Vamos, patojos

One of my high school Spanish teachers showed this movie in her class. Made in 1983, it follows the journey of a brother and sister fleeing their homes in Guatemala to try and make a new life in Los Angeles. It was the first time I thought about what it might mean to start over without family support or even legal documents.  

I never thought almost 30 years later my daughter would be reading a book, published and set in 2016, that follows a similar premise, but with a cast of much younger characters.

In The Only Road by Alexandra Diaz, Jaime Rivera and his cousin Ángela are being threatened by the gang that killed Angela’s brother Miguel. Their family members scrape up enough money to send them from their small town in Guatemala to a relative in the United States. Ángela is fifteen. Jaime is twelve years old. 

Jaime, an avid artist, sketches their perilous journey aboard pick-up trucks, buses, and freight trains as they cross into Mexico and make the long journey north to the Rio Grande. They encounter other children along the way traveling in pairs or alone. Pooling their resources, they figure out who to trust. They pray they won’t be separated, lost, or even killed. The kindness of strangers puts food in their bellies. Veterans of the journey offer advice for survival.

Perilous and eye-opening, the novel introduces us to fictional characters who, unfortunately, are based on the stories of actual young people. Kids who fear for their lives. Kids who have no choice but to try for a better life.

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