© 2024 WYPR
WYPR 88.1 FM Baltimore WYPF 88.1 FM Frederick WYPO 106.9 FM Ocean City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
WYPO 106.9 Eastern Shore is off the air due to routine tower work being done daily from 8a-5p. We hope to restore full broadcast days by 12/15. All streams are operational

Against Perils and Odds: A Boy's Trek to the U.S.

Detail from the cover of <i>Enrique's Journey</i>.
Detail from the cover of Enrique's Journey.

Many women from Central America work in the United States to support their children back home. The story of one boy's journey to find his mother is the subject of a new book by journalist Sonia Nazario.

Nazario says that 48,000 children, some as young as 7, make the journey alone each year. Along the way, they risk their lives and their freedom as they face predatory smugglers and trolling immigration authorities.

Writing for The Los Angeles Times in 2003, Nazario researched and wrote a series feature articles about Enrique, a Honduran boy desperate to find his mother, who had left home when her son was 5.

As a teenager, Enrique finally decides to travel to America himself, taking with him the only clue he has to his mother's whereabouts: a North Carolina phone number.

Nazario's articles, which resulted in a Pulitzer Prize, form the basis of Enrique's Journey, along with photographs of Enrique's struggle (the series also won a Pulitzer for feature photography).

Copyright 2023 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.

Combine an intelligent interviewer with a roster of guests that, according to the Chicago Tribune, would be prized by any talk-show host, and you're bound to get an interesting conversation. Fresh Air interviews, though, are in a category by themselves, distinguished by the unique approach of host and executive producer Terry Gross. "A remarkable blend of empathy and warmth, genuine curiosity and sharp intelligence," says the San Francisco Chronicle.