ABOUT SOLITO

A young poet tells the unforgettable story of his harrowing migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this moving, page-turning memoir hailed as “the mythic journey of our era” (Sandra Cisneros)

Trip. My parents started using that word about a year ago—“one day, you’ll take a trip to be with us. Like an adventure.”  
 
Javier’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone except for a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier’s trip is supposed to last two short weeks.

At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents’ arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside a group of strangers who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.

A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito not only provides an immediate and intimate account of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier’s story, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home.

 

Essays

A Wider Patch of Sky | Granta

Revisiting the Border During a Pandemic | The Bare Life Review

Foreword | Solito, Solita: Crossing Border with Youth Migrants (Haymarket Books, April 2019)

Introduction | Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience (Seven Stories Press, March 2019)

Opening Chapter | Unaccompanied Migrant Children: Social, Legal & Ethical Perspectives (Lexington Books, December 2018)

I Have a Green Card. Am I Welcome? | The New York Times

First Sentence | Granta

Reading Neruda and Learning to Heal My Diasporic Wounds | Literary Hub

Canal Street | Marin Magazine

Cutting Saguaros | Poetry Magazine