Spring Break
Nazario endangers self to take 'Enrique's Journey'
Minhaj Muneer
Issue date: 10/1/07 Section: Culture
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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.
"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.
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