In this astonishing true story, award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario
recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves
unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother in the United
States.
When Enrique is five years old, his mother, Lourdes, too poor to feed
her children, leaves Honduras to work in the United States. The move
allows her to send money back home to Enrique so he can eat better and
go to school past the third grade.
Lourdes promises Enrique she will return quickly. But she struggles in
America. Years pass. He begs for his mother to come back. Without her,
he becomes lonely and troubled.
With gritty determination and a deep longing to be by his mother's side,
Enrique travels through hostile, unknown worlds. Each step of the way
through Mexico, he and other migrants, many of them children, are hunted
like animals. Gangsters control the tops of the trains. Bandits rob and
kill migrants up and down the tracks. Corrupt cops all along the route
are out to fleece and deport them. To evade Mexican police and
immigration authorities, they must jump onto and off the moving boxcars
they call El Tren de la Muerte - the Train of Death.
Enrique pushes forward using his wit, courage, and hope - and the
kindness of strangers. It is an epic journey, one thousands of immigrant
children make each year to find their mothers in the United States.
Based on the Los Angeles Times newspaper series that won two Pulitzer
Prizes, one for feature writing and another for feature photography,
Enrique's Journey is the timeless story of families torn apart, the
yearning to be together again, and a boy who will risk his life to find
the mother he loves.
