Nazario endangers self to take 'Enrique's Journey'

By: Minhaj Muneer

Posted: 10/1/07

It's "Huckleberry Finn" and "The Odyssey" combined into one story.

"Enrique's Journey" is a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sonia Nazario. It is a factual epic about a boy's journey from Honduras to North Carolina to find his mother.

Nazario took this same journey, sitting atop the freight trains and experiencing the same problems Enrique faced.

"I really wanted to understand the journey, to feel the cold, the fear in the train," Nazario said. "I'm a big proponent of the fly-on-the-wall reporting. I was traumatized by all the lows and had to go into therapy."

The book documents Enrique's eight attempts to reach his mother. The story begins with Enrique at the age of five with his mother Lourdes leaving for the United States. She wants a better life for her children.

Eleven years later, Enrique follows her by joining the dangerous journey of illegal immigrants looking for work, loved ones and a better life.

"He is seventeen. It is March 24, 2000. Eleven years before, he tells the townspeople, his mother left home in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to work in the United States. She did not come back, and now he is riding freight trains up through Mexico to find her," Nazario wrote.

Nazario writes the book in the same manner that freight trains ride on the rails. There are moments of smoothness and other times of surprise bumps.

Having experienced the "death train," she recounts the specifics that make these simple words have more meaning and depth.

"I have tried to look at the narratives of the highs and lows," Nazario said. "I described how Enrique had beautiful teeth and later I would describe how he is beaten up and how he loses his teeth."

The most electrifying passages are those of the communities aiding those on the trains.

Nazario's effort to tell Enrique's story seemed to connect strongly with the audience present at her lecture.

One woman at the lecture Nazario gave Monday, Sept. 24, in White Recital Hall, shared her pain and tears.

As she took breaths from the sobbing, she explained her bewilderment when she found out the gifts she was sending her friend in Central America weren't getting there.

She thanked Nazario for writing the book and opening her eyes to the corruption that takes place there.

Another UMKC student found the passages more revealing on the issue of immigration.

"I wasn't ignorant about the issue of immigration, but I didn't know the details of women and children having the hardships," said Tim Sylvester, junior, liberal arts and electrical & computing engineering. "It puts a human face on this issue." Nazario described Enrique's situation during the journey.

"He is hungry. Hours Pass. His hunger grows. Finally, he cannot stand it. He retrieves the first phone card from the friend who is holding it, and he sells it for food," Nazario wrote.

In another passage Nazario describes the setbacks and pain.

"I slept on a bed and had a hot meal," Nazario said. "These kids don't have that. They sleep and eat what they can."

With this book and the story of Enrique, Nazario brings to light the problem of illegal immigration.

As a journalist, she does not offer solutions or opinions in her book. She relays the human side of the people coming and their journey.

She feels politicians have been telling people many things and people are getting misled by this.

"If they want to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, you have to get it at its root," Nazario said. "You have to increase jobs and have true employer sanctions."

With a backdrop of politics, economics and illegal immigration, "Enrique's Journey" weaves the story of thousands who are troubled by circumstances and separation.

"If you separate kids from their parents, they have problems," Nazario said. "I saw how driven they are to be with their parents."

mmzx5@umkc.edu