“Solito, Solita gives readers the rare chance to hear directly from young migrants who have risked everything for a better life on our side of the border. Mayers and Freedman have done a magnanimous job collecting these histories. 'Intense testimonies that leave one shivering, astonished at the bravery of the human spirit. We also meet Gabriel, who after surviving sexual abuse starting at the age of eight fled to the United States, and through study, legal support and work, is now attending UC Berkeley. Together they trekked through the jungles on the border between Guatemala and Mexico, where masked men assaulted them. We hear the story of Rosa, a Salvadoran mother fighting to save her life as well as her daughter’s after death squads threatened her family. He refused to join a gang, rode across Mexico atop cargo trains, crossed the US border as a minor, and was handcuffed and thrown into ICE detention on his eighteenth birthday. This collection includes the story of Adrián, from Guatemala City, whose mother was shot to death before his eyes. What can they teach us about abuse and abandonment, bravery and resilience, hypocrisy and hope? They bring us into their hearts and onto streets filled with the lure of freedom and fraught with violence. From fending off kidnappers with knives and being locked in freezing holding cells to tearful reunions with parents, Solito, Solita’s narrators bring to light the experiences of young people struggling for a better life across the border.

In an era of fear, xenophobia, and outright lies, these stories amplify the compelling voices of migrant youth.

Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America, is an urgent collection of oral histories that tells-in their own words-the story of young refugees fleeing countries in Central America and traveling for hundreds of miles to seek safety and protection in the United States.įifteen narrators describe why they fled their homes, what happened on their dangerous journeys through Mexico, how they crossed the borders, and for some, their ongoing struggles to survive in the United States. Solito, Solita (Alone, Alone), shortlisted for the 2019 Juan E. They are a mass migration of thousands, yet each one travels alone.

Solito, Solita by Steven Mayers