The book Enrique’s Journey overview

In the book Enrique’s Journey, written by Sonia Nazario, readers understand the life of determined Enrique, who travels from Tegucigalpa Honduras to the United States of America to reunite with his mother, who left him to go to the United States when he was 11 years old. Tegucigalpa, Honduras is one of the poorest communities. There are high levels of poverty, corruption, and violence. There are a lot of gangsters who steal and kill people for their belongings. Most Families live in small huts and depend on farming or relatives that have traveled to America for survival.

Most children in Honduras do not make it past fourth grade. This is for many reasons, mostly because the family needs that child to work and they cannot afford to pay for the child to get back and fourth to school (Nazario, 2014). These challenges affect a lot of families like Enrique’s family. Many women in South America leave to the United States to work and to send money to their children in Honduras to provide a better future. Enrique mother Lourdes is a single mother who struggles financially and she cannot afford pencils and uniforms for Enrique and his sister Belky.

Belky and Enrique are not likely to finish fourth grade school. Lourdes only source of income is to sell tortillas and use clothes door to door, and to sell candy and cigarettes by the side of the road. Lourdes knew it was impossible for her to provide for her children if she were to remain there. Lourdes sailed to the United States to earn money and to provide her children a better education. The money she would earn she would send to Honduras. Although Lourdes may have had lawful reasons for her leaving, her absence was a foundation of great distress for Enrique as he grew up.

Lourdes never gave Enrique an appropriate goodbye before leaving; she wished she could, but it was too painful for her. For many years, Enrique pondered about what Lourdes was doing in America, why she had to leave, and when she would return. As the years drag on, Enrique eventually gives up hope that Lourdes will ever return, that at the age of 16 years old he decided to leave Honduras to reunite with his mother. Enrique decides to ride the “la Beastia” the beat train to Mexico. Many policemen shake, and beat immigrants traveling in freight trains, and check for money to steal.

This is a form of oppression, a police officer saw Enrique and told him to get in line with other migrants and told him if he moved he would shoot him. The police officers told the migrants to empty their pockets and they take the money away from them. The police cannot be trusted in most cases they don’t deport the migrants, they just steal from them. Another form of oppression is sexism in Honduras. Sonia Navaro (2014) explained that, women have the hardest time finding employment in Honduras.

Many women have to drop out of school early, because many businesses only hire young women before the turn the age of twenty-five years old (Navaro, 2014). Lourdes felt that she was making little money and that’s why she had to go to America. Enrique experienced poverty at a young age; he would help his mother Lourdes sell candy at the corner of the street. At an older age he experienced poverty when he reached to Mexico, he would walk around the streets asking for food. In Mexico the people were not friendly that, Enrique started washing cars to make a little bit of money to buy food.

There was a time when someone stole Enrique right shoe, he found a left shoe, and he was wearing two left shoes, because he didn’t have money to buy a new pair of shoes. Many people in Honduras dream and fantasize of being in America, they don not realize that in United States many people are also suffering from high levels of poverty. For Lourdes and Enrique that was true. Enrique worked long hours as a painter, he lived in small trailer with his mother, and still barley made enough money to get buy. There are many reasons why the poverty population in Honduras is outrageous.

These reasons can be explained in a macro, micro, and mezzo way. According to Gamble and Soska (2013), the practice of macro social work involves intervening in large systems to help clients. The country has high levels of crime, and the government is corrupt. Many individuals leave South America because they don’t trust the government. In Honduras the neighborhoods can be corrupted as the country. In Enrique’s neighborhood there are high levels of corruption and violence. In the neighborhood there are gangs and people fall into drugs. Many children that are left behind from their mothers fall into the gangs and drug scene.

Enrique started using drugs, and he would sniff glue. The mezzo social work deals and works with small communities, such as neighborhoods. Enrique’s was a victim of his community and he fell into drugs, and dropped out of school at such a gung age to help his grandmother with money. The micro social work deals with the individual and family and the things that are closet to the individual. Enrique did not have a lot of positive influence. When his mother left to the United States, he had an empty void. He was living with his grandmother and his father.

His father left and remarried, and he Harley saw him. Enrique dropped out of school and started working to help his grandmother. When Enrique got involved with drugs, and he stole his grandmother’s jewelry’s to pay a debt, and he left to live with his uncle. Enrique uncle was a positive influence on him and he set him on the right path, but unfortunately he passed away and Enrique fell back to using drugs. Not having his mother was harming him, and he knew the only thing that would stop him from using drugs was his mother. Enrique displays a tremendous amount of ambition and determination.

These two strengths are what kept him alive. His goal was to reunite with his mother, and when he would get deported, he would keep trying. Enrique was fearless, and he was not scared of dying. He knew he would do anything in his willpower to get to the Untied States. These two attributes is what it takes to overcome oppression and poverty. Enrique is a hard worker and shows a lot of ambition with his work ethic. He works long hours and sometime seven days out of the week to get ahead and save up money to send back to his family to get them out of poverty.

These attribute do not only help him to survive, but it also helps family. Some recommendations to help individuals that are in Enrique’s circumstance are to increase education and training programs. Instead of migrants paying money to smugglers they should invest it in land for farming. Also, the government needs to stop being corrupted, and needs to help individual better themselves. If the government starts making changes, and more jobs are available to individuals the county with flourish, and will eliminate poverty.

References
Gamble, D. N., & Soska, T. M. (2013). Macro Practice Competencies. Encyclopedia of Social Work. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.976
Nazario, S. (2014). Enrique’s journey: The true story of a boy determined to reunite with his mother.
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