Immigrant

AN IMMIGRANT’S JOURNEY
ONE MAN’S STORY
Abandoned by his
parents, Enrique rode
the rails from
Honduras to the
United States,.
He is not alone...
By Daniel Tyx
A
s the dawn breaks on a
new day in Honduras,
Enrique wakes up in the
dirt floor house that he
has lived in ever cince his mother left
for the United States. He prepares a
cup of coffee and eats a breakfast of
fried plantains that he cooks himself
and beans that are left over from the
previous day. It seems like any other
day, except that for day, Enrique will
attempt to make the journey through
three countries into the United
States, riding the rails in a dangerous
journey that many immigrant will
not survive.
Enrique’’s story, is not unique.
Abandoned by his mother at the age
of seven after she left to pursue a
better life in the United States, he
has now become one of the estimated
100,000 minors who each year brave
roving bands of robbers, corrupt police,
and armed narcotraficantes to
pursue a dream of a better life in the
United States. Less than 10% of
these migrants will ever make it to
their destination. Many will give up
in the face of arrests, deportations,
hunger, and the constant threat of
injury. Others, though, will continue,
even after five, ten, or twenty times
of failure. This is the story of one
teen who made it to the United
States,. It is a story of great courage
and great hardship...and it is a story
that is being repreated over and over
across the Americas every day.
This story begins seven years
earlier, when Enrique’s mother,
Lourdes, made a similar trip