Loren Coleman
Ms. Bonnie Manza
Eng 1060
10 September 2013
Dialectical Journal
Quotes From The Text
“The United States is experiencing the largest
wave of immigration in its history, a level of
newcomers that is once again transforming
the country. Each year, an estimated 700,000
immigrants enter the United States illegally.
Since 2000, nearly a million additional
immigrants annually, on average, have arrived
legally, or become legal residents.” (Nazario
xiii)
“As a journalist, I love to get inside the
action, watch it unfold, take people inside
worlds they might never otherwise see. I
wanted to smell, taste, hear, and feel what this
journey is like. In order to give a vivid,
nuanced account, I knew I would have to
travel with child migrants through Mexico on
top of freight trains.” (Nazario xiii)
“The average child the Border Patrol catches
who comes alone over the border is a
fifteen-year-old boy. I wanted to find a boy
who was coming for his mother and had
traveled on the train.” (Nazario xvii)
“On the trains, I was filthy, unable to go to the
bathroom for long stretches, excruciatingly
hot or cold, pelted for hours by rain or hail.”
(Nazario xxi)
“Each year, the number of women and
children who immigrate to the United States
grows. They become our neighbors, children
in our schools, workers in our homes.”
(Nazario xxv)
My Responses
This detail is effective because this data sets
the tone and the setting of how the story is
acted, written and portrayed. In the map in
book, the boy, Enrique travels from
Tegucigalpa, Honduras to Laredo, Texas in
the United States.
This detail is important because this novel is
based on the in depth investigation that she
did to tell, and write the story about Enrique.
This setting is important because it shows that
Enrique is a teenager traveling a country to
live in the United States, this setting is also
important because it shows the age of
Enrique.
This setting is important because it shows that
traveling on a train is unsanitary and they
were on the train of death, El Tren Di La
Muerte, it sets the tone of how the conditions
were on the train.
This detail is important because the United
States has many immigrants and they want to
be American citizens and not live where they
were living and Enrique wanted to be an
American citizen.