poverty.Furthermore, When Lourdes was in Honduras, she was also an object of cheap labour, which hardly fed her children. This system of employment exploits people in poverty for private profit and promotes corruption. Lourdes worked several jobs in the u.s, but none of them were stable. Enrique’s journey through the deadliest of stations were penthouses to the most dangerous criminals in the country. Murderers, gangsters and bandits are labeled criminals whose actions violated the moral code of society; however, interpretation of morality lies in the hands of people in power. Enrique got severe injuries from bandits and organized criminals during his on and off flight on the train. These criminals freely tortured illegal immigrants as result …show more content…
The author presented detailed examination of illegal immigration and clarified most frequently misunderstood aspects of illegal immigration.For instance, the genuine reasons for Enrique’s journey melted the hearts of many motherly readers; it represented an expedition for love, unity and family. Enrique, a little boy scarred from the separation of his mother portrays the urgency of immigration reforms in the nation.Most people tend to label illegal immigrants as rapists, robbers and murders, but in fact, majority of them are innocent kids waiting to meet their mothers. American society was established by immigrants and yet people are ignorant towards immigrants in the nation; they say, immigrants bring crime, but people are blind to the domestic injustices caused by the citizens.Sonia Nazario intrigued readers through Enrique's Journey, exposing the negative factors that contribute to the labeling of immigrants.In addition, the novel highlighted real accounts of Enrique’s story, giving a real picture of the frequent sufferings of illegal immigrants.Humanity and kindness promotes peace in a society, but when humanity declines, it marks the beginning of political chaos.Here, Enrique deserved the right to be with his mother but authorities hindered this unification. If Enrique was able to be with his mom, he would have raised under a loving complete family; Sonia Nazario clearly listed impacts of the separation on
If it weren’t for her moving away, he wouldn’t have to deal with the rotation of houses and the stress of getting mistreated. Enrique didn’t grow up with his father being there for him. I believe that kids that aren’t able to have their parents influence on them in their early childhood tend to be rebellious. This is their way of exploring and finding out what is right and wrong because they didn’t have parents to tell them right from wrong. Many children in other countries have to live without their parents because their parents are in the U.S. sending them money for food.
The book I am reading is Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario. I predict that the author will explore the human rights issue of Immigration Laws and the plight of illegal aliens in the United States. I believe that this issue will be important in the story because Enrique the main character in the story is very driven to find his mother who has gone herself illegally to the United States to earn money to provide an education for her children and to better the life of her family. I made this prediction because Lourdes leaves her children in Honduras as she goes to make money in the United States and her son Enrique is left saying “Donde esta mi mami?” “Where is my mom?”
While reading Enrique’s Journey, written by Sonia Nazario, a lot of themes were brought out throughout the book that served different meaning in Enrique’s story. The theme that stood out to me, was his journey because Enrique traveled all the way from Honduras to find his mom, who stayed in the United States. There are times in the book when he falls victim to his own shortcomings: doing drugs, tantalizing his mother, mismanaging his finances. He is ready to take yet another journey, this time marked by responsibility instead of adolescent rebellion and resentment. However, Enrique's journey is not only physical, but also mental as he grows from a boy to a man.
Enrique’s Journey/ Rape in the fields It is time, at last, to speak the truth about Rape in the fields, and Enrique’s Journey. These two documents are more similar than people think. The first similarity between the book and he film. Is that the laws; as we see it are there but are corrupt.
Trespass by Julia Alvarez is a short story that depicts the life of a young immigrant girl whose family has relocated from the Dominican Republic to New Jersey and the many emotions, trials, and tribulations that come with such a massive change. The oldest of four girls, Carla, seems to have the hardest time adapting to this new environment and circumstance. When their mother makes a typical Spanish dessert and inserts a candle to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the move to the States, she says, "Let us please go back home, please, She half prayed and half wished" (Alvarez 99). Aside from the anguish of leaving her extended family and the challenges of adjusting to a new neighborhood, school, and country, she has the strongest ties to the Dominican Republic and the most difficulty assimilating to English and American culture.
He is five years old.” (Sonia Nazario, 40) Some would say if she truly cares for her family she would stay. No she cares about her family so much she is willing to risk everything for them she could be killed, raped, or beaten along this dangerous path the only thing keeping her on this path is her love for her kids which only grows as she goes along her path. Once Lourdes makes it to America she quickly finds a job and sends money so her kids can go to school which they wouldn't be able to because they were too poor when she lived in Honduras.
In the article, Two Sisters, Two Americas, the author, Brooke Ross, informs readers of the Saravia family’s story and the effects of being a “mixed-status family” with worries of being deported. A mixed-status family is a family with a combination of illegal immigrants, and citizens living in the United States. A path to legalization should be created for people who are already here illegally, but border security should be tightened to prevent more people entering the US illegally. These immigrants do jobs that most Americans don’t want. For example, “such immigrants do jobs that few Americans want, like working on farms and cleaning homes” (Ross, 10).
Humans rarely change their ways; they stay in their own worlds and always interact with the same types of people. Unfortunately, this habit often creates unseen barriers that divide and alienate human beings from one another. In Luis Alberto Urrea’s book The Devil’s Highway, Urrea provides a personal perspective to immigration by telling the story of 26 illegal immigrants, known as the Wellton 26, who are abandoned as they cross the Mexico-U.S. border. Through their story, Urrea proves there are invisible borders among people that create prejudice, such as language, ethnicity, and economic status. By reading The Devil’s Highway, it is clear that these barriers must be broken down to ensure harmony within society.
Lourdes, Enrique’s mother, struggles to support her children, Belky and Enrique, in Honduras. She becomes aware that she will be unable to send her children to school past the third grade, but she is determined to not let he children live as she did, in poverty. Lourdes leaves her family and home, like many single mothers in recent years, for the United States so that she might send remittances home for her daughter and son. Enrique is shuffled from one home to another, during which he is never told of what has happened to his mother, as none will tell him an answer.
Immigration is deeply rooted in the American culture, yet it is still an issue that has the country divided. Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco, in their essay, “How Immigrants Became ‘Other’” explore the topic of immigration. They argue that Americans view many immigrants as criminals entering America with the hopes of stealing jobs and taking over, but that this viewpoint is not true. They claim that immigrants give up a lot to even have a chance to come into America and will take whatever they can get when they come. The Suarez-Orozco’s support their argument using authority figures to gain credibility as well as exemplification through immigrant stories.
Oftentimes when reading texts about liberation, whether the liberation is physical, metaphorical, or otherwise, there is a tendency to expect an overcoming narrative of sorts. Namely, when presented with a figure that is suffering, an audience expects a clean ending. However, concerning memoirs, this isn’t always the case. If anything, overcoming narratives within autobiographical texts can flatten out the nuances and struggles that are presented within, making the arc of the text seem flat and unconvincing. This is far from the case with Jimmy Santiago Baca’s autobiography, A Place to Stand.
For a nine-year-old who wants nothing more than to make her mother proud this was exciting. In the beginning, we can see her excitement and desire, “in the beginning I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so.” (Tan). However, as we follow the story we see her excitement quickly fade to sorrow and anger. The high expectations immigrant families place on their children is still a very relevant social issue and can be witnessed throughout the United States.
The immigrants entering the United States throughout its history have always had a profound effect on American culture. However, the identity of immigrant groups has been fundamentally challenged and shaped as they attempt to integrate into U.S. society. The influx of Mexicans into the United States has become a controversial political issue that necessitates a comprehensive understanding of their cultural themes and sense of identity. The film Mi Familia (or My Family) covers the journey and experiences of one Mexican-American (or “Chicano”) family from Mexico as they start a new life in the United States. Throughout the course of the film, the same essential conflicts and themes that epitomize Chicano identity in other works of literature
kSiddharth Shankar Ms. Hamrick English 9 HN 20 January 2023 In I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez, fifteen-year-old Julia Reyes comes to terms with the death of her elder sister, Olga, where she finds herself amidst the pressures and expectations of growing up in a Mexican family. As Julia continues to uncover secrets about her sister, she comes face to face with more unsettling truths about her family’s past. Furthermore, while Olga’s secrets disclose progressively, Julia develops many of her own, and her inner conflicts descend into chaos as the relationship with her family and friends fluctuates drastically. Julia’s taciturn and clandestine manner is by far the most significant point in the strength of said relationship
As a child, he is burdened with worry for his mother because she is not near him for many formidable years of his life. He is troubled by a perceived lack of love from his father, grandmother, and many members of his family still residing in Honduras. Enrique experiences the pressures of living within a low economic status when Lourdes is unable to send a sufficient amount of money for his livelihood. In later years, Enrique uses drug use as a coping mechanism and cannot release the stronghold that drugs have in his life so much so that he still uses drugs today. Enrique is also plagued with the increasing violence in his area.