Enrique’s Journey: 5. On the Border Summary & Analysis

Enrique has been on the banks of the Rio Grande in Nuevo Laredo for days. He is unsure whether his mother is still in North Carolina and he has lost her phone number. He remembers just one phone number in Honduras. He decides that he will call there, ask for one of his family members, and find out is mother's phone number. To make these two calls he will need two phone cards will together cost 100 pesos, which is more than he has. To earn the money, he decides to get a job washing cars.

In Nuevo Laredo, Enrique lives in an encampment among migrants, coyotes, junkies, and criminals. Though the camp is dirty and noisy, it is safer than other places—reeds conceal it from the view of U.S. immigration officers. Every night, he goes to a nearby taco stand to wash cars and sometimes get a couple of tacos after hours. If he can’t get tacos, he relies on parish churches who give out meal cards. There, he meets child migrants with stories similar to his and learns about the experiences of others. The children find solace in sharing stories.

The encampment is led by El Tiríndaro, a patero—a type of “coyote” who smuggles people into the U.S. on inner tubes on the river. El Tiríndaro is addicted to heroin and pays for his addiction by smuggling, tattooing, and stealing. He hopes that Enrique will be one of his customers, so he treats him well. Enrique is protected by other people living at the encampment, especially because he is the youngest. But outside of the camp, he does not do as well; he is not earning enough washing cars and he is not getting enough to eat. El Tiríndaro helps him earn money by selling clothes left behind on the banks of the river by other migrants. For El Tiríndaro, this help is an investment of sorts: if Enrique can earn enough to get the phone cards and call his mother, he will be more likely to pay El Tiríndaro to help him cross the river as well to then get smuggled further into the United States. The cost for El Tiríndaro’s services is $1,200.

By May 14, 2000, Mother's Day, Enrique has made enough to pay for two phone card. The next day, in celebration, he has El Tiríndaro give him a tattoo: "EnriqueLourdes" written on his chest. He knows his mother won’t be happy about the tattoo. However, he is so hungry on the following day that he trades one of his phone cards for food. He has also begun to sniff glue again—the one way he finds that he can alleviate his fear, loneliness, and hunger. Then, he discovers that someone has stolen his bucket. In need of money, he goes to town to beg to make money for another phone card.

Enrique thinks about crossing the river alone, but he is warned not to, especially as he can’t swim. Trying to take a train into Texas also won’t work: they are checked thoroughly, even by body-heat infrared sensors. Walking across Texas is also not possible alone. Many migrants who have tried it have been killed by dehydration in the intense heat, or have gotten shot by ranchers. Nazario further details what border security is like. The number of border agents has skyrocketed since 1993. Border patrol agents trace migrants' tracks as if they were hunting down animals. The agents are given bonuses for catching migrants. For some migrants who make the attempt to cross the border on their own, the journey is so difficult that they actually feel grateful—at least initially—when they are caught by agents.

Enrique decides that his only option is to use a smuggler. He chooses El Tiríndaro because he knows that he is trustworthy and has a good success rate. Yet before he can call his mother to tell her to hire El Tiríndaro, Enrique discovers that his right shoe has been stolen in the night. Shoes are vital, nearly as important as food. On his trip, he has already had his shoes stolen—he’s gone through many pairs—and now desperately searches for another. He finds one by the riverbank, but it is a left shoe. He will have to make do wearing two left shoes.

On May 19th, Enrique goes to Pedro Leo, a kind local priest, because he knows he allows migrants to use the phone in the church. Pedro Leo is an unconventional, poor-looking priest, who is dedicated to helping migrants. He uses the Bible rarely during Mass and instead structures his sermons around jokes or popular songs or movies. His most important job is tending to the needs of migrants, whom he feeds and clothes. At the church, Enrique makes the call back to his old boss in Honduras, who connects him to his relatives who then give him his mother's phone number in North Carolina. He runs to a pay phone to be alone, and calls his mother. They find it difficult to talk, but work out the details of Enrique’s next step: she agrees to gather the money and hire El Tiríndaro to smuggle Enrique into the United States.