Table Of ContentSOLITO, SOLITA
Praise for Solito, Solita
“Intense testimonies that leave one shivering, astonished at the bravery of the
human spirit. Mayers and Freedman have done a magnanimous job collecting
these histories. America, are you listening?” —Sandra Cisneros, author of
Puro Amor and The House on Mango Street
“Solito, Solita gives readers the rare chance to hear directly from young
migrants who have risked everything for a better life on our side of the
border. With unflinching clarity, they detail the violence they left behind, the
fear and difficulties they face after arrival, and the hope and resiliency that
carries them through it all. They have courageously shared these experiences
with the idea that people like us might read their stories and be moved to
action, and we owe it to them to do so.” —Francisco Cantú, author of The
Line Becomes a River
“This book fills a crucial missing piece in today’s immigration debate.
Everyone who cares about immigration—and about migrants—should read
it…. The searing, heart-wrenching firsthand accounts in this book bring to
life the experiences of Central Americans before they reach the United States:
the tragic experiences of poverty, violence, and abuse that push individuals to
flee their homes, the agonizing and perilous journeys across Mexico and
Central America, and the baffling bureaucracy and abuse they find upon
arriving in the United States.” —Aviva Chomsky, professor at Salem State
University and author of Undocumented
“Stories of war and exile, of migrations and survival—a most pertinent
collection for our times, one that puts a human face on the greatest tragedy
and humanitarian crisis of our generation. This collection is a must-read for
politicians who demonize refugees and a call to action for everyone else.”
—Alejandro Murguía, San Francisco poet laureate emeritus and professor
of Latina/Latino Studies at San Francisco State University
“Immigration narratives are too often reduced to tropes, to statistics and
numbers, to binary politics and manipulative rhetoric, but not so in this
volume of stories. Solito, Solita reaches beyond and beneath the headlines,
clearing the mess and the noise so that we can hear the voices that matter
most in contemporary migration: those of young migrants themselves.”
—Lauren Markham, author of The Far Away Brothers: Two Young
Migrants and the Making of an American Life
“These raw voices pulse with heartbreak, resilience, hope, and even joy,
shining a light on the forces that compel young people to flee their homes in
the Northern Triangle in search of safety and solace in the United States. A
must-read for today’s immigration debate.” —Sara Campos, codirector of
the New American Story Project
“This is a thorough, compassionate, and necessary book that allows a unique
set of voices—child refugees—to be heard. The framing of the narratives and
the introduction offer important information about the US role in the
proliferation of violence and corruption, but the work remains focused on the
crucial individual voices.” —Ariana Vigil, professor at University of North
Carolina–Chapel Hill
Additional Interviewers
Oscar Garcia, Alberto Reyes Morgan
Transcribers and Translators
Anna Aleshire, Siuzanna Arutiunova, Ara Avedian, Mauro Javier Cardenas,
Ruthie Cartwright, Katie Fiegenbaum, Jimmy Gonzalez, Lisa Hoffman, Gina
Krawiec, Ana Claudia Lopes, Maria Maione, Cindie Meyer, Alberto Reyes
Morgan, Marisela Musgrove, Kevin Ramirez, Laura Schroeder, Janey
Skinner, Morena Urutia, Miguel Wise
Research Assistance
Maria Maione, Cindie Meyer, Miguel Wise
Fact-Checking
Reading List Editorial, readinglisteditorial.com
Copyeditor
Brian Baughan
SOLITO, SOLITA
Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees
from Central America
EDITED BY STEVEN MAYERS
AND JONATHAN FREEDMAN
WITH A FOREWORD BY JAVIER ZAMORA
© 2019 Voice of Witness
Published in 2019 by
Haymarket Books
P.O. Box 180165
Chicago, IL 60618
773-583-7884
www.haymarketbooks.org
[email protected]
ISBN: 978-1-60846-620-7
Distributed to the trade in the US through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution
(www.cbsd.com) and internationally through Ingram Publisher Services International
(www.ingramcontent.com).
This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and Wallace
Action Fund.
Special discounts are available for bulk purchases by organizations and institutions. Please
call 773-583-7884 or email [email protected] for more information.
Cover design by Michel Vrana. Cover photograph by Dominic Bracco. Narrator portrait
illustrations by Christine Shields.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD, by Javier Zamora
INTRODUCTION, by Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman
EXECUTIVE EDITOR’S NOTE, by Mimi Lok
MAP OF MIGRATION ROUTES THROUGH MEXICO, 2016
Soledad Castillo, Honduras
“Nobody wanted me.”
Josué Nieves, El Salvador
“One day, I want to be like my father.”
Gabriel Méndez, Honduras
“I was made to do things I didn’t want to do.”
Jhony Chuc, Guatemala
“You ride on top of the Beast and are totally exposed.”
Noemi Tun, Guatemala
“People fought over land and water.”
Isabel Vásquez, El Salvador
“Before, a village like ours was so beautiful, and suddenly things were ruined.”
Danelia Silva, El Salvador
“He’d break down doors and come through the windows, or, if not, from the roof, up the
fire escape.”
Adrián Cruz, Guatemala
“I was solito, solito. I decided to cross by myself.”
Pedro Hernandez, Guatemala
“The US immigration police herded us into cars and drove us to la hielera, the freezer.”
Cristhian Molina, Honduras
“For eighteen years I’ve wandered from the bottom to the top of North America, trying to
change my life.”
