Solito

“Mali says they left because before I was born there was a war, and then there were no jobs.”

Despite playing no direct role in the memoir, the history of El Salvador’s Civil War looms heavy over the country and Javier’s family. Not only does it provide the reader with a viable reason why his parents left him for the US, but it also frames the stories of the other migrants who travel with Javier.

“It’s because our parents are not here and we’re not there that Mays and Junes are sad. For most of us, our grandparents are the ones who show up for Mother’s and Father’s Day assemblies.”

Javier is not the only child whose parents have had to emigrate due to economic stagnation, lawlessness, and violence in El Salvador. Rather than discussing these political and economic issues, Javier Zamora shows the reality of postwar life in El Salvador from a child’s perspective.

“It’s Mom’s name.”

It is a symbolic coincidence in the memoir that a woman named Patricia cares for Javier during his migration journey, and Patricia is, in fact, his mother’s name. This foreshadows that importance the two will have to each other; Patricia has her own daughter, but she acts as Javier’s surrogate mother during their journey to the US.