of Constancia. Both of these stories give very different points of views in terms of character personality and respect towards their elders.
In the short stories, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “Wildwood” by Junot Diaz, there are a similar type of theme and main character. Both short stories utilize a theme of freedom and a main character that goes along with the theme. The main character is one that is “held back” and wants to have freedom, but there is an antagonist that is preventing that from happening. However, towards the end of the story, there is a plot twist and change in the mindset of the main character.
“In spite of everything, Enrique has failed again - he will not reach the United States this time, either. He tells himself over and over that he’ll just have to try again.”- page 60
She does this by being very detailed in her documentation of Enrique’s journey which allows the audience to see the more trivial things that end up building to the extreme situation that Enrique was eventually thrown into. The smaller ordeals that Nazario cites portrays Enrique’s life in a more relatable way in which others can see the positive and negative effects that family relationships can have in the coming of age process. Through this relatability, the audience is able to establish a connection with Enrique’s life which allows Nazario to emphasize how family relationships can have both positive and negative effects on someone during the coming of age period. Nazario makes this connection when she documents Belky stating, “On Mother’s Day, Belky cries quietly, alone in her room. She struggles through the celebrations at school. Then she scolds herself. She should thank her mother for leaving,” (p. 24) from which Nazario takes a severe circumstance of Belky not seeing her mother and making it relatable by showing Belky’s guilt for feeling resentment toward her mother when her mother is making grave sacrifices to care for
While reading Enrique’s Journey, written by Sonia Nazario, a lot of themes were brought out throughout the book that served different meaning in Enrique’s story. The theme that stood out to me, was his journey because Enrique traveled all the way from Honduras to find his mom, who stayed in the United States. There are times in the book when he falls victim to his own shortcomings: doing drugs, tantalizing his mother, mismanaging his finances. He is ready to take yet another journey, this time marked by responsibility instead of adolescent rebellion and resentment. However, Enrique's journey is not only physical, but also mental as he grows from a boy to a man. The physical aspect of his journey challenges his body, as seen during his recovery
I, Karina Rodriguez, I’m a family friend from the Perez Since 2001, Ana Cristina Perez has devote her whole life for her children providing them with love, food, shelter, medicine, and tuition payment for Arturo’s education. The divorce was hard on him, but thanks to the unconditional love and support that his other provides, he is be able to move on with a normal teenage live. Even though his is older than 18 years old, he needs to moral and mental support that his mother provides on everyday activities; economically speaking, he does not pay for food or rent while living with is mother, she pays for his cell phone, cable, and also helps with some his school expenses for materials and project. The family bound in between the Perez family is
A story Enrique 's Journey written by Sonia Nazario is a book about a boy on his Journey to the united states. On Enrique’s Journey, he comes to a point where he has to make a tough decision between staying in the united states and going back to Honduras. Enriques dilemma is that he has just as many reasons to go back to Honduras as he does to stay in the united states. One example of Enrique wanting to stay in the United States seen when Enrique finally sees his mother “ He Jumps squarely onto the bed next to her he gives her a hug then a kiss“ (Nazario 190). Enrique wants to stay in the united states because of many reasons because there’s better job’s, less gang’s, better pay, fewer drugs, has a stepsister Diana and his mother in the united
Estrella appears to be a child from a different country who has moved with her family to
Disagreements brought among two can greatly cause an uncertain effect on those surrounded by them, as well as each other. Innocent minded children are targeted to be easily influenced. That is until that child starts becoming experienced and learns to lead his own path perpetually discovering his autonomy. Gabriel and Maria, a dissimilar couple introduced from Rudolfo Anaya’s “Bless Me, Ultima”, presents a conflicting environment on those having to deal with their differing ideal beliefs. Maria, a Luna, daughter of a farmer, peaceful and quiet like the moon. Gabriel, a vaquero, who exposes the love of the llano, expresses his way of life and freedom. Their kids, three eldest sons, two daughters, and youngest son Antonio, the protagonist, become