Javier Zamora · 2022 · overland

Javier Zamora's 2022 memoir of the journey he made at nine years old, travelling alone from El Salvador to the United States to reunite with the parents who had gone ahead. Guided by coyotes and a few kind strangers, he crossed Guatemala and the length of Mexico by bus and boat, then walked the Sonoran Desert under a punishing sun, a child among adults in constant danger. Told in the present-tense voice of the boy himself, it is tender, terrifying and unforgettable.

1. 1
   La Herradura

   Nine-year-old Javier leaves his grandparents and the only home he knows in coastal El Salvador, setting out for La USA and the parents he barely remembers.

2. 2
   Guatemala Coast

   Overland across Guatemala to the Pacific shore, where a small boat is waiting to carry the migrants north past the checkpoints.

3. 3
   Oaxaca Coast

   A terrifying open-boat run up the coast lands them in Oaxaca, and the long passage through Mexico begins.

4. 4
   Mexico City

   By bus up through the heart of Mexico, the group passing as a family, the boy learning to lie about who he is.

5. 5
   Sonoran Border

   To the northern desert and the border, where attempt after attempt to cross is turned back by the Border Patrol.

6. 6
   Tucson

   At last across the Sonoran Desert on foot, half-dead from thirst, into Arizona and the United States, and his parents' arms.