Think about that as a nine-year-old boy, your grandparents place you into the care of a “coyote.” They pay him a considerable sum of cash to information you out of your village in El Salvador to your mother and father, who’re dwelling over three thousand miles away in america. You end up embarking on a journey stuffed with uncertainty and concern as you permit behind the acquainted sights, sounds, and smells of your grandparents’ dwelling and your tiny village, which was the one place you ever knew. The coyote quickly abandons you—you might be solito—by yourself—and solely 9 years outdated! Your solely recourse is to march onward and depend upon the goodwill of different migrants and beneficiant individuals with whom you cross paths as you make your method on a nine-week harrowing trek from El Salvador by means of Guatemala and Mexico, to “la USA.”
Javier Zamora’s journey is typically stuffed with concern and dread as he avoids and evades patrols, harmful wildlife, and people who would trigger him hurt. At different instances, there are tender moments when sort and compassionate people lengthen their assist in the type of meals, shelter, recommendation, and accompaniment.
Solito: A Memoir is Zamora’s firsthand retelling of the occasions, experiences, and other people he encountered throughout that tremendous journey. It was not straightforward to muster up the braveness to jot down the memoir of that two-month lengthy march in later life. As soon as reunited, he and his mother and father barely spoke of it. He says he was solely in a position to take action with “large assist” from his therapist (381). The traumatic reminiscence of it had been buried deep inside him for a number of years. However lastly, in 2022, the account of his wonderful journey was printed and shortly turned a New York Occasions bestseller.[i]
Solito is the story of an unbelievable expedition as seen by means of the eyes of a nine-year-old, stuffed with fascinating anecdotes, fascinating likelihood encounters, and the adventures of a boy who’s rising up quick, struggling to outlive.
Whereas the reason for Zamora’s mother and father’ flight to america some years earlier had its roots within the US-backed Salvadoran civil struggle, this isn’t a political e-book that demonizes anybody. Fairly, we hear concerning the kindnesses of many individuals from completely different quarters, together with that of border patrol brokers who carried out their work humanely and empathetically.
I discovered this story personally fascinating as a result of my household and I lived in Central America throughout a time when political violence and warring factions solid a shadow over on a regular basis life. I’ll always remember when a Salvadoran Lutheran pastor colleague was tortured and assassinated by a army loss of life squad. It was November 21, 1984. I keep in mind the shock once I obtained a telephone name indicating that Pastor Fernandez was gone. I want the world would keep in mind Rev. David Fernandez, a devoted shepherd of Iglesia Luterana El Divino Redentor in San Miguel, El Salvador, a martyr for Jesus Christ whose solely crime was looking for methods to assist his neighbor. Studying this e-book stirs up a few of these reminiscences.
Furthermore, having traveled by automobile some ten instances between Guatemala and the midwestern United States, the scenes of the countryside, villages, cities, and chaotic border crossings are fairly acquainted to me. The reader may discover that this e-book is considerably bilingual, interspersed with Spanish language phrases and expressions normally left untranslated. The linguistic subtleties between the Spanish of Mexico and that of Central America that the writer injects is one thing that in all probability passes over many readers’ heads, even when they’ve a working information of Spanish. To talk within the antiquated second-person singular kind, referred to as vos, utilized in Central America, could be a useless divulge to anybody in Mexico that you’re not Mexican, however little doubt an “unlawful” crossing by means of Mexico on the best way to america. So the little boy was warned repeatedly, “Don’t speak!” “¡No hablas!” “¡No hablás, vos!” lest they be discovered. Whereas the controversy over the arrival of thousands and thousands of migrants in america typically turns into vitriolic, Solito: A Memoir takes a step again to painting a really human story about very human individuals, whose motivations will not be nefarious however reasonably who’re in search of a greater life for themselves and their youngsters, typically attempting to make their escape from injustice, poverty, and violence. It’s well-written and interesting—properly definitely worth the learn for anybody fascinated with seeing migration from an unfamiliar perspective, by means of the naïve and harmless eyes of a nine-year-old boy.
[i]After migrating to america and being reunited along with his mother and father, Javier Zamora went on to expertise life in america, attending faculty, and establishing himself as a famend writer. He just lately received a 2024 Whiting Fellowship. He was the 2022 LA Occasions-Christopher Isherwood Prize winner and is the recipient of a 2018–2019 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard College, together with different awards and recognitions (www.javierzamora.web).
