Recently I've finished two books on the topic of migration from Latin America, one fiction, one nonfiction. Both have helped increase my empathy for people living in poverty in their beloved country making the hard decision to migrate to the United States. I'll expand on this topic more at the end of the book reviews.
Infinite Country: a Novel by Patricia Engle is the story of a mixed-status family after the father is deported to Columbia and the mother is left behind with the three children, two of whom were born in the United States. One of those children, Talia, is sent back to Columbia to be raised by the father and her maternal grandmother and now fifteen-year-old Talia is preparing to fly to the US to reunite with the half of the family she barely remembers. In the opening pages of the book, Talia escapes from a reform school, far from Bogota where her father lives. Twenty years of back story are told as she races home in time to catch that plane.
The book, short by any standard, is especially brief when held up to other books by Latin American greats. But I think its brevity gave the book a sense of urgency which I appreciated. Talia's story takes the most time with details of escape and about her travels across the country going home and going toward her unknown future. Her mother and father's love affair and immigration to the US show both their naivete and the awful reality of living in a country "illegally." Engle includes aspects of Colombia folklore when the chapters focus on the father, Mauro. The mother, Elena, is presented as a saint and as very long-suffering. Talia's siblings, Nando and Karina, also have chapters which describe what life is like for them in the US. Nando is often tortured and bullied at school. Karina's chapters are the only one's written in first person and we come to understand it is her journal writing that form the basis of the story.
Infinite Country is compulsively readable, or in my case since I listened to the audiobook, listenable (is that a word?) If you are a reader who loves your stories told on a strict timeline, this is not a book for you. But for the rest of us who can adapt to a story which jumps back and forth in time, I highly recommend it.
Opening quote (Book Beginnings):
It was her idea to tie up the nun.
Solito: a Memoir by the poet Javier Zamora is a harrowing account of the author's migration story from El Salvador when he was nine-years-old. Zamora's parents had already migrated to the US so this nine-year-old boy had to make the journey with a group of people he did not know under the care of a "coyote." The account is told in the voice of the child. “I learned to poop in the toilet, wash my underwear. The only thing I still don’t know how to do is tie my shoes.”
His innocence is contrasted with the challenges that Zamora faces: uniformed men with machine guns, smugglers, Border Patrol. In telling this story from a child’s perspective, describing his surroundings with plainness, presenting his survival without bluster, he reveals the true horrors of migration. (NYT)
I can't even tell you how touching and real this memoir is. I could practically picture every single step Zamora took on his journey north. And my heart broke for this little boy who was left to the kindness of strangers to get him to his destination as he journeyed with them for over seven weeks.
On one hand I loved Solito for Zamora's raw yet beautiful storytelling and on the other hand I was disgusted. What parent would a) leave their child behind so they could migrate to the US without him and then b) expect a nine-year-old to make the harrowing journey by himself a few years later? I feel my blood pressure going up as I type these words, considering these questions. Plus, here's the thing that also bothered me -- Zamora loved his life in El Salvador living with his grandparents and his aunt. He loved the food, the culture, his friends. He was doing well in school. What on earth could compel his parents to leave in the first place? What was so horrible about El Salvador and so wonderful about the US?
Years ago I read a book by Jonathan Kozol called Savage Inequalities. In the book Kozol addressed how abject poverty usually lived right next to opulent riches. He compared the riches of Manhattan next to the poverty of Harlem as his examples. I kept thinking about his examples as I compared the "riches of the US" compared to the "poverty of Latin America." I put those phrases in quotes because I am not sure they are true. I have long suspected that many people from Latin American want to come to the US because they THINK it is better than where they live. And the reason they think that is because we BRAG about how great America is. In Solito Zamora said that his nine-year-old self thought his parents lived in a grand style in the US with a huge house and a swimming pool. I'm sure that vision was far from the truth considering that his parents migrated and entered the country illegally. If we want less people to attempt to enter the US illegally perhaps we should start by telling the truth -- about poverty in the US; racism; etc. Maybe that would be a bigger deterrent than bragging!?
What do you think?
Friday56 quote from Solito:
Grandpa isn't here to talk to me before falling asleep, to go out for walks and explore the town, and because of that I feel alone, lonely, solo, solito, solito de verdad.
-Anne
