Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora
What were you doing at 9 years of age? What were your daily concerns when you were in the fourth grade? At 9 years old, author and poet Javier Zamora traveled 3,000 miles – from El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico – to arrive in the U.S. and reunite with his parents.
“Solito” is Zamora’s harrowing memoir recounting this journey.Zamora was a typical 9-year-old; focused on school and his friends, loved and cared for by his aunt and his grandparents. Yet, he missed his parents deeply. He last saw his mother when he was 5, and his father left earlier than he could remember. His parents longed for their family to be together again.
“Solito” recounts their struggle for reunification: the varied attempts to find a path for Javier into the U.S., which ultimately led to his journey with a group of strangers guided by various “coyotes” by car, boat and foot. Javier faced peril at every checkpoint and roadside stop, fearing to speak even in the most innocuous situations because one’s regional dialect of Spanish might single one out as a migrant to be scrutinized.
The author’s ordeal was a loss of innocence – the end of his childhood – and Zamora’s writing conveys the accelerated maturation he experienced.
“Solito” is a story told from the perspective of a 9-year-old child. It is an impressive feat of writing in that it lacks the overt reflection and thought that adult Zamora should bring to the story. Rather, the narrative rests in the fear a child might feel when facing the unknown at every step. This gives the memoir weight and tension throughout, and the author’s use of occasional interspersed Spanish dialogue further enhances a feeling of foreignness and uncertainty in the reader.
While immigration is a politically fraught subject, “Solito” allows us to set aside preconceptions and witness a journey millions have experienced, albeit, in this case, through the eyes of a child.
“Solito” should appeal to readers of memoirs, biographies and anyone interested in a gripping and moving story of migration. Visit wcls.org to find “Solito” and other similarly themed stories.
“Solito” is the 2026 Whatcom Reads selection and the December selection for the Books & Bites book group.
Join Books & Bites at 1 p.m. Friday, December 19 at Blaine Public Library for a time of community and lively conversation. For more information, visit bit.ly/3XsFxXS.
Jonathan Jakobitz is an avid reader and the branch manager of the Blaine Public Library.
(Originally published in The Northern Light, Wednesday, December 10, 2025.)