Each year thousands of people migrate from Central America to the US, some as young
as seven, and many all by themselves. The book Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario vividly describes the dangerous journey migrants make. Most of them travel riding on freight trains through Mexico. The situation is only getting worse as more and more people are trying to make this trek. Sonia Nazario contributes to this issue by showing how dangerous the journey is especially for young people, how big an issue immigration is in the US, and that literature should be taught in the curriculum.
First, many of the migrants ride through Mexico on trains, which is very dangerous and can have many consequences. They face extreme temperatures, risk getting beat up by gangs, and sometimes are unaware of how dangerous it is when they decide to make the journey (Why They…show more content… Thousands of Central Americans choose to come to the U.S. because they’re facing extreme poverty or violence in their home country (Central America’s Unresolved Migrant Crisis). “In one neighborhood near where Enrique’s mother grew up, fifty-two children arrive at kindergarten each morning. Forty-four arrive barefoot.” (Nazario 27). Some people in Honduras, where Enrique is from, are so poor that they cannot afford to buy shoes for their children. These are one type of people that migrate to the U.S., like Enrique’s mother, Lourdes. “She can barely afford food for him and his sister, Belky, who is seven. She’s never been able to buy them a toy or a birthday cake.” (Nazario 4). As a single mom, Lourdes can barely afford to take care of her two kids, and she definitely could not spoil them on their birthdays. Her love for her children is why she left for the U.S. Honduras is such a poor country that many people decide to go north seeking a better life, creating the large immigration issue in the
