Chelsea J.

Topic: Immigration and children (inspired by the book Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario)

Imagine arising in the morning from a long night to your grandmother sobbing; realizing your mother isn’t home in the morning to cook your breakfast like she is always. Asking for answers, but not given any. In this case, it’s not an imagination for Enrique; it’s the reality. Enrique's mother, Lourdes, has decided to leave Tegucigalpa, Honduras, for the United States. She knows that if she doesn’t make an effort to find a better job, her children won’t make it past the fourth grade. Lourdes doesn’t want her children to grow up in extreme poverty, as she did. She begins her journey to the United States with hopes of getting a job there, sending money back to Enrique and Belky so that they get better housing, better school opportunities, and better healthcare; those are her three main priorities for improving the lives of her children. Lourdes only plans on leaving for a year. She leaves Belky with her sister, Rosa Amelia, and leaves Enrique with his paternal grandmother. Lourdes makes sure that she doesn’t hint to her children about her decision; she doesn’t want to worry them.

As Enrique begins to grow, he becomes more aware of everything that involves his mother and the reasoning behind his mother leaving at such a young age. The separation between mother and son has really dictated Enrique’s future. Enrique has shuffled from one family home to another, while his sister Belky attends a good school and is well taken care of by her aunt. Enrique is forced to sell food and spices while still a child, in order to help pay for family expenses. He lives with his paternal grandmother for most of his young life but is eventually kicked out of her home when he begins to rebel. Frustrated with his mother, his own issues of abandonment, and the death of his beloved uncle, Enrique turns to drugs for comfort. Although Lourdes sends Enrique and Belky gifts quite frequently, even so, the gifts are no substitute for her physical presence. Enrique’s drug addiction continues to escalate until his drug dealer threatens death upon one of his close relatives because of unpaid debts. Enrique takes the easiest route, which is to steal all of his aunt's jewelry to pay off his drug dealer. He is eventually caught by the police, and once again kicked out of his home. He concludes that his mother's presence might help, so he decided to journey to the United States to try to get away from his problems in Honduras.

Enrique journeys through Central America and Mexico on his way to the United States. He departs with little money, a change of clothes, and his mother’s phone number written on a scrap of paper. Enrique attempts the dangerous journey eight times before he succeeds. During his first seven attempts, he is severely beaten, robbed, deported, and humiliated. However, he never gives up. Migrants often battle against starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion while on the journey. Most migrants fail to make it as far as the U.S./Mexico border. Enrique is not one of them. Lourdes, all the way from North Carolina, successfully contacts a smuggler to help Enrique get across to the U.S. Once Enrique makes it into Texas, he feels a sense of relief, comfort, and happiness that no drug has ever given him. The smugglers inform Enrique that he will be dropped off at a gas station, where another smuggler from their same network will take charge to drive him and four other migrants east, to Orlando, Florida. Driving in a car is a luxury for Enrique. Orlando is where Enrique’s stepfather agreed to pick up Enrique. After the long drive from Texas to Orlando, Enrique meets up with his stepfather. When Enrique interacts with his stepfather for the first time, Enrique instantly recognizes him from a video that was brought back to Honduras, by a family who had visited Lourdes in the United States. Shortly after meeting up, they begin their eighteen-hour drive back to North Carolina, where Lourdes is impatiently waiting for Enrique to arrive at her home. On the way there, they don’t speak, and Enrique falls asleep.

Enrique awakens in panic. “Are we lost? Are you sure we aren’t lost?”

Enrique’s stepfather gently responds, “No, but we are very close.”

***

Another long hour goes by. . .They are rapidly driving on freshly paved roads, through pines and elms, past billboards and fields. The hour finally comes to an end. Enrique and his stepfather finally arrive at Lourdes’s North Carolina mobile home. Enrique gently opens the door; she is eating breakfast in her kitchen table with her back to the door. He lightly taps her from behind. She slowly turns around with a frightened face; soon enough, she realizes that it’s Enrique.

“Son, you're here! Hijo, Estas aqui!” she says.

“Yes, Mom. Si, mama.”

She then reaches to his forehead and lightly kisses him on the forehead. Neither of them cries, but instead, they tightly embrace each other.

***

Even so, the reunion they both imagined is soon shattered by reality. He felt that if he found her, all of his troubles would go away. With each passing day, Enrique’s resentment grows. He knows that he doesn’t hate his mom, but after months with his mother, he can no longer contain it. He snaps at Lourdes: he begins by telling her about how lonely he felt when he was moving from house to house, and that she didn’t care enough about her children to stay with them in Honduras.

He continues, “People come here to prosper. You have nothing here. What have you accomplished? Maybe if you hadn’t left me at such a young age, I wouldn’t have turned out like this!”

Lourdes begins to feel guilt and hurt, but she doesn’t show it. Instead, she shows Enrique that he is terribly mistaken. Every time he asked her for something -- a TV, a soccer ball, or clothing -- she sent it to him. She admits to him, for the first time, that she had to live in extreme poverty while living in the United States independently.

“You are who you are because you didn’t want to study. I wanted you to study. Instead, you chose to do drugs!” she adds. “If I had continued to send you money, you would’ve spent it on drugs.”

Lourdes continues by telling him that she also lived in poverty when she was little. She tells him, “I’m truly grateful for what your grandma was able to give me and your aunt. I’m not an ungrateful brat like you!”

As a result of Lourdes trying to do good for her children, all she gets in return is one ungrateful child who doesn't realize the struggles and sacrifices his mother has gone through.