Enriques Journey Summary

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BOOK REVIEW
The Book and the Author
In this work, the book titled “ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY” is reviewed. The book is a non-fiction type. The book was authored by Sonia Nazario who grew up in Argentina and Kansas. She was a project's reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Sonia took more than two decades reporting on social issues for the Los Angeles Times; this gave her a lot of experience in writing about social issues. During her time with the Los Angeles Times, Sonia won a Pulitzer Prize for one of her work; this work formed the background of “Enrique’s Journey”. Apart from winning the Pulitzer Prize, Sonia has been mentioned as the most influential Latinos by Hispanic Business Magazine and also she is among the 40 women who have transformed the operation of media in the past 40 years according to Columbia Journalism Review. At the time of writing the book, she was leaving in Los Angeles.
The General Theme
Family unity is essential for the mental peace of both children and parents. Immigration and search for better employment opportunities is a threat to family unity. Sonia centers her investigation on how immigration can affect family unity. Lourdes, Enrique's mother, travels to the U.S in search of work. She believes she is making the right decision because what she is doing is to benefit her children. Enrique’s mother leaves her two children; the two instantly start feeling the pangs of separation. The children immediately lose the meaning of a family. Enrique particularly asks where his mom has gone. The mother's decision creates a loss to both the children and herself, they both lose the meaning of a family.
Separation can be traumatizing. In the attempt to subdue the trauma, the separated family members can decide to start other families. For example, Enrique’s father decides to start a family with another woman. Enrique’s father action leaves Enrique as someone who can be traded from one homestead to another. Feeling of loneliness overtakes the boy, and because of this, he starts thinking about impregnating his girlfriend. The mother starts a new life in the U.S but is primarily disturbed because of the absence of Enrique and Belky.
When the families were finally reunited, because of their sentiments of separation the unity becomes difficult. After reunion when Enrique asked Maria Isabel to join him, the mother felt reluctant because of fear of abandonment by the daughter. Therefore in the whole book family, and majorly family unity is the overall theme.
Book Summary
The book covers the events in a young Central American boy’s life that was left by the mother. The mother left the boy to seek for work in the U.S. This book gives the details of the boy’s journey in the attempt to reunite with the mother who left him at age five years on January 29, 1989.
With the illusion of finding a better life in the U.S, Lourdes, Enrique’s mother, leaves Tegucigalpa in Honduras. In Honduras, Lourdes and her family were living in poverty. The fact that Lourdes's husband left her worsened the situation; this threatened the education of her children. She was not sure of where she would get enough money to feed an...