The power of fiction

Javier Zamora, writer poet, published his book Solito: a Memoir in September 2022. In this book Javier Zamora, recollects his journey of illegal immigration from El Salvador to the United States as a 9 year old boy. My friends gifted this book to me and I started reading it during a long car ride. The highly engaging book was a no-put-downer and I finished reading the book during the ride. I have  two friends, both of whom have migrated illegally as refugees from politically tense situations, one from Vietnam to the United States and one from Iran to Australia. I have listened to their harrowing narratives of the hardships they have faced while crossing the mountains, deserts and seas to reach a safe space. When I started reading the book, I was expecting it to be similar to those narratives. I was not ready for the emotional roller coster that this book would take me on. 

Zamora's parents had already migrated to the US during the Salvadoran civil war. The pre-adolescent boy is sent on the arduous journey to cross the Sonoran Desert across Mexico into Phoenix, Arizona. He narrates the incidents that happened through the journey in his own voice from when he was 9 years of age. The narrative captures the world of illegal migration from the eyes of a child. Confusions and challenges with his own growing pre-pubescent body image, strange and new feelings towards the opposite sex, curious anxiety about everything new that is happening around him, a mixture of fear as well as the lack of it in the uncertain situations are what the young boy experiences. We, the readers experience all this along with him. The ultimate goal is to go to his parents. The excitement of that reunion is there in the back of his mind. It drives him through the dangerous immigration journey. 

In as much as the story is that of the young boy, it is also that of two great characters Patricia, a middle aged mother, who is also trying to migrate to the US with her daughter and Chino, who is trying to protect the boy in all extreme external conditions and take him safely to the other side. While the journey is painful and challenging, this surrogate family protects, nourishes and cares for him through these hardships. Nothing bonds people close together like adversity. This beautiful little family of Zamora, Patricia, her daughter and Chino made my heart melt. 

The narrative is elaborate and provides great detail. In one place Zamora is thrown on a cactus in the desert during their journey. The needles of the cactus pierce every part of his exposed body. His surrogate family helps him and using tweezers pull out each needle. The scene is described in such vivid detail that I literally felt the pins and needles in my feet. I also got the feeling that Zamora must have taken artistic liberty in the narration, because the detailing is so intricate that even someone with a sharp memory is unlikely to  recollect such details. 

I am recollecting my own childhood and comparing it with Zamora's. I now have a whole new appreciation for the safety, political stability, and opportunity to grow and develop to who I am today, that Tamil Nadu, India offered me as a boy. While I am able to pick up Solito: A memoir on my comfortable car ride and complete it, there are thousands of children like Zamora struggling for their existence, escaping oppression and trying to move to safer places. I found a new respect for the power of fiction to communicate stories and realities of people around us.