Enrique's Journey

The closing chapters of Enrique’s Journey stress the dangers of crossing the US-Mexico border. El Tiríndaro takes migrants across the Rio Grande on an inner tube in the dead of night. The waters are rough, and few migrants know how to swim. Drownings are common: “Up to three migrants have drowned in a single day along this stretch of river. […] The year is not yet half over. Already, fifty-four people have been pulled, lifeless, from the river at or near Nuevo Laredo” (180). Those who manage to stay on the inner tube face snakes and icy waters.

Across the river, armed US immigration officials patrol the border. These agents drive their SUVs along the trail on the US side of the river, flashing their spotlights on migrants trying to make the crossing. Migrants who get caught are either deported or detained until the courts process the paperwork to deport them. Conditions in the detention centers are abhorrent, even those housing youths, such as the juvenile prison in Liberty, Texas. The windowless cells in E pod, the section of the jail where most children are housed, measure 7.5 feet by 10 feet. Immigration agents treat the children like criminals:

Immigrant children arrive at the jail shackled. They are strip-searched and asked to ‘squat and cough’—an exercise to determine if they are harboring any contraband items in certain cavities of their bodies. They file through eight locked metal doors to arrive at the E pod, where immigrant children as young as twelve are held. They are housed, at times, in the same pod with accused rapists and other felons (181).

Many children report not being fed enough in US custody. Unlike jailed Americans, some of whom have family support, child migrants do not have money to buy food from the commissary. Thus, they go hungry and lose weight. No one informs child migrants about when they will be brought before an immigration judge. The guards have no information, and even if they did, most do not speak Spanish. Detention can last several months, during which time children grow desperate. Many suffer from mental health problems:

They run circles around their tiny cells […] They begin to talk to themselves. One boy gets so depressed he stops eating for days and bangs his knuckles against the concrete wall until they are raw. A few of the children become suicidal and try to hang themselves (182).

Nazario emphasizes the negative impact of separation on families. In Chapter 6 she reminds readers that Enrique and Lourdes’s story is not fiction. In the epic poem The Odyssey, the hero returns home from war and is happily reunited with his family. Reality is more complex. Children like Enrique yearn for a fairy-tale ending to their stories; they want to find their mothers and live happily ever after. After the initial reunion, however, the relationship between parents and children quickly deteriorates: “The children show resentment because they were left behind. They remember broken promises to return and accuse their mothers of lying” (191). As a consequence of being abandoned, some children turn to nonparental sources of love and self-esteem. Many end up pregnant, marry early, or join gangs. Some children are jealous of the families their mothers create in the US, resulting in tension between US-born children and new arrivals.

Mothers also struggle emotionally after reuniting with their children. Unlike youths, who resent being abandoned, mothers view abandonment as the ultimate sacrifice and want respect for making this difficult decision. They also want recognition for their suffering, hard work, and financial contributions: “Some have been lonely and worked hard to support themselves, to pay off their own smuggling debts and save money to send home. When their children say, ‘You abandoned me,’ they respond by hauling out tall stacks of money transfer receipts” (191). Many mothers think their children lack gratitude. They bristle at their children’s independent streak, all while knowing that independence is what allowed them to survive the trip north. In short, the pain, loneliness, and resentment stemming from abandonment do not disappear after children are reunited with their mothers.

Enrique’s relationship with Lourdes speaks to the complexities surrounding reunions. Enrique and Lourdes are initially happy to be reunited. They kiss and hold each other, just as Enrique imagined. Enrique tells Lourdes about his travels and proudly shows her his tattoo of their names. Lourdes listens to Enrique and makes him food. Within days of arriving in the US, Enrique starts working as a painter, a job he finds with the help of Lourdes’s boyfriend. He spends his first paycheck on groceries and a gift for his half-sister Diana; he also sends money to Belky and María Isabel in Honduras. Lourdes brags to her friends, saying, “This is my son. Look at him! He’s so big. It’s a miracle he’s here” (194).

Despite the promising start, however, Enrique and Lourdes soon realize they are strangers. They don’t know each other’s likes or dislikes. They have different visions for Enrique’s future. Enrique wants to continue working as a tradesman, while Lourdes wants him to study English and get a better job. Lourdes scolds Enrique when he uses profanities and goes out without permission. He rebels when she tries to parent him. The tensions boil over when someone in the trailer rejects a collect call from María Isabel. Although they make up the following day, tensions soon rise again. Enrique berates Lourdes for leaving him behind and accuses her of giving Belky preferential treatment. He criticizes her for getting pregnant with Diana and for continually breaking her promises to come home for Christmas. He lashes out when Lourdes brings up his drug habit:

‘You left me, abandoned me,’ he tells her. ‘You forgot about me.’ Nothing, he tells her, was gained by their long separation. ‘People come here to prosper. You have nothing here. What have you accomplished?’ If she had stayed in Honduras, he would have turned out better. ‘I wouldn’t be this way if I had had two parents’ (198).

Building a relationship takes time and persistence, even when people love each other. Both Lourdes and Enrique had unrealistic expectations.

Enrique’s Journey calls attention to the cyclical nature of child abandonment. Lourdes abandoned Enrique, who in turn left María Isabel and Jasmín when he migrated to the US. Enrique speaks to his daughter for the first time when she is two years old. The moment is a memorable one for Jasmín: “‘I love you, Enrique,’ she says. Then: ‘When are you coming here?’ Jasmín returns to her grandmother’s and proudly announces, ‘I spoke with my daddy, Enrique’” (215). It is noteworthy that Jasmín addressed Enrique by his given name. She thinks of her uncle Miguel as her father: “Jasmín has taken to calling the only man in Eva’s house, her twenty-seven-year-old uncle Miguel, papi. With Enrique, Jasmín has to be coached to talk. With Miguel, words of affection come naturally” (228).

María Isabel continues the cycle of abandonment when she joins Enrique in the US. The decision did not come easily for María Isabel. Love for her daughter, the dangerous journey, and high unemployment in the US gave her pause. For years, she refused to leave Honduras without Jasmín, but pressure from Enrique changed her mind. María Isabel decides to leave Honduras, placing her daughter in Belky’s care. Like Lourdes, María Isabel cannot bring herself to say goodbye to her child. Her departure mirrors that of Lourdes, thereby calling attention to the cyclical nature of abandonment. Tellingly, Jasmín comes to view Belky’s partner as her father.

Enrique’s Journey puts a human face on the immigration debate. The book stresses the reasons driving illegal immigration, particularly love and the desire for a better life. Nazario emphasizes the impossible choices parents face. She also stresses that Enrique did not harm anyone during his travels. In fact, he was the victim of several crimes, including robbery and assault. Current policies treat child migrants as criminals. The hardships continue even for those who find their mothers, as child immigrants struggle with resentment, abandonment, and rejection. The number of undocumented immigrants in the US is growing. The problem demands a multipronged solution, the most important strategy being providing help to developing countries, so these governments can provide better opportunities for citizens to improve their lives in their home countries.