A 9-year-old boy named Javier Zamora endured multiple life-threatening journeys across the United States/Mexico border in 1999 to reunite with his parents; today he lives to tell his story.
The award-winning memoirist visited the University of Rhode Island on Thursday, Oct. 3 to share how his experiences ultimately shaped the lens of which he views the world through. After touching on a myriad of topics, such as trauma, race, identity and growth, some audience members sat in tears by the end of the discussion.
Zamora opened up the discussion with a statement honoring the indigenous populations that inhabited Rhode Island’s land before us, tying this back to the theme of colonization and ongoing change.
In his poetry debut, “Unaccompanied,” Zamora stated that this was an outlet for him to get his anger out.
As an undocumented immigrant, Zamora felt that there were a lot of expectations imposed on him and his communities to behave a certain way to fit into society. Bills and laws were proposed to give immigrants rights if they had entered the country before adulthood, which set a standard, in Zamora’s opinion, that only “good” law-abiding citizens deserved papers.
“When you craft this very terrible dichotomy of good and bad, there’s no room for a lot of people, there’s no room for gray areas,” Zamora said. “In it, anger becomes something you have to keep quiet about.”
He then went on to explain that anger is not important, and that it is not a primary emotion. Anger comes from sadness, Zamora said.
“I was very sad to have experienced being treated as ‘less than’ because of my immigration status,” Zamora said. “I began to stop being a complete human being, and I thought that all I was was my immigration status.”
With his second literary work, a memoir titled “Solito,” he felt that after therapy and a green card, he wanted to complicate this anger.
“Solito” takes the reader through Zamora’s experience as a 9-year-old crossing the border with a group of strangers. This book was told in the voice of his 9-year-old self, taking readers through the emotions and thoughts of a little boy.
Zamora went on to discuss the history of children gaining rights, leading to women’s suffrage and the idea that gaining rights first comes from gaining rights for others.
“The United States, as a people, seem to only care about the ‘other’ only when they are children,” Zamora said. “We can see that in the immigration system.”
His takeaway as a writer stemmed from this realization. He figured people would be more likely to listen to his story if it came from the narration of himself as a boy. He took this opportunity to heal throughout the journey, as well.
Zamora was invited to the university during Hispanic Heritage Month as a part of the Center for Humanities’ “Sustaining Democracy” lecture series. The discussion complemented this year’s Honors Colloquium theme, “Democracy in Peril.”
“I’ve always felt that honesty needs to be the most important aspect of whatever you may call a democracy,” Zamora said. “Being honest about facts, and that as I’m standing up here, the United States just gave $8.5 billion to arm Israel at the same time, the same day, that [Federal Emergency Management Agency] says they’re at a $9 billion deficit so they won’t be able to help the people that died from Hurricane Helene.”
Zamora expressed the importance of aid for immigrants to achieve a chance at citizenship. The majority of immigrants face a court judge without representation, which dramatically decreases their chance at citizenship.
He described this as “a system that just wants to profit from incarceration.” The individuals relying on shelters and aid, struggling to achieve rights, seemed to Zamora like headlines in a newspaper. Zamora lives in Tucson, Arizona and states that he still does not see this happening in real time, expressing an understanding for why misinformation may spread.
“These are human beings,” Zamora said. “It’s sad that in 2024, we still need reminders of such.”
Zamora ended his discussion with a reminder that in order to grow from the past, it’s important to focus on roots. Learning about heritage, history and each other can allow populations to grow and make changes as needed, maintaining empathy along the way.
