Enrique's Journey Discussion

By Richard Castañeda

Due to a bad cold, I can't make it in today. I'll chip in my two cents here:

Most of the sympathy I had for Enrique up through chapter 6 steeply declined in the seventh chapter as fights ensued with Lourdes. He was so resolute to be with her that he endured an epic journey at the expense of his general well being, health and almost his life, only to arrive at his mother's doorstep and fall back into addiction.

His insensitivity towards Lourdes is understandable because of his 11 year resentment, but why make such a long journey just to fight with Lourdes? His emotions get the best of him during many of those fights. His escape is in his vices. He drinks and smokes marijuana with his buddies from work. For a person who condemned his mother for not being there for him during his childhood, he risked doing the same for his own daughter. What if he got in an accident because of drunk driving? What if he died in said accident? What would happen to his daughter and Maria Isabel? He becomes extremely reckless and completely disregards his own family in the name of his addictions.

He somewhat redeemed himself after returning to North Carolina after moving to Florida with Lourdes. His independence showed a lot of maturity. Ironically, his relationship with her became stronger with the distance.

There is such a large scope to this story that the book hardly ever gets a chance to properly explore. It isn't until the afterward that the most heartwarming encounter occurs. Belky finally meets her mother in Sabado Gigante. That was the most touching moment because both women longed to see each other, but it seems Belky wanted to see Lourdes much more than the other way around.

Perhaps its the way this book was compiled and presented, but I think its a little unfair to judge Lourdes as a negligent parent or slightly apathetic based on the little information we have of her motives and opinions. Its very easy to judge Lourdes negatively based on what the reader is able to discern, but then again, placing oneself in her shoes, it must be difficult to return to a life in Honduras that is much different from the one she's lived for almost two decades in the U.S.

This book has a wonderful way of luring the reader and appealing to their sympathy. Its style is slightly off-putting because it tells rather than shows the action and drama of Enrique's journey. For such a compelling story, the scope in which it was presented doesn't do his journey justice. This book could easily be double the size (maybe even triple) to adequately explain everyone's background as a means to fully infer everyone's behavior towards each other justifiably.

As I explained last class, earlier in the book, Lourdes gets pregnant, has Diana, is abandoned by Santos in the span of a paragraph. There is so much missing, in terms of details, that the reader needs to adequately form an opinion of all these characters.

In all though, it is an amazing story. Its achieves its goal of leaving the reader wanting more. Conversely, that is also its drawback. It doesn't present enough information to properly inform the reader.

AP Story on Central American Immigrants in Mexico

Read the story Mexican Town Stands Up For Illegal Immigrants, by Traci Carl of the Associated Press, the small town of Rafael Lara Grajales, Mexico is standing up for Central American immigrants traveling through Mexico to get to the United States.  This is a great story with a photo gallery everyone should see, it reflects some of the people and towns mentioned in Enrique's Journey.

Tim Willer's Entry on Enrique's Journey

Follow this link.

Reaction to YouTube videos

Watching the videos that were posted about the migrants brought Enrique's Journey to life. Already reading the book and knowing that it is a true story, it’s hard to picture such horrifying things happening to real people. Seeing men with decapitated arms brings Sonia's descriptions of boys being pulled under the train and the possibility of having limbs torn off to mind.

This is the first book I've read where the author was a journalist who followed someone and retraced their steps in a book. I think Sonia is a very brave journalist and went to great lengths to write this book. She not only journeyed to a different country but she put her life at risks several times.

Her writing is simple. She is very descriptive and the book is a great read. It puts a face to immigrants that are looked down upon and seen as a burden in the U.S. These people dye trying to enter our home and it makes them very brave. I don't think too many Americans would be able to say that they would do the same.

Sonia presents the story in a non bias way. She isn’t telling the reader to feel sorry for Enrique or to criticize his mother for leaving him. She is a good journalist and reports on what is happening and leaves it to the reader to make up their own mind about it. What gives her credibility as a journalist is that Sonia went out and interviewed many people. She is not only telling a story about a boy who is looking for his mother, but she is telling the reader that his story is not unique. His story is the story of many and she does so by including facts along the way which makes the book so interesting.

Journey through Mexico on the Trains

I do hope that you will take the time to watch all the videos I posted.  I think they really do bring everything to reality and puts faces and the places mentioned in Enrique's Journey.

This video embedding code was disabled but click on it, definitely worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2duGwtVZC0

In the Land of God and Man: Chapters 1 and 2

In Silvana Paternostro’s book, In the Land of God and Man, she discusses some of the key issues that many Latin American women face.

She eases the reader into the controversial subjects of sex, equal rights and abortion by introducing the reader to her adolescence in Barranquilla, Colombia. She tells of how she moved from Colombia to New York to become a journalist, all the while denouncing the life she might have had in Colombia as a sub servant wife and/or mother had she decided not to leave her country.

She has very biased views regarding the role of women in Latin America and with just cause. The horrifying stories of women experiencing self-induced abortions and the taboos of sex in an overwhelming conservative society which regards politics above anything else is disgusting to say the least.

Paternostro not only blames politics for oppressing women, she also extends the blame to religion. The Catholic religion plays a major role in Latin America because 90% of the church is comprised of Latin Americans. Their conservative views towards sex and contraception, according to Paternostro, are to blame for women’s unwillingness to become aware of their own sexuality.

She begins to tie religion to the oppression of women by including a psalm at the beginning of chapter two. The psalm excerpt reinforces how men are dominant. Paternostro discusses how priests are reluctant to accept the use of condoms as a practical means of avoiding unwanted pregnancies and to prevent the further proliferation of sexually transmitted diseases.

Paternostro notes how women have come a long way in politics, but still have a long way to go. She acknowledges that her criticisms might fall on deaf ears because there have been women presidents and women in high-ranking positions within the government. She notes, however, that the positions women have in government, have either been given away by men or they are placed in positions that are not decision-making positions within the government.

Paternostro notes that in order for women to truly ascend to a political level worth merit, women must earn positions in which they make the decisions that affect society on a larger scale. Not just earning a position as Minister of Tourism.

But not all blame can rest on men and the machismo in which they dominate politics. Some of the blame ultimately rests on the women who are either refuse to be informed or have bought into the ideals that their husbands and fathers have taught them through the years of being second-class to men.

Even some of the women who vie for positions like vice president, president, or high-ranking minister, still do not support the feminist movement and the ideals it entails. They still support the machismo politics that don’t give women an equal voice.

It is perhaps the reinforcement of these beliefs from childhood into adulthood that prevents some women from realizing they are contributing to their own struggle. Beliefs are hard to change or abandon when they become a natural part of one’s life, so it is understandable to see why women would side with the church regarding condoms. Its conceivable to see why some women would prefer a life of staying at home and tending after the kids and the husband. What is not understandable, however, is for the women who wish to break free of that mold, to still be expected to fulfill their household roles and still struggle to be equal to a man in society.

Higher abortion rates for African Americans and Latinas

Read the article by Susan A. Cohen: Abortion and Women of Color: The Bigger Picture, published by the Guttmacher Policy Review. Abortion rates of African Americans and Latinas are five and three times higher than those of white women, the article says.