Très

The tone in the last third of Enrique's Journey is that of distance. Where I fully expected the reunion with Lourdes to be a point of emotional climax, in reality it was nothing more than a long hug. The author shows us clearly how distant Lourdes and Enrique have become, and even though they are physically closer, the distance just keeps getting larger. Enrique, distraught by the unfulfillable expectations he has created for his mother, turns to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism. He pushes his mother further away, sometimes responding to her with anger, a reaction that I am sure he did not visualize when he planned his journey to America. Enrique is distraught over the reality of his mother, the distance of María Isabel and his daughter, and the sense of detachment that he feels from his home. Eventually, though, Enrique is able to scrape together enough money to bring María Isabel into the United States, but soon finds out that he will not be able to bring his infant daughter, too. Enrique seems to forget his childhood, and decides that this is the best possible future for his daughter, even though it was clearly not the best possible future for him. "Enrique agrees, they will have to leave the baby behind. He and María Isabel both agree it is the only way for their child."(pg.194) Enrique has not only distanced himself from his child, but he has also distanced himself from reality. The fact is, no matter how many phone calls or money-grams Enrique will send, his child will not see it as a "sacrifice;" she will see it as abandonment, just as Enrique did.

In all honesty, I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I felt empathetic towards Enrique and his dire situations, but the book seemed to rely far too heavily on off-topic shock-value facts that had little and less to do with Enrique, nonetheless his journey. It seemed as though you could not go a page in the book without reading about how jumping off the train wrong could make you lose appendages, or how many small children get swept away by low-hanging branches. I also felt that the author relied far too heavily on anecdotes of other migrants that did not add anything to the story. In my opinion, this book was less about Enrique's Journey, and more about using Enrique as a conduit for sympathy towards immigrants. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with sympathy for immigrants whatsoever, I just wish the book was labelled as such.