Solito: A Memoir
“I’m going to see my parents,” Javier keeps repeating during his long journey to the U.S.
I couldn’t keep moving around the house, as I usually do while listening to audiobooks. I was overcome by emotion, and I had to sit down. Javier Zamora kept telling me his story, it was the end of the book Solito, and I didn’t want it to be over. I wanted to keep listening to his warm voice and Salvadoran accent.
“This was a production of Penguin Random House”, said the voice through my headphones, and the audio ended.
I texted my friend Cata in Argentina and told her she would like the book. I explained it was a memoir about a 9-year-old boy, Javier, who travels alone from El Salvador through Guatemala and Mexico to cross the border into the United States to reunite with his family. “I’m going to see my parents,” he keeps repeating, with a mixture of fear and excitement. It moved me deeply, I told her, stressing how much I looked forward to discussing immigration and the upside-down world we live in once she read it.
The story in Solito is moving and the richness of the descriptions is wonderful. By traveling with Javier, I experienced the distinctive smells, flavors, and sounds of each country on his journey. Music is also present in each part of his trip, and it was so sweet to hear him sing Auto Rojo, an Argentinian song I grew up listening to in the 1990s.
“Uouoo, uouoo, uouooo, uouooo,” Javier sings while he talks about the types of music the six strangers accompanying him choose to listen to.
I also told Cata I recommended the audiobook because Javier's voice made it special. My reading habits have changed a lot since I got a library card. The New York Public Library has a large collection of audiobooks which helped me discover that I love to listen to biographies and memoirs, especially when the authors tell me about their own experiences.
After Solito, I wanted to spend more time with Javier and his story. I delved into his official website, where there are several publications and interviews about his work. In an interview in 2023, Javier, an award-winning poet, shares that he recently got his green card through a visa for extraordinary or highly recognized people in their field, twenty years after he first arrived in the U.S.
His experience is not mine, but I think that all of us who live in the United States without being citizens or green card holders understand how it feels to live in a country that doesn’t accept you, that constantly tries to expel you, but at the same time offers you opportunities that your country doesn’t. They are not the same opportunities that citizens have, of course. The obstacles are countless and exhausting for members of this society, like Javier, who weren’t born in this land. Many of them must be extraordinary to have an ordinary American dream.
A few days ago, Cata told me Solito wasn’t available on Spotify Argentina. How disappointing! Our conversation about the book will have to wait.
However, this memoir is easy to get in the U.S. A few options are Penguin Random House, Amazon, and Better World Books.
Let me know if you read it (or listen to it). We can get started sharing thoughts about Solito and my friend Cata can join us on the way.
Until next time!
Maria Pia