Tolog Review: Enrique's Journey

Enrique's Journey
by Sonia Nazario
reviewed by Charlotte Collins 

Sonia Nazario's non-fiction book Enrique’s Journey follows the journey of Enrique, a boy from Honduras, who makes the dangerous trek through Central America to the United States. As a child, Enrique’s mother, Lourdes, left Honduras for America searching for a better life and for money to send home to Enrique and Enrique’s sister, Belky. Once Lourdes leaves, Enrique bounces from relative to relative and struggles with the ultimate question of why Lourdes would leave him. After many years of feeling alone and forgotten, fifteen-year-old Enrique decides to make the risky and potentially deadly journey from Honduras through Mexico to the United States to find Lourdes. Alone on the perilous journey atop fast moving trains and surrounded by violent gangsters and brutal, corrupt police officers, Enrique embarks on the journey of a lifetime. 

Sonia Nazario uses logos, ethos, and pathos to show the reader the dangers and trials of the expedition taken by hundreds of thousands of migrants trying to make it to the U.S. She uses logs when she recites statistics about the hardships faced by the migrants. She uses ethos when she describes how she went on top of the trains with child migrants to see their struggles firsthand. She uses pathos when she describes the excruciating pain and emotional turmoil Enrique and many other migrants go through. Also, throughout the story there is a sense of irony because Enrique is going to America to search for his mother who left him as a child while his girlfriend, Maria Isabel, suspects that she might be pregnant with Enrique’s child. Enrique’s Journey explores the themes of family, abandonment, and hope. 
By writing her story about not only Enrique but about the effect Enrique’s journey had on the rest of his family, Nazario shows the different ways immigration affects the family as an individual. Abandonment is shown by Enrique first being abandoned by his mother, and then by every other member of his family as he jumps from house to house. Nazario shows the theme of hope through Enrique’s determination and refusal to give up. Enrique remains hopeful throughout his journey of the idea of a brighter tomorrow. 

I loved Enrique’s Journey. I thought it was a compelling storyline with a thought-provoking message.