La Línea by Ann Jaramillo - Book Review

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Jaramillo, Ann. La Línea. New York: Roaring Brook, 2006. Print.

“They called it the mata gente, the “people killer.”  It was an ordinary freight train that passed through once a day, and it was the one way to get north without paying a peso.  It was simple, they said.  As the train slowed, you ran alongside, grabbed a ladder, and hopped on.”

Fifteen-year-old Miguel and his younger sister, Elena, are desperate to reunite with Papa and Mama, who illegally immigrated to America seven years earlier.  Papa has finally saved enough money to secure Miguel’s passage from San Juancito to la línea, the border!  However, disgruntled Elena, whose passage is not yet paid for, decides to formulate her own plan for reaching la línea, which places both brother and sister on a dangerous path to reach the land of their dreams.  On their journey, Miguel and Elena discover kind-hearted souls who carefully guide them on their way and sinister criminals who attempt to break their spirits causing them to second-guess their plans.   

In her first realistic fiction novel,  La Línea, Ann Jaramillo crafts an authentic and heart-wrenching story of one family’s treacherous passage from Mexico to America.   Based on true experiences many of her own students lived or witnessed, Ms. Jaramillo was inspired to write of her students’ peserverence to achieve their dreams despite enormous challenges to their safety and well-being.  Spanish words and phrases are intertwined within the text to add cultural identity and voice to the characters.  In the end, Miguel and Elena, just like Ms. Jaramillo’s students,  realize further sacrifices of their decision to illegally immigrate to what promised to be a brighter and happier future.  

Readers who like to examine all aspects of current issues in our society will find this portrayal of illegal immigration revealing and insightful.  While illegal immigration is “illegal,” I could not help but admire the tenaciousness in Ms. Jaramillo’s characters to accept the harrowing journey as the price many in Mexico are willing to pay for freedom from so many obstacles--poverty, drought, drug cartels, crime, and corrupt governments.  In the novel’s epilogue, Miguel and Elena each make choices about their immigration status that is dismaying, yet understandable.