Lead Review

• Book: Solito
• Location: El Salvador, Mexico
• Author: Javier Zamora

Review Author: Tina Hartas

Solito is a simple story of a boy from El Salvador yearning to be with his parents in La USA. He’s nine years old, innocent and painfully self-conscious at times. He lives with his grandparents and his aunt in a coastal village not far from San Salvador, where he attends a school run by nuns. Everyday life, seen through the eyes of this young boy, is vividly portrayed: the heat, the simplicity, the poverty. Above all, is the longing for a better future, something strongly felt among the families of the village, who are all trying to send someone – a father, a mother, a daughter, a son – to La USA by any means possible. Some get visas and migrate. Others save and save and use people smugglers. People like the shady Don Dago, the local contact who comes and goes, and no one wants to trust but must. Javier’s father left this way. His mother followed. Now it’s Javier’s turn and he must make the majority of what is meant to be a three-week journey alone.

Javier carries all the excitement of a child with him as he heads to Guatemala with his grandfather. There’s a strong sense of missing all that is left behind. And when his grandfather says goodbye and Javier faces the long journey up through Mexico on numerous buses with a group of six strangers, he is forced for form an alliance with a woman and her daughter. The journey is far from easy. Crossing the border into Mexico involves a treacherous boat ride, and crossing the border into La USA, long nocturnal hikes through desert, running out of water, running out of food.

At its heart, Solito is a story about courage and trust. For Javier, the courage to make the journey to relieve the ache in his heart, for he misses his parents terribly and they miss him. And his need to trust, to form bonds with fellow travellers. The migrants are exceptionally vulnerable and at the mercy of the smugglers every step of the way. Javier is especially vulnerable as he is only a little boy. His powerlessness to do anything other than what the group decides means he has no choice but to hope that each smuggler he meets is going to carry out his promises and not betray them.

Solito is a moving and confronting memoir. The minute observations and the stark simplicity of the prose drive the narrative and make for a rich and compelling read. The descriptions of the desert crossing are especially vivid, as are the scenes of seedy motel rooms and apartments, of bus stations and trucks and the smugglers themselves. Opinions about people smuggling and illegal migration can easily be set aside while reading this book, for Solito is a human story. And while this little boy Javier is terribly brave, the journey is traumatic and at times terrifying. My hat is off to the adult Javier Zamora for being brave enough to revisit every last detail of that journey. He has given the world a gift of knowing which we could all very much benefit from.

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