Author: Lauren Markham
Publisher: Crown
Pages: 320
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an
American Life by Lauren Markham attempts to humanize
the stories of undocumented minors against the political backdrop of US
President Donald Trump announcing a war on undocumented migrants.
The author does this by highlighting the efforts of teenage twins,
Ernesto and Raul Flores of El Salvador, to enter the US. She has written
this book after hours of research and investigation into the lives of undocumented
minors coming in from El Salvador via Mexico.
The names of the family members have
been changed to protect their identity, but the struggles faced by the brothers
and their family members is very real.
Most illegal immigrants come to the
US in the hope of securing a better life, but for many, says the author, that
means a life where they are not afraid of being killed.
That’s what it is like for Ernesto
and Raul, seventeen-years-old when they make the perilous journey up
North. Their older brother, Wilber Jr, had already gone to America,
because there was no future in their country.
There are six other siblings, older
and younger at home; their parents have lost four babies. Of these, the author
also gives us glimpses of Ricardo, who has a drinking problem and flirts
dangerously with joining the gangs, and Maricela, who becomes an abandoned
single mum, and looks after the family.
Meanwhile, Ernesto and Raul plod on
at school, watching as their friends join gangs and snitch on those who won’t
join. Ernesto, more aggressive than his twin, wants to follow in Wilber Jr’s
footsteps and build a better future for himself; Raul wants to work as a banker
in another city in El Salvador.
Their dreams fall by the
wayside as El Salvador succumbs to waves of violence and gangster unrest. Conditions
worsen and it becomes a place where the threat of death…was just as powerful
as death itself.
When Ernesto gets into
trouble on account of a jealous uncle, the family borrows $7000 to send Ernesto
up North, and then another $7000 for Raul, when gangsters mistake him for
Ernesto and almost try to kill him. Both boys suffer and witness harrowing
sights on their way, and suffer depression and nightmares even months after
reaching the US.
The family believes that they
will be able to pay off the debt once the boys reach the US. But that is not
what happens.
In the US, the twins get
caught up in the struggle to seek documentation. They miss their court hearing,
and need a lawyer to fight their case pro bono. They enroll in a school and get
part-time jobs, working in shifts, but the meagre amounts they earn don’t make
a dent in the mounting debt.
They face other challenges. Besides
the lack of language skills, the low wages, they are also plagued by their desire
to fit in, to want the lifestyle that they see others enjoying. They don’t seem
capable of taking advantage of the American Dream. They keep getting caught in
its trappings, wanting to spend their money on iPhones, Nike sneakers, smoking,
and girlfriends. Ernesto’s teenage girlfriend gets pregnant, and gives birth to
their daughter.
It is only when their father,
Wilber Sr, sells off a parcel of land, their inheritance, that the debt can be
wiped off, and the twins can begin to dream of a fresh beginning.
The title comes from the
phrase, hermano lejano, faraway brother in Spanish. Hermano lejano is the
Salvadorean term for a person who has crossed over into the US.
The narrative of the Flores
twins is interspersed with the history of the resettlement of refugees, how
various administrations have dealt with the issue, the amount of money involved
and the corruption that prevails, the deplorable conditions that exist.
We also come to know of what
those left behind in El Salvador go through. The fear of the gangs, the
inability to make money to fend for themselves and their families. Theirs is a
sorry lot, justifying why so many people undertake the journey El
Norte.
In giving us the overall
picture about the twins as well as the family back home, the author tells us of
the magnitude of the problem. In giving us a deeper understanding of the
situation of the twins, she helps us see that each case matters.
The author tells us about the
extent of migration that has taken place in a decade – 7% of the population of
El Salvador went to the US, compelled to escape the violence and instability
back home. She describes the geography of the terrain that separates the US and
Mexico, in the form of the Rio Grande.
We get an idea of the hazards, physical
and mental, that migrants allow themselves to be subjected to, in order to
enter the US.
She does a spot of hard talk,
insisting that while Trump believes that border protection is the central
issue, it is important to see why people are seeking to leave. We have played
a major part in creating the problem of what has become of Central America, and
we must play a major part in solving it.
She adds, The United States
can build a wall, dig a two-thousand-mile trench, patrol with drones and
military-grade vehicles and machine guns, and put thousand more guards at the
border. Desperate migrants will still find another way.
As a reader, I felt a strong
sense of anger at the twins who continued to make the wrong choices, trying to
enjoy the fruits of the American Dream, even before they had earned a right to
the rewards. They are unable to pay off the debt, but they don’t seem overtly worked up about it.
Through the writing, the
author maintained a neutral tone. There was not the faintest trace of judgement
or censure on her part as she set down the facts, helping us to understand just
why someone would choose to uproot themselves from their homes and countries
and make the perilous journey to the Land of Opportunity that is America.
(I received a copy of The Far Away Brothers from WaterBrook Multnomah.)
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