Enrique's Journey

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2005

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-5

Chapter 6-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Index of Terms

Coyote

A coyote is a person who smuggles undocumented immigrants across the US-Mexico border for a fee. Coyotes generally collect payment after their customers arrive in the US. Lourdes, Enrique, and María Isabel enter the US illegally with the help of coyotes. Enrique’s coyote, El Tiríndaro, runs an encampment for migrants outside Nuevo Laredo, on the edge of the Rio Grande. He takes Enrique under his wing, but his motives are not entirely selfless. El Tiríndaro feels for Enrique, who is the youngest person at the encampment. Thus, he shows Enrique how to sell discarded clothing and gives him a meal card another migrant left behind. His ultimate goal, however, is to help Enrique contact his mother in order to gain a new customer. Like other coyotes, El Tiríndaro is part of a network of smugglers. His job is to get migrants across the river and hand them over to other smugglers, after which he returns to Mexico. The human smuggling trade is lucrative, and Mexican gangs fight over control of it. El Tiríndaro was tortured and killed execution style, probably by a rival gang.

Fichera

Fichera is a Mexican term used to describe women who befriend men in bars. Some ficheras are sex workers, while others simply keep men company and encourage them to buy expensive drinks. Lourdes briefly worked as a fichera after Santos disappeared with their savings and left her alone to provide for their daughter. Like many unskilled migrants, Lourdes’s employment options were limited. In addition to becoming a fichera, she worked as a cleaner, a painter, a gas station attendant, and as a nanny. That Lourdes took a job as a fichera speaks to her desperation and determination: She did what she had to do to care for Jasmín.

Madrinas

Madrinas are civilians who rob migrants before turning them over to immigration authorities. The term is a play on words: These civilians help the authorities as a madrina, or godmother, would while also administering madrizas, or beatings. According to human rights activists and police agencies, madrinas commit some of the worst crimes against migrants, including rape and torture. Like other migrants, Enrique is hypervigilant on the trains because he cannot distinguish madrinas from migrants.

La migra

La migra refers to Mexican immigration authorities. Some immigration officials are corrupt and commit crimes against migrants before releasing or deporting them. In Chapter 3, Nazario describes Enrique’s encounters with la migra during his seven failed attempts to make it to the US. On each of these attempts, he is caught and deported to Guatemala. Some checkpoints are known to have particularly vigilant immigration agents. At La Arrocera, for example, la migra stop Enrique’s train and point their flashlights at each car several times. Enrique runs after the train starts moving again, only to be chased, captured, and deported. Mexican immigration agents are barred from carrying firearms. According to a retired agent, however, most carry .38-caliber pistols. Some migrants report being shot at by la migra; others speak of being tortured. On one of his trips north, Enrique encounters a man whose chest is pockmarked with cigarette burns. The man tells Enrique that an immigration agent at La Arrocera branded him.