Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario: The Daunting and Grueling Process of Immigration

Global warming? The economy? Healthcare? Guns? Which of these issues should we be most focused on? All these issues are issues that the United States currently faces and issues that have been prevalent for the past few years. Yet, an issue that has been around that might not always be at the forefront of the headlines, but has been lately, is the “issue” of immigration. Immigration has been tightly contested in all facets, from our politicians in Washington talking about its policy, to the talk on zero tolerance, to our leaders implementing bans on immigrants. Needless to say, immigration is a hot commodity and the opinions that come with immigration can be misconstrued, misguided and at points, can truly reflect an unfair depiction on immigrants and on the process of immigration as a whole. Though, misconstrued and misguided, it is important to highlight and note the daunting and grueling process that immigrants endure, as well as other components of immigration like determination, family separation and job security that many of these immigrants go through to get to a country where they want to succeed.

According to Merriam-Webster, an immigrant is someone who “comes to a country to take up permanent residence. ” Many of the immigrants that come to the United States are looking for opportunities to better their lives and lifestyles for not only themselves, but for their families as well. In order to achieve that though, they have to sacrifice and go through a process that would be undesired by almost every other person on this planet. This is seen in the book, Enrique’s Journey. In the book, we see the story of a young Central American kid who details the life of an immigrant through a lens that maybe not a lot of people know of.

In Enrique’s Journey, Enrique’s mom notices fairly early on that she will not have enough money for her children to excel, let alone have enough money for their survival as well as hers. Hence, she decides to make the move to the United States to make money and be able to send some of that money to her children; Enrique and Belky. When Lourdes, the mother of Enrique, gets to the United States through a sewage tunnel, and has been there for a while, she realizes that the image that she had in her head pertaining to the United States was not the one that she was actually living. In the United States, Lourdes shares an apartment with three other ladies, and has to sleep on the floor. Her job is at a factory, where she sorts tomatoes for $14 a day. These conditions are clearly less than ideal, and it only gets worse after she gets fired from her factory job. Like the average person, not just an immigrant, Lourdes gets jobs to overcome for her firing and works at a pizzeria and a bar, all while being pregnant. To her demise it doesn't get better as she ends up as a “fichera” due to her boyfriend taking all the savings and in turn has to relinquish her apartment and car. Lourdes rents a garage, which is riddled with leaks and only contains a single mattress for her and her baby. To pay for rent and in order to send a little money home, she is now tasked with cleaning houses, as well as working side jobs at a gas station and candy factory, all totaling to 10+ hour work days with 2 hours of sleep. Lourdes is a perfect example of an immigrant who is faced with adversity over and over again, adversity that might have been expected, but not in the waves that she had to face it in. Nevertheless, Lourdes took on jobs that would enable her to send money back to Honduras and took on jobs that didn't pay her very much, like the candy factory, which only paid $2. 25/hr.

The notion that immigrants do not help and that they wreak havoc and are not needed is fairly ironic, especially considering the jobs that most of these immigrants do. Not a lot of people like Lourdes would voluntarily work 10 hour shifts and work multiple jobs that aren't high paying, but that is what the life of an immigrant is usually like. Their lives are usually full of them sacrificing for the better of their families and themselves as well as taking on jobs that not a lot of Americans would want to ever have, yet they are slandered because they didn't come the right way. The opportunity that immigrants hope for however, doesn't arrive until the immigrant is actually in the states, and even then as seen with Lourdes it is tough to keep going and do well. Enrique, soon learned that the life of an immigrant is extremely deteriorating and brutal, and that to get to the United States, a tall task lied ahead. Enrique leaves with $57 and one change of clothes for the United States. According to Nazario, there are 48, 000 children that are either from Mexico or Central America that enter the United States illegally with reasons ranging from family reunions to leaving abusive households. She also mentions that even though the average age for many of these migrants is 15, she says that it is not surprising to see kids at the age of 7 embark on this excruciating journey. In spite of that, Enrique takes on this journey at the age of 16; an age, where we are still developing and finding our strengths and weaknesses. Age was just a number to Enrique though, as he took on the challenge of reuniting with his mother head on. It was on his sixteenth birthday when he decided to ride atop trains for the first time with his friend Jose. After getting to Mexico, they are both robbed and arrested by police and shortly thereafter deported. This is no surprise as Nazario explains that the police in Mexico are highly corrupt as they stop trains frequently in order to beat/rob/demoralize migrants. She goes onto say that sometimes they will even kidnap in order to get ransom money. Enrique goes through this a total of 8 different times. Yes, 8 times, all a bit different, but with one similarity: fear of beatings/robbing/deportation. Along the road, his worse beating came after being deported when he was caught in the graveyard. On the trains, Enrique was attacked and was severely beaten by gangsters. The gangsters then robbed his clothes and money. In the facility where Enrique ends up to get treated, we learn that every month there are at least 10 migrants who fall from the train and their limbs are completely mutilated because of the wheels on the trains. In addition, we learn that they are mostly treated because of damage caused by gangsters; going to show the dangers that these young adults take on. It is unbelievable.

The last part of his journey to get to the United States was probably the most difficult as he had to embrace the fact that in Chiapas, he was going to have go through the La Arrocera, which is notorious for having bandits and for having people who despise Central Americans because Mexicans think that they bring disease and crime, while also believing that they are not qualified for certain jobs. Fortunately for Enrique, he passes the La Arrocera and is on his way to the United States. Through 100+ degree weather, and one shoe on his foot for a long stretch, Enrique gets to the coyote that his mom gets for him, and eventually lands in the United States to reunite with his mom after all those years. 122 days and 12, 000 miles later. 122 days and 12, 000 miles later! The process though as seen was not easy. He got beaten, robbed, mentally and physically scarred and lived through experiences that no 16-17 year old would want to encounter.

The physical component of being on those trains and working around not being caught by authorities to avoid deportation and beatings 24/7 is surreal and exhausting, and Enrique along with other migrants try to write this story knowing how painful it will most likely be time and time again. Upon getting to the United States, after some downturns, he ends up working seven days a week to one day bring over his girlfriend to unite with him. Immigration is no doubt an issue that should be talked about, and an issue that can be debated either way. But, as talked about earlier, it is important to know what these immigrants go through and what they want to get accomplished with the process of immigration. According to an article by the USA Today “There were 12. 1 million immigrants living in the country illegally as of January 2014 (DHS), ” (Robertson) which accounts for 3. 8% of the population in the United States. That population also according to the Center for American Progress says that immigrants are, “entrepreneurs, job creators, taxpayers, and consumers” (CAP Immigration Team). These immigrants that are here are doing what Americans are supposed to do and are abiding by it, helping our economy here in the United States in the process. Immigrants are going through long journeys to be with family members or to simply form better lives, and in more times than not they are losing the fight by either being deported or by dying. In an article by The Guardian, we see that, “The number of migrants who died near the US-Mexico border rose in 2017 even as the number of attempted border crossings fell dramatically” (France-Presse). To add, according to the UN News, “prolonged exposure to the extreme environments in the border region, where temperatures often top 104 degree Fahrenheit (40 degree Celsius), combined with the difficulty of bringing assistance those in need in remote areas have repeatedly been cited as leading causes of death”.

It is evident how determined these immigrants are to sustaining a better life, yet those that make it out alive are condemned for getting to this country “the wrong way. ” These immigrants instead of being condemned, should be praised and rewarded because they are warriors of the highest magnitude and because statistics show that they can belong in a country where the “American Dream” has been preached as long as anyone could remember.