Enrique’s Journey: 2. Seeking Mercy Summary & Analysis

In a small town in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, Enrique, severely battered and wearing only his underwear, limps towards a field hand. The man provides Enrique with a pair of pants and directs him to the mayor, who brings him to his home and takes care of him. A mayor from a neighboring town arrives in a truck and takes Enrique to the doctor. The alternative is to let Enrique die, but the cost of burying him would be three times as much as the doctor's fee. Before they leave for the hospital, Enrique sees a judicial office, who robbed him the day before. The robbing, beating, and extorting of migrants by corrupt police is a common occurrence.

After this episode, Nazario turns the story back six months to when Enrique made his first attempt to travel north. The first attempt was described in the previous chapter: he travels by bus through Guatemala with his friend Jose, but is seized atop a train in Veracruz, Mexico. The second time, Enrique traveled alone, but was caught atop the trains and again deported to Guatemala. On the third, police caught him asleep in a house and robbed him. Police caught him asleep again on his fourth trip in Tapachula, Mexico. The fifth time, he was caught in Mexico City. His sixth journey, was the most successful: he had covered 1,564 miles and was at the Rio Grande river, with the United States in view on the other side, when he was seized by immigration agents who sent him back to Guatemala.

Meanwhile, in Honduras, Maria Isabel worries about Enrique and blames herself for his leaving. She wishes that he will be deported back to Honduras. She is unwell and losing weight, and wonders if she is pregnant. Finally, she decides with a friend that they will go to the U.S. together.

At the Guatemalan border where Enrique was deported after being caught for the sixth time, he must quickly find his way back into Mexico to avoid the dangers of the border towns. On his seventh trip, he crosses the river into Mexico at El Carmen and gets onto a freight train. There, he is robbed and badly beaten by six men. To escape from the men, he jumps from the train, which is moving at almost 40 miles per hour. At this point, the story joins up with the first episode in the chapter—Enrique finds the field hand, Gomez, and the mayor, and he is brought to a clinic. The doctor tells him that he is lucky; many others whom he treats after a day, ready to continue his journey. As he limps down the road, a few people give him a little money out of people. Soon he flags down a car for a ride. Unfortunately, the driver is an off-duty immigration officer, who sends him on a bus back to Guatemala. Despite failing for a seventh time, Enrique tells himself that he must persist.