Review of Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora Rating **** 1/2
This is a story about an illegal immigrant—a story that every anti-immigration proponent should read. Javier Zamora is nine years old when he begins his journey from El Salvador to the U.S. He recounts the perils of his seven-week trek across land and sea as an adult looking back on the events that he says helped shape who he became.
The book begins with a very defined goal–to be reunited with his mother and father, a father he has never met. Most stories about immigration are about men and women hoping to improve their lives by fleeing poverty and crime at home for the promises of a better future in America. The role of family is often a driving force in these stories, as it is here. Javier’s relatives are back in El Salvador, his parents are in California, and he has a fake family of a mother and daughter who accompany him on his journey northbound.
Javier doesn’t dwell on the politics of immigration, whether legal or illegal. His only goal is to be reunited with his parents. He dreams of a large house with a pool, his own room, and a McDonald’s on every corner. The trip north is full of peril, from the heat and lack of water and food to the possibility of being caught and sent home by police in Mexico or by border patrol agents along the U.S. border.
I would have liked to have read more about his experiences after he crossed the border. Perhaps a second memoir is in the works.