Solito

After Javier’s grandpa leaves, Javier feels “solito” (alone) for the first time in the memoir. His experiences with his grandfather reinforce the strength and importance of family because when Javier does find himself alone with strangers, he possesses a newfound inner strength and confidence he did not have when he first set out on his journey. His grandpa helped him accomplish his first step on his coming-of-age journey, which is what the crossing becomes. Javier’s grandpa helped Javier get to know the others in the group, so Javier will be less afraid when his grandpa leaves and he has to rely on his fellow migrants. By coincidence, Patricia and Javier’s mother share the same name. This foreshadows that Patricia will act as Javier’s mother while he is away from family. Javier is supposed to behave as Patricia’s son as part of their cover story. However, both he and she go beyond the simple cover in the relationship they develop; Patricia takes care of Javier like a son at all times, not only when someone may be looking.

This section, in which Javier meets non-Salvadorans for the first time, emphasizes the theme of Language as Identity. In Chapter 3, Javier learns the word migrante (migrant). The implications of the word are at first lost on him, just as they were when he first heard the word “indio” in Chapter 2.

The negative connotations of migrante highlight certain sentiments other Latin Americans hold for those leaving their countries for the US. They view people like Javier and the others as poor, uneducated, dirty, as unwanted members of society. Because of this, migrants are considered one of the lowest socioeconomic categories in Latin America. Moreover, regarding language, Javier’s accent becomes increasingly important because the group is supposed to pass themselves off as Mexican. Salvadorans have different words and an inflection that set them apart linguistically from Mexicans, which will cause problems later in the book.

In Chapter 3, Zamora uses several literary devices to illustrate his experience in the boat. First, he uses the extended metaphor of ants to describe how he and the others hold onto one another for support. The analogy comes from a scene he witnessed of ants holding onto one another during a rainstorm and how they floated together in the water in a long line. Comparing himself and the other migrants to ants in a rainstorm conveys a sense of their smallness in the face of gigantic odds. It also emphasizes their strength and ability to overcome these odds together, as ants are known for their teamwork and great strength despite their small size.

The next literary device he uses is an analogy of the boat crossing to a game of Red Rover. He describes the way people must shift in the boats (because of gas fumes, vomiting, and other discomforts) to the children’s game in which the players are constantly switching sides. This comparison of the perilous journey with a children’s game lends the situation a sense of innocence and helps ameliorate the danger in which Javier and the others find themselves. The invocation of Red Rover also alludes to the eponymous sea novel by 19th-century American author James Fennimore Cooper (author of The Last of the Mohicans). The Red Rover (1827) was a high-seas adventure novel focusing on the unlikely friendship between a British Navy officer, a white American seaman, and a free Black seaman as they unite against the pirate ship the “Red Rover.” One of the themes of Cooper’s novel is that life at sea erases social and class boundaries, as the occupants are literally and figuratively in the same boat. All three of Zamora’s allusions—to the ants, the children’s game, and the 19th-century adventure novel—strengthen the atmosphere of danger mixed with a child’s naïve innocence and sense of adventure. In this way, Zamora retains the authenticity of his nine-year-old protagonist’s perspective while signaling the real peril and complex sociological nuances of Javier’s situation to his adult readers.