OVERVIEW

Enrique's Journey
Dajiana Bunton
        I'm glad i decided to read this novel. The main character faces a lot of adversity and is placed in a lot of difficult situations and it was interesting the way he got out of them. First , his mother leaves him to go to the United States so that she can try to better herself and make a better life for them but he misses her and she's been gone for years. He takes is out on the people that takes him in when his mother leaves and has to be moved from home to home. Enrique uses behavior strategies and acts out to get attention because he feels like, no one loves him. He disrespects his family members and he uses drug to cope with dealing with his hard life. He finally gives up and decides to go look for his mother.
        Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish the book by the dead line but Enrique did face some difficulties while trying to get to the United States. He is departed many times. He is chased down, beaten and in hiding all while trying to get to the United States. Even though, I was not able to finish this novel in time, I plan to continue reading to see if he finds his mother and the different emotions he gets once he finds her.

POST #6

Enrique's Journey
Pages (100-130)
Dajiana Bunton

Enrique on top of the frieght trains



            In the next chapter of the book, it talks about the bandits and what they mainly do as Enrique keeps running from them. When Enrique got passed them before, he blended in as a street gangster. Bandits are scared of street gangster because they are mostly armed and dangerous. It is illegal for the bandits to carry fire arms their jobs are to get the illegal migrant and depart them back to their country.

            The author talks about the women migrants get raped and sometimes killed by bandits. While Enrique runs past this hut he remembers stories others told him about a young girl getting rapped, sometimes ganged raped repeatedly. Some become pregnant and some are already pregnant. These women sometimes just give up and get departed or get put into women’s shelters.  In these homes some commit suicide, some go insane, and some take showers for hours trying to cleanse themselves from the traumatic experience.  A 1997 University of Houston study says one and every six migrant girls had been sexually assaulted her journey to the United States. Women trying to make the journey had heard of these things happening. Some cut their hair and strap their breast down with tape to make them appear like a boy. Some put a sign on their chest saying “TENGO SIDA” (I had AIDS) so that those types of things wouldn’t happen to them.

            Enrique is still in hiding and is thirsty but knows that none of the residents would let him get anything. Most residents don’t like the migrants let alone trust them. Some who help them get robbed by knives or even at gun point. An elderly woman tried to give a migrant boy a place to stay and was beaten to death and robbed of everything. Another older man gave three Salvadorians a job killing chicken and not even a week had passed before they robbed him blind and slit his throat.

            Reading this is very sad. First the rapping of innocent women to the elderly being robbed and killed. Because of the desperate migrants trying to make it the United States they think they have to kill, which isn’t the case. I’m wondering what Enrique’s family is thinking back home or if they are worried about his ware bouts

POST #5

Enrique's Journey

Pages (80-100)
Dajiana Bunton

An example of what a Frieght Train looks like.



Continuing this book, Enrique gets further towards the United States, much further than he expected. He learns the ends and outs of the freight trains and how they work. In one of the certain kinds of trains a man tells him a story about it becoming so hot in the train, people had passed out. A women in particular with asthma how begged and pleaded for something to drink and then fainted out unconscious. Others used her as a step in stool to reach the high holes in the ceiling so that they would be able to get some fresh air.

Enrique learns that that the box trains are easiest but nothing about them is safe. Once he enters the box train, it starts to come to a stop. Bandits tell him to come down, he says no. There is no ladder that reaches the ground so a few of the bandits hops up to bring him down and Enrique starts to run. With the bandits chasing him and the ones running on foot throwing stones at him telling him to come down, he keeps going. Eventually he has to hop off the end of the trains and has to hide.

So far this book has me on edge; Enrique has been caught and departed so many times and still maintains to never quit and keep going. Now he has gotten further then he had been and the bandits are chasing him.

POST #4

Enrique's Journey
Pages (65-80)
Dajiana Bunton

      So far in this novel, Enrique leaves Honduras to find his mother. On the journey to The United States, he encountered different types of struggles from getting beaten to almost being arrested. Enrique had been found by the police and departed many times back to Honduras. One time he and many others where in a cemetery located where the trains usually head North. They were there because they planned on catching the next train and sometimes trains didn't come for three or four days at a time, so they slept there over night.

       Around dusk, the cemetery was raided by "police with blue suits" as Enrique tells us in the story. He doesn't make it and the police catch him. He is badly beaten and is taken to the police station to get ready to be departed back to the Honduras. But, when officials are distracted he takes a look at the time and remembers the next train leaves at 10 am. He tells the other migrants he needs to go. He saw a bike leaned up against the railing close by. The other migrants help him to reach the bike and just like that he is free. He makes it to the next train.

       All throughout this chapter of the book he faces difficulties with trying to reach the United States. I think as I read further into the book he will eventually make it to the United States and get to see his mother but everything isn't going to be like he thought it would be. He will realize that she is really struggling trying to make it.

POST #3

Enrique's Journey

Pages (40-65)
Dajiana Bunton

 Reading more into the story, Enrique becomes hard to deal with. He is acting out at home and in school. In school he would act out by disrespecting the teachers and bulling students. One day he actually stood on top of the teacher’s desk. Once he finally graduates the sixth grade, the teachers are happy. At home, Enrique shares a two-bedroom hut with six people. They all squeeze on a tiny mattress and have to sleep head to foot to make sure everybody I is on the mattress. Outside of home and school, Enrique starts to get involved with drugs. He and his friends start to smoke marijuana and sniff glue. His family members and girlfriend notice this drastic change in Enrique’s appearance because of the drugs he uses.

            Enrique is in debt with his supplier and one day his supplier tells him that is he wouldn’t pay him the money he owes him, he could kills his cousin, (who he that was his sister) Tania. Enrique doesn’t want him to do that and he knows that he will because he owns a gun and he’s been to jail before. Enrique goes into his Aunt and Uncle’s house and stills over 20 pieces of jewelry, debating on selling them to make the money to pay off his debt. He gets caught and gets kicked out of the house to live in the back out house. Enrique gets even more depressed. He thinks so one loves him. One day he walks into the house and his Aunt and him automatically start arguing. He tries his hardest to retain his anger but, he couldn’t and before you knew it he was kicking her in her back.         

            His family tells his him he needs to leave. He needs to go find his mother not caring about the dangerous trip to make it to the United States. He decides he needs to as well. He sells almost everything he owns to make money to travel. He stops by his father’s mother’s house to see her and she’s not happy to hear about his decision to travel to the United States. On the way out he passes his father and tells him about his plans. His father gave him enough money for a soda and kept moving. Lastly, he visited his sister who was not happy to see him go. She cooked him a home cooked meal and said her goodbyes. He went over to the house he once lived in and stood one the steps his mother stood on before she disappeared.

            While reading this passage, I can see why Enrique acts out a lot. He feels like no one loves him. They way his family members treat him, he has every right too. I feel like they should at least tend to him and the fact that his mother left him at such a young age and they know how important she is to him.

POST #2

Enrique's Journey
pages (21-40)
Dajiana Bunton
                     Enrique is bewildered. He is upset that can’t see his mother. She continues to say she will come back on Christmas and doesn't. His confusion turns to anger. When they speak on the phone, which is very rare, she almost demands that she returns. Even her mother begs for her to return but she doesn't. Her eldest child Belky is anger with her because she had another child. She thinks that her mother will forget about her and her little brother.

           Lourdes always encounters crooks how she has given over thousands of dollars to so that they can give her legal papers. These fraud people and organizations never came through for Lourdes. She also contemplates on whether or not she should or shouldn't hire a smuggler to bring her children to the United States. Coyotes, another word they call smugglers, are very expensive and sometimes do not deliver the children. Her close friends in Long Beach, where she resides, had bad experiences with smugglers from abandonment to death so she goes against that idea. 

          As Enrique gets older, he becomes rebellious. He misbehaves in school and disrespects his grandmother. Soon enough he gets sent to live with his uncle.  Lourdes moves to North Carolina. She tells her children that California was much too expensive so she sold almost everything she had and moved. She now has two jobs that pay enough for her and her daughter, Diana, to maintain good living and for her to be able to send Enrique and Belky money. She is proud that she is able to pay for Belky's private high school tuition. Enrique still is livid with her as to why she didn't return home when she said she would.  

             Marco, Enrique's uncle works for exchanging Mexican money. After his security guard is killed trying to make an exchange, Macro says he quits that job until an opportunity comes along that has to do with a lot of money that can be made, he does it claim this will be his last time. Enrique begs to go but he's uncle said he's too young. Robbers kill he’s uncle along the way. In Enrique's eyes that is the only person that really been there for him. Marco's girlfriend sold all of Enrique's gifts from his uncle and kicks him out. He has to live with his maternal grandmother. 

             Reading this story i can understand why Enrique feels that no one is there for him. His mother leaves him and doesn't return when she said she would. As a child, i would feel rebellious too if that is the only way to get people to notice me.

POST #1

Enrique's Journey

 Prologue + Pages (1-20)
Dajiana Bunton

          The beginning of this novel talks about a, what it seems like, workaholic woman named Carmen. She has a maid who comes to her house during her hectic mornings and cleans. While she’s getting ready for work the maid asks her when she think she’s going to have a baby. The woman couldn’t understand why Carmen lived so well and didn’t want to have any kids to share it with.         

          As I read more into the story, the woman’s name turned out to be Lourdes from Tegucigalpa, the outskirts of Honduras, where she experiences poverty. Lourdes has two children, Belky and Enrique. Belky, being her oldest, worked along side her mother selling tortillas door to door and on the busy streets. Enrique was her youngest and only son, her baby. In the book, the author describes him as being very attached to his mother. That’s why it hurt to the core that she had to leave him. She wanted better for her children and she also wanted better for herself.

Reading the end of this chapter leading into the beginning of the next Sonia Nazario, the author, goes in depth more about the struggles Lourdes face while in the United States. Her plan was to move to the United States, get a good paying job to send things to her children, then eventually get enough money to be able to afford to send for her kids.  ­ Lourdes faces while she resides in the United States. She talks about one of her, many jobs cleaning offices and homes. She really goes in detail about they way her employees treated her. Some were kind as to feed her and other treated her as if she was a slave making her work on her hands and knees no matter her condition.
Another difficulty she faced was with her boyfriend Santos. Santos was a hard worker back in Honduras and in the United States he worked on making air plane parts. Lourdes figures if they live together and work hard she can afford to send for her children in about two years.  Lourdes unexpectedly gets pregnant. She struggles a very tough delivery almost for her and her child’s life while her boyfriend, Santos is out drinking. Santos is a very jealous man, one day he punched Lourdes in the chest because she offered a male friend a ride home from work. She could no longer take. One day he left for Honduras, as he promised invest their money into something and call, he didn't do neither.
The beginning  of this novel is exactly how I thought it would be with a little more detail. The way the author is presenting this story is a good way because i can really understand  what she is trying to say about Enrique's situation and the reasons his mother left.

INTERPERTATION

Enrique's Journey

Dajiana Bunton

             I picked to novel Enrique's Journey because it seemed to be something relativity relate-able. Before choosing our books, the class read different types of reviews on the book list that was provided for us. Coming across Enrique’s Journey, I felt I heard this story before but in a different situation. For example, by reading the reviews I know that the story is about a child abandon by he’s mother at a young age and never let anything or anyone stop him from searching for her. Their parents abandon a lot of children throughout the world due to numerous reasons, some bad and some good.

          In this novel I hope to understand why his mother abandon him and was the reason good or bad. In my opinion, there’s no excuse for leaving your child behind but in this story there might be a good reason as to why Enrique’s mother did what she did. I would like to clearly understand what adversity had to do with this novel and how the characters dealt with it.