Imagine being 9 years old, leaving the extended family who’ve raised you to travel in the company of strangers from El Salvador, across Guatemala and through Mexico, to the US to join parents you barely remember.

Imagine being the grandparents or relatives of a 9-year-old boy and having to hand him into the care of strangers for that trek.

Imagine being the parents, who having made the journey themselves, are desperate enough to have their son join them that they entrust him to the “coyotes” for the journey only for everything to go wrong leaving no one knowing where Javier is or if he is even alive for weeks.

On June 6, Books on Tap met to discuss the book Solito by Javier Zamora, a memoir of his journey at age 9 from El Salvador to the US to join his parents. The consensus was that it is an excellent book but very hard to read. Comments of “Can you imagine . . . ?” and “I can’t imagine . . . “ were repeated multiple times over the course of the evening. The book contained a lot of detail, enough that one reader felt like they were making the journey with him. It showed the profound human toll on the people trying to come to the US. 

The narrator’s voice felt true to the 9-year-old boy making the journey. One reader was struck by the coping mechanisms the boy used when crossing the desert. Early in the journey he talks about loving the sunrise and the sunset. He names and describes the trees and plants he sees and is amazed by the animals they encounter, as if convincing himself this isn’t so bad. But over time he was broken down and began to hate it all, clinging to the found family he was traveling with. One person described the prose as clearly written by a poet, lyrical while also dispassionate. (Zamora is the author of the poetry collection Unaccompanied.) Others pointed out how well the Spanish worked in the text, adding authenticity to the voice. It also highlighted differences in dialects throughout the region. 

Another reader pointed out how the story highlighted the best and worst of people, those that took advantage of the situation to look out only for themselves no matter the cost to others, and those who banded together to support and help each other, determined to work together to succeed.

Discussion alternated between talking about the events of the book and the long-term trauma the journey inflicted on everyone involved and the American immigrant experience. In several interviews, Zamora talks about hiding his status while growing up and the pressure he felt to excel, to justify his presence in the US. He never felt that he fit in. This led to a discussion of ways immigrants try to fit in and assimilate into American culture, to the point that some families refuse to use their native language, insisting that their children speak English. Later those children regret the disconnect with their culture.

Writing Solito was part of Zamora’s healing process, and he is open that it is the product of many sessions with his therapist. He wasn’t alone in his trauma. He and his parents never spoke of his experiences after he first arrived until he began writing the book. Readers posed the question of how traumatic must that have been for his parents as well. They didn’t know if he was even alive for weeks. Then when they finally see him, they are appalled at his condition and later comment on the stench. 

For more information on Zamora and his journey:

Maps:

Found this map online that one reader recorded while reading the book.