Solito is a touching memoir illustrating the harsh reality and struggles of immigration through a ten-year-old's eyes. This book begins in La Herradura in El Salvador; Javier lives in a small town near the sea. This town is in relative poverty, lacking basic necessities like a bathroom. He used an outhouse, and throughout the book, due to him moving through many different environments, he illustrates his fear of even an actual toilet since he has never used one. While he is in El Salvador, he talks about how kids at his school would just go missing without telling anyone to avoid suspicion because they are immigrating and crossing the border. When it was his turn, he employed “Don Miguel” to help him cross the border. He planned this with his parents in the U.S. to organize it. Since he was so young when he left, his grandfather accompanied him to his first destination, Guatemala. Here he encounters the first of his challenges, including a language barrier, and is held up for a time where the adults around him drink and smoke to waste time, in a cheap motel. However, he still has his grandfather. In the next leg of his journey, he travels in a boat. His grandfather is not coming all the way, so he has to leave Javier. However, he entrusts Marcelo with the care of Javier since he is from their town. However, Javier does not trust Marcelo, and he is not that involved. On the boat, Javier gets used to his “family”; they take care of him mostly in the rest of the book and have to also pretend to be family to keep up their act and not get caught. This “family” is made up of Chino, Patricia, Carla (Patricia's daughter), and himself/Javier. On this boat to Tapachula, Mexico, he describes the horrible conditions he was put through along with the other people on the boat. He describes the feeling of the gasoline being in his lungs, mouth, and clothes. Furthermore, he illustrates the constant bumpy ride along with the extreme heat and cold with little to no cover. Also, the drivers would not allow bathroom breaks so they could speed up the journey. Once he got to Tapachula, Mexico, they were then delayed for an extended period of time, where, while he was hung up on smaller problems, his innocence shielded him from the violence that the adults were expressing toward their “coyote” due to the perilous journey they are taking heightening their emotions. Next, he must cross the Sonoran Desert, where he must walk with very limited food and water along with very few breaks. On top of all this, they must always be ready for helicopters and other dangers that could get them caught. He walked for a very long time, and during one break while he was sleeping, they were surrounded, and the group tried to run; however, they were caught. The conditions in the prison were better than what they had experienced earlier in the trip. They are released with a warning that if they do it again, they will be imprisoned for ten years. However, this does not stop them. They are deported back to Mexico, and they must find shelter with the nuns before they can leave again. Once they leave with their “coyote,” they have to do the entire walk across the desert again, constantly on alert. They cross the border with limited problems and arrive in a city, Tucson, Arizona. However, his trek is not over yet. He then rides in a hot van with no windows where he is transported to an overcrowded safe house where he must sleep alone until his parents arrive. The book ends with a happy ending. However, it left a very big impression on me. This book changed how I saw immigration as a whole. It is not black and white; many people who are trying to immigrate to the U.S. are living in horrible conditions, and for them, there is no failure to get to the United States. They will always try, and the horrible things they go through to get away just show how hard life is for them. I already knew some of this but had not realized the true scale of it. I think that everyone should read a book like this to put themselves in their shoes. It changes how you look at the world and gives you almost a new way of seeing. If I were to offer any advice to future readers, I would say to not be fooled by the length of the book because it goes by very quickly. Also, I would say that this is a very heavy book and is not for the faint of heart.
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