A Boy’s Harrowing Journey To the United States

by Fran Withrow 08.2023

In 1999, when Javier Zamora was nine years old, his grandfather gave him into the care of a “coyote,” Don Dago, who would help Zamora and other immigrants travel from El Salvador to the United States so Zamora could be reunited with his parents. The trip was supposed to take a couple of weeks.

For the next seven weeks neither Zamora’s parents in California nor his grandparents in El Salvador knew where he was. The route, which Zamora’s grandfather had carefully explained to his young grandson, did not go according to plan. Unexpected road blocks continually peppered Zamora’s path toward his parents. 

In “Solito,” Zamora, now in his thirties, recounts this traumatic trip in detail. What you will read is one child’s horrific struggle to rejoin his father, who immigrated when Zamora was one, and his mother, who followed her husband when Zamora was five. Zamora says both parents fled because of the US-funded Salvadoran war.

Zamora, who could not revisit his journey before delving into therapy, is a truly gifted writer. His style is almost poetic, which is not surprising, as he is also the author of a book of poems about his journey: “Unaccompanied.” As I read about him riding on buses, walking through the desert, trying to avoid “la migra,” and depending on the strangers who were traveling with him, I truly felt the heartache, the fear, the confusion, and the hope young Zamora experienced. Waiting in dirty apartments, three to a bed or on the floor, often hungry and thirsty, Zamora and his fellow travelers continually clung desperately to hope that in the United States they could be reunited with loved ones and experience a safer, better life than the one they left behind.

Though no one was required to look out for this nine-year old child, Patricia, her daughter Carla, and Chino took Zamora under their wings. These four became a pseudo-family, and truly cared for each other. Chino would throw Zamora and Carla over fences they were too small to climb over or under. And when the border police were after them, Chino sacrificed his chance to escape to help young Zamora.

Life in border detention is also graphically described, and it is heartrending to read about those who are caught after spending so many weeks and so much money trying to get to the United States. How crushing it must be to be sent back after so much effort. Often, those who are apprehended are sent back with nothing, as many of them may have dropped their backpacks and supplies as they tried to run.

Whether you agree with the United States’ policies about illegal immigration or not, it would be worth your while to read “Solito,” to get an understanding of the incredible physical and emotional toll immigrants experience as they travel north. Life has to be truly horrendous for anyone to be willing to endure the hardships necessary to get to the United States.

A beautifully written look at immigration through the eyes of a young child, “Solito” deserves all the accolades it will undoubtedly bring.