Contact Program Contact Office of Student Activities (765) 455-9203 Media Contact Anne-Marie Damler OCM (765) 455-9468 adamler@iuk.edu Mary Ellen Stephenson OCM (765) 455-9414 mestephe@iuk.edu

Spanish lecture by Nazario examines immigration’s harm to families

KOKOMO, Ind.—Parents seeking jobs in the United States in order to provide for their impoverished children back in Central America might not see a “happy ending,” says Sonia Nazario. The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist will discuss the often-devastating effects of such family separations in a special Spanish language lecture at Indiana University Kokomo on Monday, November 13. Scheduled at 4–5:15 p.m. in the Kelley Student Center, the talk is free and open to the public.

Nazario will also address the public in English at 7 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium. In that presentation, she will discuss the background of her book Enrique’s Journey. Several hundred IU Kokomo freshmen read and discussed the book in a common reading program this fall and will meet the author in November.

A real-life Honduran teenager, Enrique traveled thousands of miles, mostly on top of freight trains through the Mexican countryside, before swimming across the Rio Grande and reuniting with his mother in North Carolina. An estimated 48,000 immigrant children take similar journeys each year to enter the United States alone from Central America and Mexico. Nazario physically retraced Enrique’s trail and wrote a series for the Los Angeles Times, recounting the perils and supporters the boy encountered. Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, the series was expanded and updated for the 2006 book, published by Random House.

In her talks on college campuses, Nazario said, she shows photos and talks about “what I saw riding the trains, how it changed how I viewed the issue of immigration.” Nazario also discusses “what will really slow this flow of people coming north, some real solutions.” She contends that the United States can stem illegal immigration by helping improve economic conditions in the immigrants’ countries of origin, so they support their families at home.

In a January 2006 interview in Publisher’s Weekly, Nazario said many illegal Central American immigrants, such as Enrique’s mother “believe in their hearts that they are doing the best thing by leaving their child. Some of the families live with a tarp over their heads and a dirt floor underneath them. Women describe not having anything to give their children for dinner [except] a glass of water with a teaspoon of sugar to quiet their bellies. The level of poverty is staggering.”

Nazario discovered that, while the separations raise family incomes, they often destroy what Latino families value most—their family unity. “In most cases the separation lasts much longer than the women believe [it will], and the children ultimately resent their mothers for leaving them,” she said. According to Nazario, gang involvement and other social problems are reportedly higher among such children, both in their native countries and after reuniting with their parents on U.S. soil.

Reviews of Enrique’s Journey hail the book as “a meticulously documented account of an epic journey” (San Francisco Chronicle), “[a] searing report from the immigration frontlines . . . as harrowing as it is heartbreaking” (People magazine), and “[a] portrait of poverty and family ties [with] the potential to reshape American conversations about immigration” (Kirkus Reviews).

Copies of Enrique’s Journey are available through the IU Kokomo Bookstore.

For more information regarding Sonia Nazario’s public addresses at IU Kokomo, contact the Office of Student Activities at (765) 455-9203.