Solito | A Memoir by Javier Zamora
#5 - Solito | A Memoir
Javier Zamora
2026
Incredible story! Javier Zamora, nine years old, goes from El Salvador to the US. I loved this book! I just now googled to find out what the title means. Solito means Alone. At first, I was surprised by the title, since Javier is not alone. He is “adopted” by Patricia, Carla, and Chino, all of whom are on the trip with him. Patricia and Carla are mother and daughter, on their way to join their husband/father and younger daughter/sister in Virginia. Chino is a nineteen-year-old boy/man, unrelated to them, but they become a family.
Chino poses as the husband and dad, even though at nineteen, he is quite a bit younger than Patricia. Javier writes that Chino looks older and Patricia looks younger, and it works. They all take on names and have papers, making them into a family. The love they show for each other fills my heart. In the long, long walk, Chino carries Javier, the youngest, who cannot even tie his shoes yet. They share their water, their “beds”—mattresses on the floor, or the floor itself, or the desert dirt—, their scant food, everything.
The book is written from the nine-year-old’s perspective. He doesn’t understand English. Often, sentences, passages, or words are written in Spanish. It reminded me of the way some of Georgette Heyer’s novels have French in them, untranslated. As when I read those, I did not stop to look up the words. I was able to get the gist, or enough of it, by the context. Javier is a poet, too, and I thought even at nine he was showing a love of language. He named the cacti and bushes he saw, even the lizards. He called the cacti “the Spikeys,” “Cheerleader bush,” with flowers like pom-poms, “Crayon bush,” “Paint-Roller Fuzzies,” “Mascara Brush Fuzzies,” and “skinny green smooth tree,” which he abbreviates to “SGS tree.” A blogger who calls him/herself “The Time Traveler” describes these and many other things wonderfully in the entry titled “Javier Zamora’s Solito: A Memoir Like No Other.”
Immigration, and especially what is called “illegal” immigration is a huge topic right now. This book does not talk about the topic at all. It is just a detailed description of Javier Zamora’s trip. It is heartwarming, harrowing, beautiful, sorrowful, full of yearning, hope, disappointment, and love.