In Enrique's Journey, the glorious moment that we have awaited finally arrives. Enrique makes it to the United States. Once he is reunited with his mother, everything seems great. He and Lourdes are getting along and treasuring each other's presence as it has been gone for so long. Enrique likes Lourdes' boyfriend, who acts like a father figure to him. He finds Enrique work, and Enrique starts earning money that he uses to help Lourdes. Lourdes is bragging to her friends about how incredible her son is. Soon, however, they realize that they are total strangers. Enrique and Lourdes have been apart for so long that they do not even know each other. This begins to drive them apart and create hostility between each other.
Enrique begins to drink and talk back to his mother. When Lourdes scolds him, Enrique responds with saying that she has no right to do that because she did not raise him. He becomes angry with her for leaving him, and not sending enough money. Enrique calls her selfish. At one point, he accuses her of not being his true mother.
Enrique tells Lourdes, "A true mother isn't the person who carries you in her womb. It is someone who raises and nurtures you" (Nazario 198). Enrique does not even see Lourdes as his mother anymore. He sees his grandmother, Maria, as his real mother. One who is not a mother could only imagine how hurtful this would be. Do you think that the struggle of riding the trains all the way to the US was worth it? Should children continue to risk their lives to find their mothers?
I think the struggle of riding the trains to the United States was worth it. Even though Enrique and Lourdes relationship was not great, and they were total strangers, Enrique’s life in America was better than it would have ever been in Honduras, and the mother son relationship improved as time passed. Also, I believe that if I was in the position Enrique was in to leave my home and find my mother I would have made the same decision to find my mother. I believe that the children should not take the journey to find their mothers, but whether they should or should not doesn’t matter. Because I would and they will continue to take the risk to be with the person who is supposed to love them most in the world, and if they don’t take that risk they might never get to meet their mother.
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