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Enrique's Journey Summary & Study Guide

Enrique's Journey Summary & Study Guide Description

Enrique's Journey is a tale of risk, courage, love and danger. Enrique's mother, Lourdes, leaves him and his sister, Belky, behind in Honduras in order to go to the United States. Lourdes leaves her children because she needs to make money to feed them and allow them to finish school.

Over the next several years, Enrique bounces from relative to relative. He begins sniffing glue and finds a girlfriend, Maria Isabel, who eventually gives birth to a daughter, Jasmin. All the while, Enrique dreams of following his mother to the United States. He loves her and misses her and he feels abandoned. Finally, at 17 years old, Enrique leaves Honduras to travel across Mexico on top of trains. Aside from the risks of jumping onto and off of moving trains, Enrique comes up against gangsters, bandits and corrupt law enforcement officials. Along the way, gang members beat him and he goes through periods of not being able to find enough food. He's deported several times across the Mexican border, but every time, he tries again.

Finally, Enrique makes it to Nuevo Laredo, which sits on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. He can see Texas across the river -- as well as American immigration agents who will send him right back to Mexico if they catch him crossing illegally into the United States.

Enrique lives in Nuevo Laredo for weeks and works washing cars to earn enough money to contact his family in Honduras. He's lost his mother's phone number and has no way to find her without it. When he finally reaches his mother, she arranges to pay a smuggler to get Enrique to Orlando, Florida, where her boyfriend picks him up and drives him back to his and Lourdes' home in North Carolina.

During her years in the United States, Lourdes has given birth to a third child with a man who has since disappeared. She's moved from Los Angeles to North Carolina and she lives with her boyfriend, daughter Diana and six others in a trailer. Enrique and his mother are happy to see each other, but in time their relationship deteriorates. He still resents her for leaving and she's angry because she doesn't feel he's paying her enough respect. They fight often and eventually Enrique moves out on his own.

The family eventually moves to Florida. Enrique goes back to North Carolina for a while before moving back to Florida. He pays for a smuggler to bring Maria Isabel to the United States, and a few months later, they bring Jasmin to live with them.

Enrique can't shake his drug and drinking habits, which lead to his arrest and near deportation. His daughter testifies in a trial about a crime she witnessed and receives a U Visa, which allows her and her family to stay legally in the United States.

Author Sonia Nazario chose Enrique as her subject because he represents the typical teen making the trek from Central America to the United States in search of their mothers. Nazario's goal in writing the book was to discourage mothers from leaving their children and also to discourage children from following their mothers, due to the danger. The book explores the issues behind the mothers' need to leave in the first place and possible solutions. There aren't enough jobs in their home countries that allow them to provide the most basic necessities for their children -- food, clothing, shelter and school. Going to the United States to work and send money back home is the only solution they can think of.

Poverty is the main theme in this book. It is what drives the actions of almost all the players. Mothers, and in some cases fathers, leave their children because they need to find a way to feed them. There is a stark, sharp difference between the haves and have nots in Honduras and very few opportunities for those who have little to improve their financial situations. Women have to choose between staying with men who abuse them or cheat on them and leaving and not being able to care for their children. The situation often requires children to leave school in order to work with their mothers just so they can eat.

So the mothers leave and the children left behind live a slightly better life than their peers. But the children feel abandoned and they resent their mothers. Several times in the book, someone says that there is no replacement for a mother's love. However, the people who say this are people who didn't have to spend a significant or memorable part of their lives without enough food. Some even finished school and started their own businesses thanks to their mothers' money.

Poverty is also a large factor in young men joining gangs and attacking and robbing the migrants trying to get through Mexico. Local officials resort to the same behavior in order to give their own families a better life. It seems that all negative behavior is a consequence of someone not having enough.

Drugs play a vital role in Enrique's life from early on. The glue sniffing is his way of coping and he doesn't have the emotional tools to try anything else. His mother has left him and then his father chooses a woman over his own son. Enrique has a lot of pain and abandonment in his life, so he looks for an escape.

But even once Enrique is with his mother again, when he has a girlfriend and child he loves, he can't stop the drinking and drugs. He still holds onto his hurt and rebellious nature, and by now he has developed a physical addiction. While he languished on the banks of the Rio Grande, the glue sniffing helped him feel less hungry when he couldn't get food. That and alcohol helped him forget how helpless he often felt while trying to raise enough money to reach his mother and hopefully get a smuggler so he could get to the United States. When Enrique felt alone, the drugs were always there for him.

In the book's prologue, author Sonia Nazario compares her family's legal immigration from Argentina to the United States with the illegal immigration of the people who are the book's subject. Her experience was much different from her subjects'. Nazario's family arrived on an airplane and there was no danger in the move. In contrast, Enrique and his family risked their lives to get to the United States and lived in fear of deportation from the time they arrived.

Nazario explores many facets of illegal immigration. There are pros and cons both for the immigrants and the country they've moved to. United States citizens are divided about what they want to see happen with this issue. Some are for full amnesty, seeing the immigrants as an asset to the country. Others believe they are a drain and lawbreakers and are in favor of the immigrants being deported. Even the immigrants themselves can't agree on which is the right answer. At one point, Enrique says if he were a citizen, he wouldn't want illegal immigrants in the country, but then he changes his mind and says they provide a service the country's citizens can't or won't.

There are statistics to support both sides -- from the immigrants being particularly hard workers that are assets to businesses to the cost of educating them or providing them with public assistance because they make so little money. Regardless of whether the immigrants are good or bad for the United States, they continue coming. They need to do so in order to provide for their families back home. Lourdes says she likes the United States and will never return to Honduras. It's cleaner and safer in the United States.

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Enrique’s Journey

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Enrique's Journey

39 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-5

Chapter 6-Epilogue

Key Figures

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Immigration and Family Separation

Enrique’s Journey addresses the impact of immigration on families. Thus, it provides an alternative to common immigration narratives, which focus on ideological talking points designed to win political arguments. Studies show that an increasing number of unaccompanied minors are crossing the US-Mexico border. Like Enrique , many of these children undertake the trip north to find their mothers. Poverty and high divorce rates in Central America and Mexico leave many women unable to provide for their children. These women face hard choices: They can either remain in their home countries and watch their children suffer or immigrate to the US and send money home to support them.

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Enrique's Journey

By sonia nazario, enrique's journey summary and analysis of facing the beast.

Enrique wades through the Rio Suchiate toward Mexico, into the southern state of Chiapas, which migrants call la bestia (“the beast”). Seventeen year old Enrique knows what he will face in Chiapas: bandits will try to rob him, police will try to deport him, and gangs may kill him. It is the hardest single section of the journey. Despite the risks, Enrique pushes on.

Once he crosses the river, he spends the night in a cemetery, on top of a mausoleum to avoid the police. From here, he can easily hear the trains. It is important that he catch the first train he hears, since it might be several days until another passes. Under the protection of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, Enrique befriends a young man named Big Daddy. That night, they are both apprehended during a police raid and taken to a holding cell. Other migrants help him escape over the wall, and he returns to the cemetery to wait for a 10:00am train.

When he hears the first rumblings of the train, the cemetery around him comes to life - dozens of migrants appear from behind bushes, trees, and tombs, and all race toward the train, positioning themselves to grab onto one of its many ladders. As the train rushes past at 20 miles per hour, Enrique hoists himself up onto a hopper car.

There, he encounters an eleven year old boy who is also traveling to the Untied State to see his mother. According to the Grupo Beta, a government sponsored migrants right group, about 20%-30% of the migrants who board the trains in Tapachula are under the age of fifteen.

Enrique considers where he should hide on the train. The boxcars are dangerous, as there is little to hold on to, but la migra does not normally go up there. Inside the boxcars is worse. He could be trapped inside for days, without food or water, and die of heat exhaustion. He could hide under the cars, between the axles, but he has grown too big to fit safely. Enrique decides to settle in on top of the hopper car, and holds on for dear life. He is afraid his car will tip over.

The train begins to slow as they reach La Arrocera, a strict immigration checkpoint. Enrique fears La Arrocera; it is isolated and he is too exposed on top of the train. The other migrants begin to yell warnings. La migra is here, so Enrique jumps from car to car, finally landing on a boxcar. La migra spots him and demands he come down, even throwing rocks to force him, but he refuses. Instead, he jumps from the train into some bushes. He hears gunshots behind him.

Now, a new danger awaits him. Madrinas are men who wear civilian clothing but help the authorities capture migrants. The worst crimes against migrants, rape and torture, are attributed to madrinas . Sometimes madrians ride the tops of trains and count the number of migrants on board so they can radio ahead to the checkpoints. Even if he can avoid them, he must contend with electrified wires as he attempts to bypass the checkpoint and reboard the train.

The other major threat in La Arrocera is bandits who patrol the area, ready to rob migrants of their money and clothes. The locals are terrified of the bandits and will never testify against them in court. Similarly, the police turn a blind eye to their activities. There is a red brick house near the checkpoint where bandits often rape and kill young women. Nazario states that one in six migrant women are sexually assaulted during their journey north, according to a 1997 University of Houston study. To protect themselves, some women cut off their hair and strap down their breasts, pretending to be boys, while others write the words “Tengo Sida” ("I have AIDS") across their chest.

Enrique reaches the Cuil bridge, one of the most dangerous places on the journey north because ruthless bandits lay in wait for migrants there. Enrique makes it across unharmed. He has survived La Arrocera.

Desperate for water, Enrique approaches a nearby house. He knows that the Mexicans of Chiapas barely tolerate Central American migrants, and consider them ignorant and poor. They believe Central Americans bring disease, prostitution, and crime to the area, and take away jobs from Mexicans. Boys like Enrique are often turned away when they beg for food or water. This time, though, Enrique is lucky; he finds a nice woman who gives him water, bread, and beans. Enrique suddenly hears the horn of the train and soon reboards a hopper.

It is 105 degrees, and Enrique’s palms burn as he holds tight to the hopper, standing on the narrow ledge of the fuel tanker just inches from the wheels. The heat saps his energy, but he cannot allow himself to fall asleep, since it could mean death. Some migrants strap themselves to the train with belts or t-shirts, while others nap on the tracks, waiting for the next train. Both alternatives often leave migrants mangled or killed.

Falling asleep also makes one potential prey for the Mara Salvatrucha (MA) gangsters, who roam the train tops looking for "sleepers" (83). This gang will rob migrants mercilessly, knowing the migrants will never press charges, and have little recourse to escape while the train barrels along. Some pretend to be migrants themselves, so they can determine who has money or food. They are usually on drugs, either marijuana or crack cocaine. Migrants who resist are tossed overboard or beaten with a variety of weapons. MA gang members have skulls tattooed on their ankles, which indicate the number of people they have killed. Their ruthlessness is well known. Once, they allegedly threw a man from a train and then forced two boys to have sex with one another.

Enrique is fortunate to have befriended El Brujo , a Mara Salvatrucha member. Although not a member himself, Enrique has been protected by association because of his friendship with El Brujo. However, recently, he refused to help the MS gang get revenge on the 18th Street gang. Since then, he has been alone on the trains, and is a frequent victim of beatings by MS members.

To keep himself awake, Enrique jumps from car to car, allowing his fear to fuel his adrenaline. Other migrants take amphetamines, slap themselves, exercise, talk to one another, or sing. Soon, the night passes and Chiapas is behind him. Although Enrique knows he has a long way to go, he is proud of himself for having made it past "the beast."

Most of the migrants who had set out with Enrique have been caught, deported, killed by the trains, or felled by gangsters. The Red Cross estimates that nearly one migrant every other day loses a limb to the train. This does not include the many migrants who have been decapitated or cut in half by the trains. If a Central American migrant dies, they usually do not carry ID and are lowered unnamed into a mass grave.

Those who have lost limbs are treated by the Red Cross. However, if they are near Tapachula, they go to the Shelter of Jesus the Good Shepherd. There, Olga Sánchez Martínez tries to heal them. “No one tells me something can’t be done. Everything can be cured. Nothing is impossible,” Olga says (90). Nazario tells Olga's story. Olga suffered many indignities in her life, including cancer, after which she promised to devote her life to healing others if God would heal her. Ten years later, she remains committed to healing migrants. She brings them into her own home, founded a shelter for them, dresses their wounds, and attempts to lift their spirits. To finance her operation, she begs for donations, seeking thousands of dollars a week to buy prosthetic limbs for the migrants. Olga works for free, seven days a week, and has not had a serious illness since her promise to God.

As Enrique enters the state of Oaxaca, he disembarks the train to recoup. It is crucial to blend in to the Mexican background so as to avoid deportation. He removes his dirty yellow shirt and replaces it with a white one. He washes his arms in the stream and spends what little money he has on a haircut so he will not stick out. Most Mexicans have straight dark hair, while Central Americans tend to have curlier hair. To further blend in, Enrique must also alter his speech and word choice. For instance, agua means water in Mexico, but means soda in Honduras. Also, he must remember that Mexican weigh items in kilograms instead of pounds. Migrants also remove Central American tags from their clothing, or wear Mexican sports team memorabilia. Nazario gives many details of how Central Americans attempt to disguise their identity while recouping here.

Back in Honduras, María Isabel is persuaded by her family to stay at home. She fears for Enrique, but agrees with her mother that the dangers of traveling north far outweigh the potential benefits. She is still uncertain whether she is pregnant, and is worried that the journey could cause complications if she is.

Enrique’s eighth attempt to go north begins at a river, the Rìo Suchiate in Guatemala. The rivers in Enrique’s Journey serve as symbols of renewal. Each time Enrique crosses a river, he is entering a new phase of his travel. When he finally crosses the Rio Grande, it serves as his baptism into a new phase of his life. However, at this point, he faces the Rìo Suchiate, across which lies Chiapas, "the beast." If the Rio Grande offers salvation, the Rìo Suchiate threatens damnation. Wearing a cap which appropriately reads “No Fear,” he bravely presses on and accepts the challenge.

The scene in the cemetery, when Enrique is caught by police, illustrates an interesting juxtaposition within the story. The migrants lay on top of graves, near not only the dead but also near sites of frequent rape, attack, and murder. The migrants themselves are hunted like animals, and their deaths are sometimes undocumented, as if they had never existed at all - many are buried in mass unmarked graves. It is ironic that they should find solace and peace in a place of death when their own fates are so uncertain. They cannot even count on a dignified death, a point which must resonate for them while awaiting the train in a cemetery. However, the irony only stresses how high the stakes are for these migrants. They must accept these unfortunate ironies as part of their burden if they are to arrive at their destinations.

The train itself also serves as something of a symbol for the journey, both because it offers promise and because of its many dangers. The boxcar, as Enrique explains, is a closed container that holds cargo. When not in use, the boxcar resembles a large empty box. Nazario interviewed a migrant who had been placed inside a boxcar with forty others by their smuggler. The doors were shut and the container soon became an oven in the 100 degree weather. Several people died. It is easy to become trapped inside the boxcar, and they are also one of the first cars to be searched by la migra . The fact that this ostensibly most comfortable spot is also fraught with dangers exemplifies the contradictory nature of the train. The tops of boxcars are very unsafe, but are less frequently searched. Hoppers are usually large, open containers that carry bulk cargo like grain, sugar, fertilizer, or coal. They are lower to the ground than boxcars, and hence more often searched, but they are easier to access. The choice of car is very important and can help migrants survive, but with each decision a migrant must play the odds. In a sense, the decision is almost arbitrary considering how many factors are out of their control, but the decision must be made nevertheless.

However, the train also serves as a symbol of hope and faith. Certainly, these migrants have a deep religious faith from their culture, but their faith on this journey is more palpable - they believe they can brave the dangerous journey to make it north. The train is essential towards reaching that goal. One can determine a migrant's outlook by which name he or she uses to name the train. Some call it El Tren de la Muerte (Train of Death) or El Tran Devorador (The Train That Devours), both of which speak to its destructive potential. Others call it El Tren Peregrino (The Pilgrim’s Train), which reflects its spiritual quality. Enrique prefers to call the train El Caballo de Hierro (the Iron Horse). What he recognizes is not its spiritual potential but rather its physical strength. It reflects his persistence and determination, his belief that he will succeed through force of will.

Enrique’s Journey Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Enrique’s Journey is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

WHAT IS ENRIQUE FORCCED TO DO UPON RINALY REACHING THE AMERICAN SIDE OF THE RIO GRANDE

In order to remain undetected, Enrique and the others must wait for an hour in a half in a freezing creek into which a sewage treatment plant dumps refuse.

Why is crossing the river so difficult?

For Enrique, crossing the river by himself is dangerous. He cannot swim and if he's caught, he will be deported.

They are put in detention centers and sent back. The detention centers ar cramped full of crooks and people that exploit them.

Study Guide for Enrique’s Journey

Enrique's Journey study guide contains a biography of Sonia Nazario, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Enrique's Journey
• Enrique's Journey Summary
• Character List

Essays for Enrique’s Journey

Enrique's Journey essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario.

• Criticism, Sympathy, and Encouragement: Depicting the American Dream in 'The Great Gatsby' and 'Enrique's Journey'

Lesson Plan for Enrique’s Journey

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Enrique's Journey
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Enrique's Journey Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Enrique’s Journey

• Introduction
• Don Francisco Presenta Reunion
• Recognition
• Sonia Nazario