about the book
In this astonishing true story, Enrique’s mother leaves Honduras to work in the US when he is only five years old and promises to return quickly, but she struggles in America despite her being able to send money back home. Years pass. He begs for his mother to come back; without her he becomes lonely and troubled.
After eleven years apart, he decides he will go find her and sets off for North Carolina with a slip of paper with his mother’s telephone number on it and not much more. Without money Enrique’s illegal trek becomes even more dangerous as he clings to the sides and tops of freight trains, traveling the length of Mexico.
Based on the Los Angeles Times newspaper series “Enrique’s Journey” that won two Pulitzer Prizes, this is an epic journey thousands of immigrant children make each year to the US.
about the author
Sonia Nazario, a projects reporter for the Los Angeles Times, has spent more than two decades reporting and writing about social issues, earning her dozens of national awards. The newspaper series upon which this book is based won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, the George Polk Award for International Reporting, and the Grand Prize of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards.
Nazario was inspired to take on the story of Enrique’s Journey after a woman, Carmen, who would come and clean her house twice a month, told her that she had four children that she had left behind in Guatemala. Carmen had not seen her children for 12 years and about a year later her son made the journey to see his mother and described El Tren de La Muerte, the Train of Death. Such a story was unbelievably moving.
Nazario grew up in Kansas and Argentina. She is a graduate of Williams College and has a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband. Active in Latino causes, Sonia serves on the advisory boards of two non-profit organizations: Catch the Next is working to double the number of Latinos enrolling in college, and Kids In Need of Defense provides pro-bono attorneys to unaccompanied immigrant children.
Sources:
Author website
Author blog
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