Enrique's Journey; Compare & Contrast Chart

Living in the United States;

• Bettor job opportunites
• Better salaries
• Safer
• Strong juduicial system
• Better chance of saving enough enough money to support his girlfriend & daughter.

Staying in Honduras;

• Barely making money to support himself.
• Having to look for scraps of food to feed his family.
• Probably facing a lifetime of drug use.
• Always wandering where his mom was & if she still cared about him.

The Goods;

• You don't have to pay taxes.
• You can get an under the table job.
• If you give brith to children in the United States; they become citizens.
• You can get a free education.

The Bads;

• You run the risk of being caught
• You can be sent home with none of your belongings.
• It;s hard to become a citizen; it's a long process.

Chapter 7 Questions;;

1. What motivates Enrique to stay in the United States? What things make him wish to return to Honduras?
; Enrique thinks of his daughter, Jazmin. He wants to provide his family with the best lifestyle he can, spoil his daughter the best he can.

2. What factors cause conflict between Enrique and Lourdes? How do they seek to overcome these factors?
; Enrique has resentment towards his mother for leaving him at such a young age. But Enrique is put in the same situation and he finally realizes how his mother felt.

3. Contrast Enrique's life in the United States with the life he left behind.
; Enrique went through some drugs and alcohol in the United States just like in Honduras but he managed to shape up to provide for his family.

4. How do you feel when Maria Isabel leave Honduras?
; I feel like Enrique and Maria Isabel have a better chance of making it together then by themselves. I predict that everything will work out for the best.

5. Once reunited, how do Enrique and his mother get along?
; They behave just like the shows on television. They had their ups and downs but they managaed to appreciate being in eachother's livees after their sturggles.

6. How does Enrique's relationship with Maria Isabel progress?
; They went from talking to eachother every day on the phone to barely speaking at all. But Enrique realizes how much he needs her in his life and how much he loves her. It's not going to be overnight but their love will rekindle soon.

7. What conflicts arise between Maria Isabel and Enrique's family?
; It's basically the same cycle happening all over again. The main issue now is leaving their daughter jazmin behind while Enrique and Maria Isabel make money to take care of their daughter. <33333333

8. How does the book end as it began?
; It leaves us with Maria Isabel taking a huge step and pursueing a life with Enrique in the United States.

Sentence Potluck; 2-13-08

After listening to everyone’s sentence, my prediction is that Enrique is going to continue to neglect his family in Honduras; his girlfriend and baby girl. I predict that he is still trying to save up money for his family but that he isn’t calling home as much. Until it probably hits him that his daughter is calling another man daddy. I think that Enrique’s girlfriend is going to get sick and tired of being alone and eventually try to go to the United States. I think she is going to leave Jazmin behind.

Smuggle to America; Vocabulary.

Scrounge;
Definition; To gather together
Book Sentence; Chen sent most of his pay home, and remembers one week having to scrounge for change in his apartment to buy a dozen eggs and rice, which he lived on for a week.
My Sentence; I had to scrounge up some change to pay for my bus fare.

Remittance;
Definition; The sending of money, checks, etc., to a recipient at a distance.
Book Sentence; He kept many of the remittance receipts; the amounts average $2,000.
My Sentence; Whenever I have to send a money order, I have to save my remittance receipt to show proof.

Volition;
Definition; A choice or decision made by the will.
Book Sentence; Doebler thought she could make a case that Chen, because of his youth, had not come here of his own volition and that once here was in debt bondage, forced to work because of threats to his family..
My Sentence; I am an American citizen by my own volition. [:

Smuggle to America; Letter.

Dear Mama & Baba,

I am writing you from New York City. I’m not sure why you sent me here alone but I trust that you guys had your reasons. As soon as I arrived in the United States, the smugglers had me call you to let you know I had made it. But as soon as you sent the money, they left me all alone in the city. I stayed outside and slept over night on park benches for a few nights. I didn’t know what to do until I met this guy who let me stay with him. He had also came to the United States illegally from China so he felt like he owed it me to let me stay. He led me to work at a local garment factory cutting loose threads from shirts. I was making two cents for each piece of clothing I trimmed. I then became too depressed and busy to continue school so I dropped out. I was barely making it on my own. I remember having to scrounge around for change to buy a carton of eggs and some rice that had to last me the entire week. I realized I was not making enough money so I looked for another job. I then got a job as a dishwasher and I was making $800 a month. I was having to work 12 to 13 hours a day just to make a good amount of money to send home. There were a few times when I thought of suicide but I remembered the stories of smugglers who killed the families so I never did. I studied the English language and eventually became manager of a Chinese Restaurant. Later on, I returned to school and graduated top of my class. I went on to college, you would be proud. [: And, I am looking forward to becoming a citizen of the United States. I saved all of my remittance receipts, so I was able to get a Visa through an immigration attorney. I hope that you guys will be able to visit me soon.

Love,
Chen

Reading Pg. 209-`24

After reading today’s reading, my potluck prediction was wrong because it looks like Maria Isabel and Enrique might end up together after all. I predicted that Enrique was going to hire a smuggler to bring his girlfriend to the United States. So far, Enrique and Maria Isabel are both too stubborn to actually sit down and talk about it. It seems like Maria Isabel has been awhile without Enrique and she assumes he does not care about her anymore. But I think Enrique will eventually move on and him and his girlfriend will go their separate ways.

This reading took place mostly in both Honduras and in the United States. The parts talking about Enrique took place in United States and the portion talking about Maria Isabel takes place in Honduras. The main people involved in this reading were Lourdes, Enrique, Jasmin, Lourdes's boyfriend, Mirian, & Belky. Lourdes affected Enrique because they were constantly fighting which led to Enrique moving out of her home and into another trailer.

This morning’s reading started off with Enrique doing drugs again. He started trying to sniff glue again but eventually ended up smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol daily. His mother, Lourdes, noticed a change in her son and threatened to kick him out of her home unless he stopped doing drugs. He stopped doing drugs, but not because of his mother. He stopped doing drugs because he noticed a change in his body. The beatings he got while on the train trying to cross over to the United States would start hurting whenever he was under the influence. Plus, he noticed how much money he was wasting on his bad habits and how much money he could have put aside for his daughter and girlfriend. The reading ended off with Enrique eventually moving out on his own and only having a little bit of money to send to his daughter and baby mama. The relationship between Enrique and Maria Isabel is slowly ending but hopefully they can rekindle their romance some how.