FROM NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY, FRESHMAN READ (Provided by Rebecca Campbell)
Themes in Enrique's Journey for specific academic disciplines:
Economic sustainability (Economics, Political Science, Anthropology)
Global engagement
-Border policy (Political Science, History, Criminal Justice, Ethnic Studies)
-Immigration (Political Science, History, Criminal Justice)
-The road to immigration (Geography)
A culture of inclusion, civility, and respect
-Attachment theory and bonding (Psychology, Sociology/Social Work)
-The role of women in family (Psychology, Women's & Gender Studies, Sociology)
-The role of immigrants in American society (Ethnic Studies, Economics, Sociology)
Voice, viewpoints and alternative histories (Journalism, History, Communications. Women's & Gender Studies, Ethnic Studies)
Border policy impacts on wildlife migration (Conservation Biology, Wildlife Management)
Evolution of immigration policy since the creation of the US (History, Ethnic Studies, Political Science)
Discussion Questions
Depending on the size and interaction of your group, you may just want to throw out questions and facilitate a whole group discussion. The study guide, which was made available to students, might serve as the impetus for discussion. Be sure to break down some of the larger questions into some smaller pieces.
Possible Discussion Questions:
*Adapted from Random House Inc, Academic Resources. http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780812971781&view=tg
POSSIBLE EXERCISES, NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY:
Inner/Out Circle Ice Breaker
Here are some question possibilities:
The Social Barometer Exercise
There are two ways to set up the exercise:
Other things to consider:
Here are some statements you could use for the book, Enrique’s Journey:
Think of your own statements that will get students to take a position.
For more information:
Agree
Strongly
Agree
Strongly Disagree
Facilitator Guidelines:
Possible debate ideas:
Facilitator Guidelines:
Quotes
(there are 20 provided here)
Pg. 27 “In one neighborhood near where Enrique’s mother grew up, fifty-two children arrive at kindergarten each morning. Forty-four arrive barefoot. An aide reaches into a basket and places a pair of shoes into each one’s hands. At 4 P.M., before they leave, the children must return the shoes to the basket. If they take the shoes home, their mothers will sell them for food.”
Pg. 44 “On March 2, 2000, he goes to his grandmother Agueda’s house. He stands on the same porch that his mother disappeared from eleven years before. He hugs Maria Isabel and Aunt Rosa Amalia. Then he steps off.”
Pg. 47 “Looking at the small, soft-spoken boy lying on the bench, he reminds himself that a live migrant is better than a dead one. In eighteen months, Diaz has had to bury eight of them, nearly all mutilated by the trains. Already today, he has been told to expect the body of yet another, in his late thirties.”
Pg. 50 “Their prize possessions are scraps of paper, wrapped in plastic, often tucked into a shoe. On the scraps are telephone numbers: their only way to contact their mothers. Some do not have even that.”
Pg. 67 “He is among the 20 to 30 percent of those boarding the trains in Tapachula who are fifteen or under, by estimate of Grupo Beta, a government migrant rights group in Chiapas.”
Pg. 71 “Enrique’s train runs only a few times a week, but it averages three derailments a month-seventeen accidents in a particularly bad month…”
Pg. 78 “Nearly one in six migrant girls detained by authorities in Texas says she has been sexually assaulted during her journey, according to a 1997 University of Houston study. Some girls journeying north cut off their hair, strap their breasts, and try to pass for boys. Others scrawl on their chests, TENGO SIDA. “I have AIDS.””
Pg. 103 “Riding trains through the state of Chiapas has taught him that any upraised hand might hurl a stone. But here in the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz, he discovers that people are friendly. They wave hello and shout to signal if hostile police are lying wait for them in an upcoming town.”
Pg. 194 “Over time, though, they realize they are strangers. Neither knows the other’s likes or dislikes.”
Pg. 244 “For most immigrants who come to the United States, the biggest downside is the toll parent-child separations exact on families.”
Pg 111: “The priest Salamón Lemus Lemus chuckles as he looks out on the grounds of the María Auxiliadora church. “They have taken over my church,” he says smiling. Hundreds of migrants mill around in the courtyard. They sleep in every nook and cranny of the church…”
Pg 119: “Reyes, who had walked two and a half hours to Nogales says she shouted at the mayor, “We are human. We should treat people in a humane way. It’s okay to send people back. But they shouldn’t shoot them, beat them this way.”
Pg 120: “The cargo is beginning to change. It is valuable and more easily damaged—Volkswagons, Fords, and Chryslers. Security guards check the freight cars, catch every rider they can, and hand them over to the authorities. More important, says Cuacuhtemoc González Flores, an official of the Transportatión Ferroviaria Mexicana railroad, is the fact that if a migrant falls and is injured or killed, it costs $8 a minute to stop the train, often for hours until investigators arrive.”
Pg 121: “Only a bribe, Enrique knows, will keep him from being deported back to Central America…Some officers will let you go for 20 pesos. Others demand 50—or more—and then turn you over to la migra to be deported anyway. Now he prays the coins he has will be enough.
Pg 123: “He relishes the camaraderie: how riders take care of one another, pass along what they know, divide what they have. Migrants will often designate one person to look out for trouble while the others rest. They give one another advice. In spots along the route where the train slows and migrants sprint from the shadows to board, reaching for the ladders, migrants riding atop the cars should out if the train is going too fast.
Pg 124: “El Mexicano is the longest tunnel. For eight minutes, the train vanishes inside. Black diesel smoke rises, hugging the tops of the cars. It burns the lungs and stings the eyes.”
Pg 129: “Live wires carry electricity above the trains for 143 miles north…the wires still carry 25,000 volts to prevent vandalism. Signs warn: DANGER—HIGH VOLTAGE. But many of the migrants cannot read. They do not even need to touch the lines to be killed.
Pg 150: “Sometimes Enrique does not eat at all. He feels weak. Occasionally local fishermen give him a fish they have caught. Friends at the camp share their meals…One teaches him how to fish with a line coiled on a shampoo bottle…”
Pg 151: “Enrique learns that El Tiríndaro is part of a smuggling network. He has partners in three safe houses on the U.S. side of the river, people who will hide migrants if Border Patrol agents are in pursuit…The price is $1,200.”
Pg 156: “Though many mothers expect the separation to be short, typically they last six to eight years, says Analuisa Espinoza, a Los Angeles Unified School District social worker who specializes in immigrants. By then, they are strangers. Some mothers, picking up children from smugglers, hug the wrong ones. Enrique wonders: What does his mother look like now?”
Frierian Fish Bowl
Facilitator Guidelines:
This technique insures that everyone will participate and allows for everyone to provide their personal thoughts more discretely. When students are asked to speak to the group, they are reading and reaction to someone else’s position.
Sample Reaction Statements:
Force Field Analysis
“In every organization, work environment, family, or community, there exists a natural tendency (a force field) which acts to keep the situation from changing. A force field represent posers that are proposing change and those that are working towards change. In essence, those forces want to keep the issue at an equilibrium.”(http://www.uvm.edu/~dewey/reflection_manual/activities.html)
Facilitator Guidelines:
Possible force field issues:
FROM THE LAREDO, TEXAS ONE CITY, ONE BOOK PROGRAM (Written by Beverly Herrera)
From the Statue of Liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
1. Is it more difficult for Lourdes to leave Enrique than Belky? If so, why?
--In what way does his behavior change immediately after Lourdes leaves?
--How does his behavior change throughout the eleven years before he leaves for the U.S.?
--What factors and/or experiences within his Honduran family and environment contribute to his change?
--What does the author mean when she says that for these children, finding their mothers “becomes the quest for the Holy Grail?”
2. Enrique’s journey is also about a family’s journey.
“In these places, residents understand that poor people leave their country out of a deep necessity, not because they want to.”
--Taking into account the above quote and the definitions below of immigrant and refugee where in this story do you see Enrique as an immigrant and/or a refugee? Where in this story is Lourdes an immigrant and/or a refugee?
Immigrant—a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence.
Refugee—a person forced to emigrate for political reasons.
3. “Thou shalt not be a victim.
Thou shalt not be an oppressor.
But most of all, thou shalt not be a bystander.”
Victim—one who is harmed, killed or made to suffer by another.
Oppressor—one who keeps another down by severe and unjust use of force or authority.
Bystander—a person who is present at an event without participating in the central actions of the event. Bystanders sometimes actively or passively condone or condemn the central actions by their words or actions or, alternately, by their silence or inaction.
In Enrique’s Journey, who are the:
--Victims?
--Oppressors?
--Bystanders?
4. In Enrique’s Journey, acts of kindness come in both likely and unlikely places by those we would call heroes/heroines and by those we would never call heroes. Who do you remember? Who stood out for you?
5. Why is this Enrique’s journey and not Belky’s?
--Why doesn’t Belky make the journey?
--What occasion finally brings Belky to the United States?
--Did Belky make the right decision by not migrating to the United States?
--If so, why?
6. Sonia Nazario writes on page 260 that:
“Most immigrants would rather stay in their home countries with their extended families. Who wants to leave home and everything he or she knows for something foreign not knowing if he or she will ever return? Not many. What would ensure that more women can stay home—with their children, where they want to be? Maria Isabel’s mother, Eva, says, simply, “What would it take to keep people from leaving? There would have to be jobs. Jobs that pay Okay. That’s all.”
Is that all?
--What struggles do women and single mothers face on a daily basis in Honduras?
--According to Sonia Nazario, who and what is responsible for the continued migration of women who “choose” to leave their country and come to the United States?
--Do they really have a choice?
They can send money home to feed and educate their children but take the risk of losing their children.
--What choice would you make?
--Where are the fathers?
--What would it be like for you to spend Mother’s Day knowing your son or daughter was riding the rails?
7. A factory in Honduras makes Tommy Hilfiger shirts that pays Eva, Lourdes’ sister, $30.00 a week. At forty hours a week that equals .75 cents an hour. A candy factory pays $2.25 an hour. Gloria Patel in the U.S. charges migrants $3000 promising them legalization and then disappears with their money. El Tirindaro is part of a smuggling network that charges $1200 to bring migrants across the Rio Bravo and into the United States.
--What are their similarities?
8. According to the author, “Children like Enrique dream of finding their mothers and living happily ever after. For weeks, perhaps months, these children and their mothers cling to romanticized notions of how they should feel toward each other. Then reality intrudes.”
Discuss the conflicts that Enrique and Lourdes experience with each other in North Carolina and Florida.
--Is Enrique finally blowing off steam, expressing his resentment toward Lourdes or is he just being a typical teenager fighting for his own independence—coming into his young adulthood?
--How big of a part does Enrique’s addiction to drugs and alcohol play in his struggles with Lourdes and adjusting to the situation in North Carolina and Florida?
--How long does it take Enrique to begin to make positive changes in his life?
--What motivates Enrique to change?
9. After all Enrique has been through, why would he ask Maria Isabel to leave Jasmin and come to the United States without their daughter?
--Did she make the right decision to join Enrique in the United States?
--What will happen to Jasmin?
--Does and will she think of Enrique as her father?
--Will she forget Maria Isabel?
--Will Jasmin end up feeling like Belky?
10. There are so many poignant/moving moments in this story. Discuss what for you was one of the most powerful images in Enrique’s Journey.
Did it bring you happiness, pain, anger or laughter?
FROM SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE:
Enrique’s Journey
Note: Look at activities and questions for disciplines other than your own to get
additional ideas. Also, foreign languages can use the activities and questions suggested
for Spanish.
On the back cover of the book, there is a quote from noted author Isabel Allende “ . . .If
you are going to read only one nonfiction book this year, it has to be this one, because
you know these young heroes. They live next door.” Do you consider Enrique a “hero”?
Why or why not? Cite specific examples from the book to support your point of view.
Questions to use with Enrique's Journey in different academic disciplines:
Administration of Justice:
Go to www.cbp.gov and research a career in the Border Patrol. Options: write a two-page
essay on why you would or would not enjoy this career OR give a recruitment speech to
the class about the advantages of this career.
Go to www.ncjrs.gov (National Criminal Justice Reference Service). At Site Search at
the top, type Mexican police. Choose one of the documents to read and to write a
summary to share with the class.
Go to the Library’s webpage and select Articles and Databases, then Lexis Nexis, then
Legal Research, then Law Reviews. Type illegal immigration, then narrow your search
by typing Central America. Choose a law review article to summarize in a two-page
paper. (Note: a law review is a publication of legal scholarly articles written by law
school students.)
Using one of the Library’s news databases, find articles on corruption among Mexican
police and corruption among U.S. Border Patrol agents. (The librarian can show you how
to do this.) Write a short paper summarizing what you find.
Anthropology:
What has been the relationship between Mexico and Central America throughout history?
Why do you think there is such a difference in the way the people of Chiapas and
Veracruz treat the migrants who go through their areas?
Architecture:
Imagine that an international foundation is going to build many low-cost homes in
Tegucigalpa, Honduras. They want you to come up with the design. What would your
house look like? How many square feet (assume that eight people will live in each
house.)? Remember to take into account the weather.
Art:
Design a poster that will discourage Central Americans from attempting to make the
journey north.
Astronomy:
How could you use the stars to travel from Honduras to the U.S.?
Biology:
Compare the effects on the body of the following:
· Glue
· Paint thinner
· Alcohol
Prepare a presentation for the class about the snakes in the Texas and Mexican deserts.
What does each type look like? What can be done to avoid them? What constitutes a
snakebite kit, and how is it used?
Business:
What industries use the greatest number of illegal immigrants in their workforce?
Chemistry:
Find chemical formulas for the glue and paint thinners that Enrique used.
Child Development:
September 10 is Day of the Child in Honduras. It is not an official holiday at this point.
Write a letter to the president of Honduras (get his name from the World Almanac)
giving the reasons why this should be an official holiday there.
Why do you think Enrique was so mean to his mother after so many years of wanting to
be with her?
How do you think Enrique would justify to Jasmin having both her parents leave her to
go to the U.S. when Enrique himself was so miserable without his mother all those years?
(p. 198) Enrique taunts his mother by telling her that a true mother isn’t the person who
carries you in her womb but is the person who raises and nurtures you. Do you agree or
disagree? Do the biological mother’s sacrifices make any difference?
Communication:
Do you feel sorry for Enrique? Why or why not?
See Culturgrams in the reference section of the Library and look for information on
gestures, greetings, and other forms of communication in Honduras. Prepare and give a
five-minute speech on those topics.
Culinary Arts:
Using library resources such as Culturgrams, a reference book, make up a menu of
typical Central American foods and find the recipes.
Dance:
Using the resources available in the Reference section of the Library, write a two-page
paper about dances of Honduras. (Note: you may have to look up Caribbean Region for
this information.)
Dental Hygiene:
Enrique’s teeth, even years after the beating on the train, are sensitive to heat and cold.
Can anything be done about this?
Are there free or low-cost dental clinics available in San Diego that treat anyone, legal
resident or not?
Economics:
What are the major crops of Honduras?
(p. 260) “. . . .many immigration experts have concluded that the only effective strategy
for change is to bolster the economies of immigrant-sending countries. . .” See the
suggestions given on page 261 of the book and research these. Are they viable options?
Why or why not?
English:
Read and discuss both Enrique’s Journey and Tortilla Curtain, which was the first
College Book nine years ago. How are the two books alike? How are they different?
How has the issue of illegal immigration changed in the past nine years? Which book do
you prefer and why?
Write a letter from Maria Isabel to Enrique explaining why she will (or won’t) come to
the U.S. and leave Jasmin behind.
(pp. 169-178) Compare and contrast Padre Leo and Mother Teresa in a three-page paper.
(p.200) “Lourdes gives her son a dark prediction: ‘God is going to punish you (for being
an ungrateful brat) . . . Someday, she tells him, your daughter will treat you the way you
now treat me.” Do you think this will be true in the future? Will Jasmin resent Enrique?
Geography:
Why is the soil in Honduras poorer than in the neighboring countries?
Health:
How much does health care to uninsured residents cost the taxpayers of California each
year?
You are taking part in a debate on providing universal health coverage for all
Californians, legal and illegal, all ages. Research and present the reasons why this should
not be considered. Now do the same for the other side of this controversial issue.
Honduras has the largest number of cases of AIDS in the Caribbean region. Why is this?
History:
Create a timeline for Enrique’s journey and his first years in the U.S.
Create a timeline showing the history of Honduras from earliest time to the present.
Journalism:
Write a two-page paper about the history of the Pulitzer Prizes.
Find an article in a newspaper or magazine from the time that Sonia Nazario won the
Pulitzer Prize.
Find an article in a newspaper or magazine about Hurricane Mitch (1998) and its effects
on Honduras
Math:
Using the Statistical Abstract of the United States (in the Reference section of the
Library), make a bar graph showing
· the number of Hispanics in various states
· the number of illegal immigrants in various states
Music:
Using the resources available in the Reference section of the Library, write a two-page
paper about music of Honduras.
Nursing:
How would you as a nurse detect that a patient has been sniffing glue or paint thinner?
Paralegal:
Imagine that a neighbor asks you, as a legal professional, for advice on how to attain
legal residency in the U.S.
Personal Development:
Some people say that they could be happy anywhere, as long as their family and friends
were there, too. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Imagine that you have the opportunity to emigrate to live (not just visit) in a far-off place,
like Australia. How would you decide whether to go or to stay?
Philosophy:
Research one of these social philosophies: fatalism, machismo, hora Latina.
Read in the Bible the passage beginning with Matthew 25:35 “For I was hungry and you
gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me . . .”
The bishop (page 107 in the book) takes this literally. How would you argue against this
in a debate?
(pp. 155-156) Lourdes Izaguirre says, “I worry about dying along the way. I know going
into another country is wrong. I know God would be against this. But I hope he
understands.” Do you think God understands?
Political science:
Choose a political party in Honduras (the librarian can show you how to find this
information) and write a two-page paper about it.
Should there be open borders into the U.S. from both Mexico and Canada? Why or why
not?
Psychology:
Why do you think Enrique was so mean to his mother after so many years of wanting to
be with her?
What are the potential effects of abandonment on a child?
Sociology:
Culturgrams, a reference book in the Library, says that for Hondurans, personal
relationships are more important than being on time for appointments. Do you believe
that Americans are like this or not? Why do you think so?
(page 105) A World Bank study in 2000 reported that 42.5% of Mexicans live on $2 or
less per day. What, if anything, do you think the wealthy nations of the world should do
about this?
Why do many Mexicans not want Central Americans passing through Mexico while, at
the same time, so many Mexicans want to do the same thing, i.e. go to the U.S.?
Spanish:
Explain to the class some of the differences in dialects in Mexico. For example, (page 99)
“ . . . He mutes his flat Central American accent and speaks softly and singsongy, like a
Oaxacan . . .”
Two students will recreate a telephone call from Enrique to Maria Isabel, in which he
tries to persuade her to come to the U.S. and leave Jasmin behind.
Imagine that you have attempted to go from Honduras to the U.S. Prepare a speech for
the class detailing the dangers and tell whether or not you would try it again.
Imagine that you have the opportunity to emigrate to live (not just visit) in a far-off place,
like Australia. How would you decide whether to go or to stay? Give a speech or write an
essay in Spanish about this.
Telemedia:
Write and videotape an interview with Lourdes. Where do you think she is today and
what would she have done differently if she could?
Write and videotape an interview with Enrique. Where do you think he is today and what
would he have done differently if he could?
View and write a two-page paper about the 1986 film “The Mosquito Coast”.
Travel & Tourism:
(Can be a group activity) Prepare a PowerPoint presentation for Southwestern College
administrators to consider a travel abroad program to Honduras. This will be your
agency’s proposal to plan and lead the trip.
One of your clients wants to take a trip to Honduras. You must advise him of the visa
requirements, required immunizations, crime tips, etc.
FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, CHARLOTTE:
University of North Carolina, Charlotte Resources on Immigration to use in conjunction with Enrique's Journey:
http://library.uncc.edu/display/?dept=instruction&format=open&page=2837