"A young poet tells the unforgettable story of his harrowing migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

«En esta conmovedora autobiografía que no podrás soltar, un joven poeta relata la inolvidable historia de su desgarradora migración hacia Estados Unidos desde El Salvador a los nueve años, considerada 'el viaje mítico de nuestra era'.» —Sandra Cisneros

La aventura de Javier es una travesía de tres mil millas desde su pequeño pueblo en El Salvador, a través de Guatemala y México, hacia la frontera de Estados Unidos. Dejará atrás a sus queridos abuelos y su tía para reunirse con una madre que se fue cuatro años atrás y con un padre al que prácticamente no recuerda. Al viajar solo, a excepción de un grupo de extraños y un coyote contratado para guiarlos a salvo, Javier debía tardar solo dos semanas en llegar.

A los nueve años, todo lo que Javier puede imaginar es correr a los brazos de sus padres, acurrucarse en la cama entre ellos y vivir bajo el mismo techo otra vez. No puede prever los peligrosos trayectos en bote, las interminables caminatas por el desierto, las armas apuntándole, los arrestos y los engaños que le esperan. Tampoco sabe que esas dos semanas se alargarán hasta dos meses y le cambiarán la vida, junto a un grupo de extraños que acabará por cobijarlo como una familia improvisada.

Una autobiografía tan apasionante como emotiva, Solito no solo nos ofrece un recuento íntimo e inmediato de un viaje sinuoso y casi imposible, sino la milagrosa bondad y el amor que se entrega en los momentos más inesperados. Solito es la historia de Javier, pero es también la historia de millones más que no tuvieron otra opción más que irse de casa.

Javier Zamora nació en La Herradura, El Salvador en 1990. Su padre tuvo que huir de su país natal cuando Zamora tenía un año y su madre tuvo que hacer lo mismo poco tiempo después. La Guerra Civil salvadoreña que financió Estados Unidos (1980-1992), los expulsó a ambos en menos de cinco años.
 
En 1999, Javier emigró también al norte, siguiendo la ruta de Guatemala y México, a través del desierto de Sonora en el último tramo. Después de que un coyote abandonara a su grupo en el Estado de Oaxaca, Javier logró llegar a Arizona con la ayuda de otros migrantes. Su primera colección de historias, Unaccompanied (Copper Canyon Press, septiembre de 2017), explora precisamente cómo la emigración y la guerra civil afectaron a su familia.

Zamora fue Becario de Radcliffe en la Universidad de Harvard en el curso 2018-2019 y ha obtenido becas de CantoMundo, Colgate University (Olive B. O'Connor), MacDowell, Macondo, el National Endowment for the Arts, la Fundación de Poesía (Ruth Lilly), la Universidad de Stanford (Stegner), y Yaddo. En 2017, recibió la Beca Literaria Lannan y, en 2016, el Premio Barnes & Noble "Writer for Writers" por su trabajo en la campaña Undocupoets.
 
Javier vive en Tucson, AZ, donde ha escrito sus memorias y una segunda colección de poemas.

ABOUT THIS AUTHOR...

Javier Zamora was born in La Herradura, El Salvador in 1990. His father fled El Salvador when he was a year old, and his mother when he was about to turn five. Both parents' migrations were caused by the U.S.-funded Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992).

In 1999, Javier migrated through Guatemala, Mexico, and eventually through the Sonoran Desert. After a coyote abandoned his group in Oaxaca, Javier managed to make it to Arizona with the aid of other migrants. His first full-length collection, Unaccompanied (Copper Canyon Press, September 2017), explores how immigration and the civil war have impacted his family.

Zamora was a 2018-2019 Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and holds fellowships from CantoMundo, Colgate University (Olive B. O'Connor), MacDowell, Macondo, the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation (Ruth Lilly), Stanford University (Stegner), and Yaddo. He is the recipient of a 2017 Lannan Literary Fellowship, the 2017 Narrative Prize, and the 2016 Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award for his work in the Undocupoets Campaign.

Javier lives in Tucson, AZ, where he has written his memoir and a second collection of poems. - (Random House, Inc.)

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* This wrenching, thrilling memoir by poet Zamora (Unaccompanied, 2017) looks back at the grueling and sometimes surprisingly exhilarating two months in 1999 during which Zamora, then nine years old, attempted to illegally migrate from El Salvador to the U.S. His parents had already fled for California several years earlier as a result of civil war in El Salvador; Zamora was left behind with his grandparents in a small town. When his parents raised enough money for him to be taken across the border by "coyotes," Zamora set off in the company of six strangers who quickly became his surrogate family. The author writes in the present tense and sticks scrupulously to the point of view of his child self, who is as scared of using a flush toilet as of making a dangerous ocean trip on an overloaded boat, and who, though often lonely, unhappy, and in pain, also relishes the adventure of new experiences. "Staying at a motel. Check. Using a fancy bathroom. Check," he thinks with satisfaction. Unlike the author and the reader, who are constantly aware of just how much danger the boy faces, the young narrator is caught up in his day-to-day activities, always thinking he will be reunited with his parents in a matter of days. Title to the contrary, the boy is not solito: he's part of a group of fellow migrants who, though they've never met him before, ensure his survival under conditions from which he almost certainly would have otherwise died. The adult writer's gratitude to these people is palpable. Readers will come away with a visceral knowledge of the ordeals faced by those who attempt to cross the border into the U.S. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.

Library Journal Reviews

When Zamora was nine, he traveled from El Salvador to Guatemala and Mexico, finally crossing the border into the United States to join his parents, having not seen his mother for four years and his father since he was one. What was to have been a two-week journey lasted two harrowing months. He has since become a Stegner Fellow at Stanford and a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard and published a debut poetry collection, Unaccompanied, that began his exploration of how war and immigration have affected his family. Here he provides a detailed memoir of his traveling "solito"—alone, but surrounded by people who became a surrogate family.