When Enrique is five years old, his mother, Lourdes, leaves Honduras to find a job in the United States. The move allows her to send money back home to Enrique so he can go to school past the third grade. Lourdes promises Enrique she will return quickly. But she struggles in America. Years pass. He begs for his mother to come back. Without her, he becomes lonely and troubled.
When she calls, Lourdes tells him to be patient. Enrique loses hope of ever seeing her again. After eleven years apart, he decides he will go find her. Enrique sets off alone from Tegucigalpa, with little more than a slip of paper bearing his mother's North Carolina telephone number. Without money, he will make the dangerous and illegal trek up the length of Mexico the only way he can—clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains.
With gritty determination and a deep longing to be by his mother's side, Enrique travels through hostile, unknown worlds. Each step of the way through Mexico, he and other migrants, many of them children, are hunted like animals. Gangsters control the tops of the trains. Bandits rob and kill migrants up and down the tracks. Corrupt cops all along the route are out to rob and deport them. To evade Mexican police and immigration authorities, they must jump onto and off the moving boxcars they call El Tren de la Muerte–The Train of Death. Enrique pushes forward using his wit, courage, and hope–and the kindness of strangers.
Lourdes, Enrique's mother, decided to move to the United States from Honduras in order to support her two children financially. She hoped to get enough income to take her children to good schools and be able to provide for their basic needs; she also hoped they would live a better lifestyle than she did.
Enrique was too young to understand the reasons Lourdes left. Although the family knew about it, they were not able to explain to Enrique. He was cared for by different relatives and finally ends up with his paternal grandmother. He starts to sell food to meet the family expenses. Due to frustrations and anger towards his mother, he begins sniffing glue and is eventually kicked out by his grandmother, who could not stand his behavior. Enrique's experiences motivate him to take a dangerous journey to look for his mother because he believes she is the only one who can understand and take good care of him.
Enrique's older sister Belky was left under the care of her aunt who took good care of her, sent her to a private school with the money Lourdes sent, and eventually went to college.
Maria Isabel, Enrique's girlfriend, was very supportive even though she knew he turned to drugs to numb the pain of his mother leaving him and what had happened to him after. When Enrique settled in the United States, he received the good news that Maria Isabel had a baby girl and named her Jasmin. Enrique was happy to be a dad and he sent money to support them. Enrique worked hard and saved enough to hire a smuggler to move Maria Isabel to the United States, then Jasmin later joined them.[8]
Don Francisco Presenta Reunion[edit]
Enrique's family was reunited on a Spanish-language talk show produced by Univision called Don Francisco Presenta hosted by Don Francisco. [9]
Sonia Nazario joins Enrique and his mother, Lourdes, in discussing Enrique's Journey and what happened after the newspaper series was published. In the episode, Lourdes says through tears that it has been 17 years since she has seen her daughter Belky, who remains in Honduras today[10]. Don Francisco then announces that Belky is backstage, and he calls for her to come out.
Lourdes stands to meet her and they embrace, both sobbing. Enrique stands and wraps his arms around his mother and sister, and the three of them embrace as the audience cheers. Lourdes is heard telling Sonia that she didn't know this was going to happen. [9]
Explanation: The series of Los Angeles Times articles that was the genesis of the book won more than 20 journalism awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing[3].[citation needed]
Don Bartletti won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for the photographs he took for the Los Angeles Times series, which are also featured in the book.[11]
Enrique's Journey has won both the 2006 Christopher Award [12]and the 2006 California Book Award [13]in Recognition of Literary Excellence, Silver Medal. It has been adopted by over 100 universities as their freshman or common read. [14] In 2015, it was one of the most popular choices for a common read, according to a survey by Inside Higher Ed.[15]
In 2014, Enrique's Journey was listed as number one on a list of the top ten best non-fiction books on The Latino Author. [16]
Sonia Nazario[edit]
