As the opening chapter in the Perry Public Library’s year-long program on 500 years of Latino-American history, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Sonia Nazario recently visited Perry to share her experiences and discuss her multiple-award winning book, “Enrique’s Journey.”
Originally written as a six-part series in the Los Angeles Times in 2003, Nazario’s account of a young Honduran boy’s attempt to reconnect with his mother in the United States was turned into a book in 2006. Since then, the book has won numerous plaudits for the author and currently appears on the freshmen reading list at 77 universities and colleges in the U.S.
Nazario spoke in a public gathering in the Perry Performing Arts Center Sunday, Oct. 18. She discussed the origins of her book and shared her thoughts in dialogue with Carmen Ferrez, who once worked as her maid in Los Angeles. After learning that Ferrez — whose husband had abandoned the family — had left four children behind in Guatemala in order the seek work in the U.S., Nazario began researching tales of families members separated from each other.
“These parents have made the difficult choice to leave their children behind,: Nazario said, “but only so they can provide a better life for them by sending money, clothing and other things back to them they could not give them if they had stayed home. However, for many of the children, especially the young ones, they feel as if they had been abandoned.”
The questions can linger for a lifetime.
“Does mom still love me? Will dad ever come home?” Nazario said. “Those are the kind of questions that lead many of these same children on the dangerous journey Enrique took.”
Nazario and Ferrez discussed the many dangers faced on such journeys, where the trek across Mexico is almost always far more dangerous — and often life-threatening — than slipping illegally into the U.S.
A 30-minute question-and-answer session wrapped the event, but Nazario was back at the school the following day to spend time with the entire PHS freshman class, as well as with those juniors currently enrolled in English III.
Wendy Bollheofer, lead Success (freshman initiation) instructor and freshman English teacher, said the ninth grade students had read the young adult version of Enrique’s Journey, with the juniors reading the standard adult version. A few freshmen ESL students also read the book in Spanish.
Nazario received a rousing response from the students on Monday, Bollheofer said, and discussed the book and related issues with those gathered for nearly 90 minutes, after which she spent time with each student who wished to speak personally with her.
“Many of these students can relate to the book on a personal level,” Bollheofer noted. “If they have not experienced something similar themselves, the odds are pretty good they have a family member who has, or else they know someone who has.”
Nazario was in Perry as part of “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History” the six-part series of events celebrating the contributions and focusing on the history of Latino Americans. The Perry Public Library is helping the facilitate the series, which is made possible by a grant through Humanities Iowa, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.
Perry Public Library Director Mary Murphy, speaking to Monday’s Perry City Council meeting as part of her annual report, noted the success of Nazario’s visit and reminded the council that Perry was one of only a handful of cities across the nation selected for the year-long series, which includes lectures, a mobile recording lab for oral histories, a public mural and other community events.
This week’s Conversations with Coffee, held at the Dallas County Hospital’s Tenth Street Bistro, was also part of the “Latino-Americans: 500 Years of History” programming. The low-stress ESL assistance event will be repeated at the hospital Wednesday, Nov. 4.
Addressing the city council, Perry Mayor Jay Pattee echoed Murphy’s praise of Nazario’s visit, noting that he and his wife, Jan Pattee, attended the Sunday event and were duly impressed.
“It was a great event and the start of many more to come,” Pattee said. “This was a great event right here in Perry, and this was the kind of thing you might not even find in a place like Chicago.”
Murphy’s report to the council also included a review of events hosted by the library or else occasions in which the library was involved as a facilitator or sharing agency.
Recalled were the successful summer reading program, a blood drive, a “melting crayon art project” held in conjunction with Art on the Prairie, the Take Your Child to the Library day and First Book, a project in which children are provided low-cost books given to the library at minimal cost.
Murphy also declared the successful completion of the long-running effort to digitize the archives of the Perry newspapers, noting that, since 1874, nine different papers had at one time or another been published in Perry. Everything through 2013 can now be found on the library’s computers, with the $24,000 cost covered by a series of three grants.
Touching on fiscal year 2014-15, Murphy described the period as one of “finishing some projects and starting other projects” and expressed her optimism about the library’s role in the future of Perry’s intellectual and cultural life.
