Central America and Mother

Enrique's Journey Book Summary Enrique's Journey was the story of a young boy from Central America who quest to reunite with his mother who had left him at the age of 5 in order to search for work in the United States. Lourdes was Enrique's mother who struggled in Honduras to support her young children named Enrique and Belky. However, she realized that she would not be able to send her children to schools, and she did not want them to remain poor.

Thus, she left her home to travel to the United States to be able to take care of her children by sending money to them. As a young child, Enrique did not have an idea why their mother left them and his family in Honduras did not provide a straight answer. Over the years, she moved from one family's home to the other while his sister was well cared for by her aunt and attended a good school.

However, Enrique was forced to sell food despite his young age to pay for the family expenses. He lived with paternal grandmother, she eventually kicked him out of the house when he started to rebel. He was frustrated with his mother thinking why his mother had to abandon him. The frustration pushed Enrique to turn to drug, however, her girlfriend, Maria Isabel, and the family tried to intervene with no effort.

After years in the United States, Lourdes discovered that the life in the United States was not as easy as she had expected because she worked for series of low-paying jobs and became pregnant. After giving birth to a daughter, she lost her factory job and became a prostitute. However, she was able to find another job again after some time and was able to send money, toys and clothing to her children in Honduras.

Although, both Belky and Enrique appreciated the gifts, however, they still felt that there was no substitute for their mother and they preferred their mother physical presence. Despite the gifts, Enrique continues with the drug problem, which continues to escalate by taking the drug on credit. One day, the drug seller threatens his cousin because of the unpaid debt. Enrique stole the jewelry of his aunt's to pay the debt and he was caught by the police. Thus, his aunt kicked him out of the house again.

Frustrated, Enrique felt compelled to travel to the United States to join his mother, a person, whom he believed would love him. He started the journey from Central America to Mexico, and moved his way to the United States. He started the journey with little money, his mother phone number written on a sheet of paper, and few clothes. Enrique made eight dangerous attempts for the journey before he succeeded. During the first attempt, he was robbed, beaten and deported. However, he never gave up.

To travel towards the north, the migrants needed to travel by train and ride at the top of the train, which was the dangerous endeavors. Many migrants are killed along the route by falling off or being pulled under the train. Moreover, gangsters robbed, beat or raped or killed some migrants. Equally, the Mexican immigration, and corrupt policemen sometimes robbed the immigrants before deporting them. The threat of starvation, exhaustion and dehydration have been the other problems along the routes.

While many migrants were unable to reach the US-Mexican border, however, Enrique was able to succeed. In his eighth attempt to the north, he waited at the banks of River Rio at Mexico. It was a dangerous setting, and he called his mother to raise money to help him paying the smuggler to cross him along the river into the United States. Enrique crossed successfully and was taken to Orlando in Florida. He later reunited with his mother for the first time in a decade.

He and his mother embraced one another however, they did not cry. After some days, Enrique started working. The idealized happy reunion was later shattered by the reality. Enrique had created an image of her mother and felt that all his trouble would be the things of the past if he found her. Lourdes in her case expected respect for the sacrifice she made only to receive the occasional cruelty and resentment. Thus, Enrique returned to the drug because of the disappointment.

Enrique like Lourdes, sent money to her girlfriend, and was saving money to smuggle.