Solito, solita : crossing borders with youth refugees from Central America

Format:

Book

Title:

Solito, solita : crossing borders with youth refugees from Central America

Other title(s):

Crossing borders with youth refugees from Central America

ISBN:

9781608466221

9781608466184

Publication:

Chicago, Illinois : Haymarket Books, 2019.

Physical Description:

xi, 316 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm.

Series title(s):

Voice of witness (Chicago, Ill.)

Contents:

Nobody wanted me / Soledad Castillo, Honduras -- One day, I want to be like my father / Josué Nieves, El Salvador -- I was made to do things I didn't want to do / Gabriel Méndez, Honduras -- You ride on top of the Beast and are totally exposed / Jhony Chuc, Guatemala -- People fought over land and water / Noemi Tun, Guatelmala -- Before a village like ours was so beautiful, and suddenly things were ruined / Isabel Vásquez, El Salvador -- He'd break down doors and come through the windows, or, if not, from the roof, up the fire escape / Danelia Silva, El Salvador -- I was solito, solito. I decided to cross by myself / Adrián Cruz, Guatemala -- The US immigration police herded us into cars and drove us to la hielera, the freezer / Pedro Hernandez, Guatemala -- For eighteen years I've wandered from the bottom to the top of North America, trying to change my life / Cristhian Molina, Honduras -- We walked for days, through the jungle, risking our lives, not meeting anyone / Rose Cuevas, El Salvador -- I'm the only one still alive / Ernesto González, Honduras -- When I slept, there were cameras on four sides / Julio Zavala, Honduras -- Maybe I'll transfer to the university next year as planned, or maybe I'll be deported back to Guatemala / Ismael Xol, Guatemala -- Only by leaving my studies could I work to pay him back / Itzel Tzab, Guatemala -- Ten things you can do -- Historical timeline.

Appendixes. Risk factors for children -- The rise of the maras -- Violence against women -- Arrests and detention in Mexico -- La bestia -- Casas de migrantes -- Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) -- Arrests and detention in the United States -- Immigrant legal aid organizations in the United States.

Summary:

Provides a collection of oral histories that tells--in their own words--the stories of young refugees fleeing countries in Central America and traveling for hundreds of miles to seek safety and protection in the United States. Fifteen narrators describe why they fled their homes, what happened on their dangerous journeys through Mexico, how they crossed the borders, and for some, their ongoing struggles to survive in the United States. In an era of fear, xenophobia, and outright lies, these stories amplify the compelling voices of migrant youth. --From publisher description.

Subject(s):

Refugees -- Central America.

Refugees -- United States.

Migrations of nations.

Central America -- Emigration and immigration.

United States -- Emigration and immigration.

Geographic Term:

Central America -- Emigration and immigration.

United States -- Emigration and immigration.

Central America.

United States.

Added Author:

Mayers, Steven

Freedman, Jonathan, 1950-

Zamora, Javier

Added Corporate Author:

Voice of Witness (Organization)

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Salem Main Library	362.7791 Mayers 2019	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

They are a mass migration of thousands, yet each one travels alone. Solito, Solita, ("Alone, Alone"), is a Voice of Witness collection of oral histories that tell the stories of youth refugees fleeing their home countries and traveling for hundreds of miles seeking safety and protection in the United States.

These powerful narrators describe why they fled their homes, what happened on their dangerous journeys through Mexico, how they crossed the border, and their ongoing struggles to survive in the United States. In an era of fear, xenophobia, and outright lies, these stories amplify the compelling voices of immigrant youth. What can they teach us about abuse and abandonment, bravery and resilience, hypocrisy and hope? They bring us into their hearts and onto streets filled with the lure of freedom and fraught with violence. From fending off kidnappers with knives and being locked in freezing holding cells to tearful reunions with parents, Solito, Solita's evocative stories bring to light the experiences of young people struggling for a better life across the border.

Steven Mayers is a writer, oral historian, and professor of English at the City College of San Francisco.

Jonathan Freedman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and writing mentor at the City College of San Francisco.

Voice of Witness, founded by Dave Eggers, Mimi Lok, and Lola Vollen, is a nonprofit organization that advances human rights by amplifying unheard voices.

Author Notes

Steven Mayers is a writer, oral historian and Professor of English at the City College of San Francisco. Jonathan Freedman is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, author, and writing mentor at the City College of San Francisco. His novel, The Last Brazil of Benjamin East, (2014 Bright Lights Press) was critically acclaimed. He graduated from Columbia University, traveled overland from America to Bolivia, and lived in Brazil, Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Distinguished Editorial Writing for his prophetic editorials calling for immigration reform.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this moving and expertly researched collection of 15 narratives, Mayers, a historian and professor, and Freedan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, offer readers oral histories told by some of the "thousands of children... trekking from Central America to El Norte" and some of the mothers making the journey with their children . Readers meet Cristhian, who fled an abusive home in Honduras at age 10 only to be beaten in detention in Mexico and repeatedly deported from Mexico and the U.S. over the next 18 years; Isabel, who fled El Salvador after her gang member husband nearly killed her; and 17-year-old Gabriel, from Honduras, who was repeatedly raped by his uncles and left for dead. As the editors' detailed timeline makes clear, many of the countries children are fleeing today were subjects of U.S. interventions in the 1980s. If migrants survive dangerous travel through Mexico, Mayers and Freedman write, they often receive abusive treatment in the United States when seeking asylum. The authors end by urging readers to take political action to help migrants like those interviewed here. This work carries a harrowing message. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

A journalist and a historian gather 15 refugee stories that underscore a brewing humanitarian crisis.Conducted between 2014 and 2018, these extensive interviewsby Mayers (English/City Coll. of San Francisco) and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Freedman (The Last Brazil of Benjamin East, 2015, etc.)offer intimate portraits of the people currently fleeing horrendous violence in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Among other terrifying experiences, these first-person accounts ("solito, solita" means "alone, alone") tell of children witnessing the murders of their parents and grandparents because of their refusal to join gangs or provide the extortion money demanded by the gangs. These young people, often facing a lack of education and likely a life of crime, were sent away by relatives to often abusive coyotes at such an exorbitant cost that it has left them vulnerable and in debt for the rest of their lives. Some of the interviewees caught La Bestia, or the perilous freight trains in Mexico, where many perished along the way and others became "cyclical migrants" after repeated deportations. Even for the lucky few who made it to the United States, the immigration process was fraught and uncertain (even more so since the 2016 election). In the book's helpful timeline, glossaries, and appendices, the editors give a sense of the historical context in Central America that has fed the current crisis since the 1930s: authoritarian regimes bolstered by American business and politics; gangs that formed in sanctuary cities like Los Angeles only to have their members deported to create havoc in the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador); and the changing, often restrictive immigration policies of the U.S. Thankfully, along with the seemingly countless heartbreaking details, the interviews tell of hopeful moments, tooof arrival to safety and the promise of work, school, and love. The editors also include a useful section entitled "Ten Things You Can Do."A poignant, uncompromising addition to the growing literature on the plights of migrating asylum-seekers from Central America. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

This collection of oral histories documents stories of refugees from various Central American countries who have sought asylum in the U.S. Fifteen young adults share what prompted them to leave their homes and families to seek new lives as undocumented citizens in a new land. Their individual accounts bear witness to a catalog of horrors: eyewitness accounts of the murders of family members, gang violence, sex trafficking, assault, imprisonment, betrayal, and horrific travel conditions through jungles and treacherous terrains just to reach the American border. There they are met by violence, turned away, arrested, or actually permitted entry only to live in unrelenting fear over being sent back home. The title translates in English to Alone, Alone. Even though thousands of refugees have fled to the border, each one represents a unique voice that deserves to be heard. Coedited by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Freedman (The Last Brazil of Benjamin East, 2015), this bears testament to desperate individuals who are just seeking a chance for a new life.--Kathleen McBroom Copyright 2019 Booklist