Enrique’s Journey: 3. Facing the Beast Summary & Analysis

This chapter recounts Enrique's eighth attempt to reach the United States, after having been deported to Guatemala after the seventh. He begins on the border of Guatemala and Mexico, about to enter the southernmost state, Chiapas, known by Enrique and other young migrants as the beast. His experiences in Chiapas have yielded knowledge: avoid buses, never ride freight trains alone, do not trust authorities. Enrique decides to spend the night in a cemetery near Tapachula, but not at the train station, where he has been caught in the past. A gangster of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, Big Daddy, sleeps next to him and rouses Enrique when he hears municipal police approaching. They are caught by the police and brought to the Tapachula jail. With the help of other migrants, Enrique escapes from the jail and runs back to the cemetery. At dawn, he hears the rumbling of an approaching train and runs towards the tracks. He grabs a hold of a ladder on the train car and, with the help of fellow migrants, hoists himself up.

On the trains, Enrique encounters many other children like him, some as young as nine, most fifteen or younger. Finding a place to hide on the trains is risky—many spots are dangerous, and others are the frequent targets of migras (immigration police). Enrique decides to steady himself atop a hopper car, and holds on as the train lurches on and rounds bends. The train slows as it approached La Arrocera, an immigration checkpoint well-known for its strict agents. Once the migrants spot agents, they begin to jump between cars to avoid being noticed. When Enrique is noticed, he decides to jump off the train and hide in the brush.

In the brush, Enrique's main concern are madrinas, civilians who help the authorities. Carrying machetes, they often comb the areas around checkpoints and are known to commit horrible crimes. Enrique runs, trying to stay out of site, and worrying about bandits who are so powerful in the area that they are practically exempt from the law. He passes an abandoned house, a notorious spot where women are regularly raped by bandits. Sexual assault is one of the main threats that female migrants often encounter and are forced to endure. Nazario cites evidence that one in six female migrants are subject to sexual assault. Finally, Enrique makes it to the Cuil bridge, which is his only way across the river that will allow him to get back on the train past La Arrocera. The bridge is notorious as a spot where bandits ambush migrants, but Enrique makes it across unharmed.

In Chiapas, Enrique knows that people are not likely to help migrants. They hold prejudices against Central Americans, fearing that migrants spread disease, prostitution, and crime. Some even turn them in. But Enrique is desperate for water, and needs help. He approaches a house and is fortunate to be greeted by a kind woman who gives him bread, beans, and water. Soon he hears the sound of a train coming, and he rushes to the tracks, and boards.

In Honduras, Maria Isabel is convinced by her family members not to go and try to find Enrique. They are shocked that she would consider making such a dangerous journey, especially if she is pregnant.

Back on the train, Enrique stands holding on to a hopper as he suffers in the heat, which is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. He cannot let himself fall asleep—he might slip and fall, or become a victim of the Mara Salvatrucha gang. The Mara Salvatrucha gang controls the tops of freight trains in this area, looking for sleeping migrants to rob. They have also been known to beat anyone who defies them or fights back, to throw people from trains, among other brutalities. In earlier runs through Chiapas, Enrique had befriended a Mara Salvatrucha member named El Brujo, and thus was protected from their attacks. However, recently he refused to help Mara Salvatrucha take revenge against a rival gang, and thus lost his protection and has faced several beatings. Vulnerable, he keeps himself awake by jumping from car to car. Other migrants take amphetamines, exercise, or use other methods to stay awake. Finally, Enrique and the train pass out of Chiapas and Enrique is proud to have made it through the beast.

Some migrants who set out with Enrique for Chiapas have been caught and deported, while others have been severely injured or even died. In the town of Arriaga, dedicated paramedics from the Red Cross treat migrants who have been injured on (or by) the trains. In Tapachula, Olga Sanchez Martinez, the head of the Shelter of Jesus the Good Shepherd, helps heal the wounded. Determined to do the impossible, she stops at nothing to try to save migrants' lives. Having suffered in her own life (including a bout with cancer), she turned to religion to help her and to allow her to help others. Her hard work she does for free, and she runs the operation on a shoestring with the help of donations from other generous people.

Nazario also points out another group of people who do not make it out of Chiapas: victims of rape. Nazario cites an example of a woman from Honduras named Wendy, who is gang raped as her husband waits at a checkpoint.

Finally, Enrique makes it to the state of Oaxaca, 285 miles into Mexico. He gets off the train hoping to rest and find some food and water. Off the train, he must disguise himself so that he doesn't stick out as a Central American. He gets his hair cut, for instance, because his curly hair differs from Mexicans' straight dark hair, and pays attention to the way that he speaks so that he does not come across as Honduran. He glances at himself in the reflection of a window and sees that he has changed, how the trials of the journeys are visible in his body. This only augments his desire to find his mother.