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After years without the comfort of his mother, Enrique's built up anger, confusion, and exhaust starts to boil over at an all time high. He starts rebelling, getting suspended, doing drugs, and so much more. With the lack of order and permanent mother figure, Enrique feels as though no one is there to protect him or be there for him so he feels that putting on a tougher skin will fix that. But, despite all these acts of rebellion, Enrique still keeps up with the promises he made to his mother to keep studying hard. This demonstrates that besides the built up anger over the years, Enrique truly still cares about succeeding and fulfilling what his mother has always wanted and believed that he could achieve.

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As a mother, making sacrifices for your children becomes something that is normal and done quite often. But, what some don't understand is just the intensity of the sacrifices that some mothers have to take. Many are quick to judge, as shown above as Carmen was quick to be assumed as a bad mom for going to America alone. But, leaving her children was truly one of the hardest decisions she had to make, yet she made it because of how much she loves and cares for her children. Just like how we see Enrique feel later in the book, the distance, lack of affection, and abandonment tends to become a lot for the kids left behind, but it is not talked about enough how the mothers feel all of these emotions as well, especially considering they're the ones who had to make a decision like this. But the answer is obvious because to these moms, they would give up the whole world to provide more for their babies. This is later reflected and presently foreshadows Lourdes and Enrique's story and the amount of mental struggles these situations have on families.

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After years of Enrique being separated from his mother, he begins to go into a sense of idealization. He starts reminiscing about his mother much more often. Thinking about what she looked like, to what she wore, to how she spoke, all that he could remember. After being apart from someone as important as a mother for so long, they become all that there is to life. Once again being with his mom seems to be the Holy Grail of life, and the only thing he wants out of it. Not only Enrique, but kids without their mothers tend to view reuniting with them as the answer to all and every problem. It becomes an obsession even an addiction with how many questions and wonders pop into these kids heads, and unfortunately this addiction is not one that can be cured as easily as people, including the mothers, make it out to be.

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After years apart from her one and only daughter, Lourdes finally gets to reconnect and see her again after being many miles apart for many years. On this television show we don't only get to see the beautiful and emotional meeting of Belky and Lourdes, but we also get to see insight on how Lourdes feels about leaving her children so long ago. Here, Lourdes tells the viewers that she doesn't necessarily regret leaving her children, because on one hand they wouldn't have had half of the things that they did when they were children if not. But, at the same time she feels as though she has missed precious years of her children's childhood that she can't gain back. She then goes into how her biggest wish is to be with her daughter again, to be with both her children even just for a moment, and thanks to the show, they made it possible.

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With everything going on in Enrique's life, all the darkness, the loss, and the unfairness, the little things in his life and anything he can find joy in becomes so prominent and important in Enrique's life. One of these things include his crush and later to be girlfriend, Maria Isabel. At first, Maria Isabel had no interest in Enrique, in fact he asks her multiple times to be his girlfriend and she declines or pushes it back. But, due to Enrique's determined self, he'll never take no for an answer and he continues to ask her, telling her how much and what he adores about her, and how she is the center of his life. Finally, after much charm and affection, Maria Isabel agrees and becomes not only Enrique's girlfriend, but his purpose. She's his joy and heals him in ways his mother always attempted to but never could over the phone. Enrique found something that brought him light when all he knew was darkness.

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After being left and abandoned by many people in his life, it seems that Enrique has suffered from the severity of this issue and is left with a deep fear of abandonment. He would do anything and everything to keep the people in his life, as we see through all of his efforts and pleading to be with his mom. This idea can also be seen where Enrique claims that he desperately wants to get his girlfriend, Maria Isabel, pregnant so that essentially they would have a child together and then it would secure the fact that Maria Isabel wouldn't abandon him. This desire of Enrique not only shows the severity of his abandonment issues, but also his sense of selfishness towards other people and Maria Isabel's love for Enrique. For, Maria Isabel has made her view clear that she does not want to get pregnant, yet Enrique does want her to just so she had no choice but to stay with him, and the fact that Maria Isabel chooses to stay after this attest, shows her loyalty and love for him.

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As the protectors of cities, civilians, life and more, we put our safety in the hands of police officers. With this, most would assume that in areas with higher danger rates, like areas of gang violence such as all the places Enrique traveled through, the policemen would be on higher alert, more attentive, stricter, yet all so that they can ensure the safety of the people. But, unfortunately this is not the case at all. In fact, in areas like these, policemen do quite the opposite, fighting, beating, raping, and killing migrants. The one group of people that most would expect to keep the world the safest, are the ones causing most of the destruction. Enrique gets beaten by police officers, and suffer almost fatal injuries, but thanks to some kind citizens, they find Enrique and take him to the hospital. But, this demonstrates just how brutal it is on these travels, that policemen are almost always crueler than random people you find going about their days.

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Throughout Enrique's journey through Central America and Mexico, he faces many challenges, obstacles, severe hurdles, and so much more that many have died or given up trying to get through. With train hopping, gang members, risk of deportation, police, starvation, and so much more, the journey to most is impossible. But, as we learn about Enrique's journey and all he's been through to get to his mother, we learn how determined and resilient Enrique truly is. Despite being deported, extremely beaten up, and more, Enrique has never once failed to get back up to reattempt the trip again. He has tried the longing trip 7 times, and he has been deported each time before his most recent one. This highlights just how much Enrique yearns to be with his mom, for after many barriers, failed attempts, and signs of redirection, he continues to try and try again, and he will never stop trying until he gets to his one dream of being with his mom again.

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With gang violence, coming from a broken family, and constantly feeling abandoned at such a young age, building bonds and relationships can be hard, but sometimes that difficulty can be for the better. While it may be hidden in disguise, being true to yourself is more important than keeping bonds with others. Enrique illustrates this when he talks about him befriending a guy named El Brujo. El Burjo is a guy who was at the same bus station as Enrique one day, and despite him being apart of a gang which Enrique doesn't like nor support, as they spend the day traveling together they build up a sense of a friendship. El Brujo introduces Enrique to many other of the gang members as well. But as they continue traveling together and fights break out, the convenient relationships end. For, one day another gang group gets on the train, and Enrique's friends decide to retaliate against them and fight. But, Enrique goes against it and decides to stick with his values and not fight anyone. This lead to the gang members to stop riding with Enrique, and while it is unfortunate that a relationship had to be lost like that, it's important to recognize how detrimental it would be if Enrique decided to fight. He would be going against many of his beliefs and truly start to turn into someone who was not truly Enrique anymore, demonstrating how vital this scene was to the plot.

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In long journeys like Enrique's, hope can be something that is lost very easily, and slowly if not rarely gained. Thankfully for the migrants and many others including Enrique, there was a woman named Olga who helped a lot of migrants gain back that hope that they had lost for so long. Olga is a shelter director that takes migrants in and helps with their injuries, gives them a place to stay for a while, and more. She helped dozens of migrants get back on their feet but with so much of a better attitude than before. She reassures the migrants, especially about God and how he spared them still and that he doesn't need all of them in perfect condition to love them, he just needs their heart. She shares her story and helps them see that she was once sick and deep in the dumps like them. She also shares her story through her faith and through Olga we see not only the amazing miracles and impacts she had on people, but how she did it all out of the goodness of her heart, and all because she wants to give back so that no one has to go though what she did when she had no one like the migrants.

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As we join Enrique on his trip to America to find his mother, we see all the bad, ugly, and scary he faces throughout his journey. From fights, to gang violence, to rape, we can see so much hurt and pain on his voyage. But, despite there being so much hate and bad in the world, there will always be times where the good shines through. As shown when Enrique reaches Veracruz, the way the people and migrants interact changes exponentially. For, civilians tend to give out food and useful resources to migrants on trains as they pass by. They feel as if the migrants have it way harder and that God will provide themselves easily with food, but migrants will not be gifted as much with such ease. These small but overwhelmingly good acts of kindness towards the migrants give them a sense of hope and prosperity for the rest of their journey, as once upon a time not too long turmoil and aggression was all they knew and found.

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At a church dinner, Enrique meets many other children who are hoping to reunite with their mothers in the United States just like him. For example, he met a 16 year old boy named Ermis Galeano. Enrique and Ermis share their experience with others, their struggles, their journeys, their mothers, and so much more. They both share how the gifts their mothers sent were not enough compared to them actually being there, and how being raised by their aunts and other family members weren't the same as by their mom. Although these conversations are difficult and sad to hear and think about the amount of children who faced this issue, its good to see that Enrique doesn't feel as alone and isolated by meeting people and sharing experiences like this.

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Before deciding to cross the border for America, Enrique stayed at a refugee camp for a while. At this refugee camp, he was accompanied by many other migrants that he got to make great relations with. Some older, younger, richer, poorer, many people of many different backgrounds. But, one common factor throughout the camp was that Enrique was often seen as the baby of the group. Many of the other migrants took care of Enrique, warned him of things, made sure he was careful, gave him advice, and so much more. They were truly there for Enrique which is not something that's common in the book as most migrants are in competition with one another and just trying to survive. So, this sense of a family was a rare, but hopeful thing for Enrique.

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After years of avoiding the topic, Enrique finally convinces Maria Isabel to come over to the United States to be with him. Although this will open many new opportunities for the couple, they also have to leave behind their child, Jasmin, who is too young to face the dangers of the journey. While this is probably the best decision to leave her behind so that she's not prone to harm, it is heavily ironic that Enrique is choosing to do this, as this is exactly what Enrique's mother did to him to make everything turn out the way it did. Throughout the years Enrique has made it very clear to his mother, family members, and more that he hates his mom for leaving him behind and leaving the way she did, therefore its quite crazy for Enrique to be doing the same thing to Jasmin right now after preaching that he could never do that to a child just as others did many years ago. This shows the idea that history repeats itself.

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At the time spent at the refugee camp, the distance between Enrique and his mother grows considering how close yet how far he is from her. As a result, one night he decides to get a tattoo on himself with both his and his mothers name combined. He loves the tattoo, but on this page we also get to see the bit of regret that he has towards it, as he feels like the words are almost mocking him about how far he has come yet still is from his mother. We also get to see his first realization of how much he misses home. Enrique always talks about his mother and how much he misses her and wants to be with her, so after such a long journey with this mindset, its surprising to see him go back on his word when he's closer than he ever has been. But, despite feeling mocked and missing home, Enrique reminds himself that he cannot give up now.

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Similar to Olga in previous chapters, another hopeful person that we see in these chapters includes Padre Leo. Padre Leo is a priest in a church that often helps migrants. Many know him for giving them access to a phone line, letting them sleep in the church, giving them food, and more. Many at first had issues with this, saying that the migrants were leaving the place filthy, committing unjust actions, and more. But, over time Padre Leo changed these people's minds and hearts and helped them see that these migrants go through unimaginable things that we don't have to, so we can at least help as much as we can.

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As Enrique has almost reached his mother in North Carolina, they call each other on the phone to set up the last steps needed to be taken, and to make sure everything thus far had been okay. Over the phone Enrique and his mother truly embraced themselves, they could truly feel the love through the phone and how excited they were to meet once again. Although Enrique states it was a little awkward, as his mother is basically a stranger at that point still, its good to note how much love he felt at the same time, even if it felt as though from a stranger. We also get to see how much Lourdes loves her son, as when they get on the phone she immediately gets emotional, and after she even ends up sobbing. Everything done finally seems like it was worth it.

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Reminiscing on Those Present and Left Behind

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Reminiscing on Those Present and Left Behind

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In the beginning of this page, it starts to go into Enrique's sister, Belky, who is still in Honduras. It talks about all the things Lourdes has bought her, like a Communion dress, things for her quinceañera, and so much more. She states how she wanted Lourdes to come for this huge celebration, and she wanted to aswell, but that she couldn't manage to go. It then abruptly goes back to talking about Enrique certain pictures of him that are Lourdes favorites, specifically ones of him smiling which he didn't do often. Lourdes then talks about how worried she is for Enrique and how much she loves him. Although all of this that Lourdes shares is amazing, and it shows how much she cares for Enrique, it feels all though she almost doesn't truly care as much for Belky. For, it goes into a brief description of all that Lourdes has bought her, then quickly turns back to how she feels towards Enrique. This shows a favoritism towards Enrique and highlights how Belky must feel with being left in the shadows of her brother quite often.

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After months of searching, many tears shed, lots of blood drawn, and many risks taken, Enrique finally gets to reunite and be with his mother. But although this seemed like a dream after all the sacrifices made, things are quick to turn sour in the household. Enrique is quick to put a lot of guilt on his mom, saying how she was never there for him and didn't truly raise him therefore doesn't have a say in what and what he can't do, while Lourdes says that she gave the money to raise him and that counts for most. Enrique and Lourdes often find themselves bickering and fighting about the past and present decisions being made, but at the end of the day they always make it up, realizing how much time they spent apart, and now that they're finally together they shouldn't waste that time arguing. This shows the true love bond between the two.

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Back at home in Honduras, Maria Isabel, Enrique''s girlfriend, faces some struggles with the family. As Maria Isabel cares for their daughter Jasmine alone, Enrique's family and other relatives are quick to judge her and how she raises Jasmin. They often tell her she's not caring enough for Jasmin, or that she's using the money Enrique sends her irresponsibly, and more. This is not only rude considering how Maria Isabel is already struggling enough with being a single parent, but its also ironic how all of Enrique's family members judge her, when at the time Enrique lived with them they treated Enrique horribly as well. The fact they're judging not only shows how mistrusted they are, but also shows how little they truly ever cared about Enrique.

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With Lourdes sister Mirian coming to the United States to make a living for her children, a while after she has settled, she starts to wonder if she should bring them to the states, but she decides to not due to dangers, and ends up just working hard to give them a lot of things worth money. Enrique dislikes that Mirian is there, and often pleads with her to go back considering she left her kids. He tells Mirian that filling their needs and bellies is not the same or equal to love. He asks her why she abandoned them and tells her all the reasons she shouldn't have left, as he knows what her kids must be feeling since he was once them. Enrique and Lourdes also have a conversation, where Lourdes tells Enrique that she can no longer care for him as much, for he's bigger and has never really considered Lourdes as a real mother to him, despite them loving each other a lot. This is eye-opening considering Lourdes has never really said something like this to Enrique before, despite it being known.

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Many promises are made throughout this book, and many of those promises are rarely or never truly achieved. These stereotypes of unfulfilled promises are often set in this book, especially with promises relating to visits between parents and children as well as bringing children to America. On this page, we get to see this stereotype be broken as Enrique fulfilled his promise made to Maria Isabel and Jasmin about bringing Jasmin to the U.S in a reasonable amount of time. Within 6 months, Jasmin made her way to America, and while there were some difficulties, it had to be expected because there were always bumps on the road. This can be seen in Enrique's second promise to stop sniffing glue, which he struggled with in later chapters, but overall overcame his struggle and completed both of his wishes to reunite with his daughter and stop his addicting habits of sniffing glue.

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After finally moving Jasmin successfully to the U.S and living with his family, Enrique would be imagined to finally be happy with his life and be soaring with delight, but this is far from what truly happens. Shortly after being with his family and adjusting to this full life of his, Enrique starts falling into awful habits. He's constantly smoking, sniffing, or drinking something. He's never home and always out on the streets. He's extremely depressed and suicidal. I mean at this point the text truly seemed like Enrique's breaking point. We can even see that Jasmin started noticing his behavior, and Maria Isabel even kicked Enrique out of the house despite how forgiving she typically is. Lourdes even took Enrique in hoping to help him and had a major discussion with him on being there for his family and not letting something silly like drugs take over his life. This page was truly significant in not only demonstrating the internal struggles Enrique had and how they were pushed on other people, but also the amazing support system his mother is for him.

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After Enrique has finally settled in the U.S for a while, we get to see the ongoing struggles he faces even after he already faced the "worst" on his journey to America. From missing his only son's birth, to facing lots of depression, to even considering being deported back to Honduras despite risking being killed there, Enrique truly faces lots of hardship in this moment. This is huge in the book for Enrique because we get to see a huge sense of defeat that we've never seen from him before. Of course, throughout his journey we got to see some rough points for Enrique, but this was the first true moment where Enrique really considered throwing his whole life away and everything he had worked so hard for. But, Enrique is a fighter and we get to see him bounce back just like he had done many times before.

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Before Enrique arrived in the U.S, he believed that it was this beautiful place where dreams came true and everything was perfect, but reality quickly kicked in for him as he spends more of his days in the motherland. This page is significant cause it demonstrates the emotions that truly resonate with Enrique and how he feels about America. For example, Enrique exclaims that he faces a lot of racism and often gets told rude and ignorant things while also being paid and treated as less for jobs. He also feels as though life in America is rushed, and that there is no time for family, free time, or really anything but work to survive which is something he misses from Honduras, time. Life is seen as a race to him, and many parents enter their children in these races that they truly should never have to compete in.

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In the last chunk of the book, the author of this book talks about all her adventures, interviews, and relations she's had with Enrique, Lourdes, and other people who relate to Enrique's journey. This is an important page to take note of because we get to see the thoughts and behind the scenes from the reporter and not just straight from Enrique and Lourdes. As said above we get to learn about interviews taken with them and how the reporter traveled herself in Enrique's shoes and took the journey to better make the information accurate and real which demonstrates the dedication put into this book. We also get to learn about the dozens of people that relate to Enrique and have similar stories which show how common and relatable these kinds of journeys are.

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While it may not seem like it throughout the book, privacy was truly a thing taken into careful consideration in the production of this book. In fact, the reporter shares with us that many of the people in the book's names are never their full name and often do not mention their last name so that deportation can be avoided. This is important to know because it highlights how the safety of these people were considered and they were not just sharing their story to spread to the public like some stories are done. We also get to see that the reporter gives thanks to the people who helped Enrique's story truly come together and spread awareness like it was always dreamed to turn out to be. Overall, it's amazing to see that the author and reporter of this book truly cared about the privacy of their characters and not sully just producing the highest and best quality stories at the price of the people.

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It is no surprise nor secret that just like Enrique, there are thousands of migrants who have experienced just as brutal, or even more brutal situations like Enrique. This page is imperative in presenting that idea to the readers by not only exclaiming awful things that the migrants had to be terrified of such as getting electric shock, bandits, rapists, and more, but also sharing specific people who have experienced and helped share their stories to convey these horrible situations. We see countless names and hear about what some of them have gone through or shared to make the book what it is which is amazing. As well as we get to see the similarities and harshness of both Enrique's situation and so many others.

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This page is important due to its ability to show the readers the behind the scenes from the reporter's point of view. In this piece of text, the reporter explains certain situations and how she received information for it. Whether that's being with Enrique directly, interviewing Enrique or Lourdes, getting stories from others, it truly depended. But, what's amazing is how many sources and real life experience was given to make this story feel so alive and real. Observation after observation was made, many different efforts and struggles were seen first hand, I mean it's truly amazing to see how first hand these experience we got to see were taken from the reporter.

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Within this page, we get a plentiful amount of statistics, facts, and general information about how the U.S handles situations financially now as well as a few years back. This is significant because it demonstrates how the U.S suffers financially due to migrants. While this is terrible, despite all the hardships, fatalities, difficulties, and harsh journeys taken to get where they are, American truly has no sympathy for migrants who come, and truly only see them as a economic fluctuation. For example in the text it speaks about how border patrols witnesses hundreds of deaths each year yet nothing is done about it because they only care about the fact that they spend millions of dollars each year to pay prices for that border patrol and other ideals. Overall this is important to take into account because it not only demonstrates the lack of empathy that the U.S has for migrants, but also shows how money hungry this country is.