Delfino's Journey

by Jo Harper

Jo Harper's exquisite tale of an Aztec youth who crosses the Rio Grande with Salvador, his simple but intuitive cousin, weaves Aztec legend, culture, and tonali (fate) into a poignant tapestry of illegal immigration, indomitability, and the precarious promise of a new life.Besides his native Nahuatl, sixteen-year-old Delfino speaks Spanish, which he learned working in Mexico City. He is driven to help his married sister, who at eighteen seems too...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0896724379
• ISBN13: 9780896724372
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

Students Loved It!

I have to admit, (embarassed) that I did not read the book, but got it for two 4th grade, high ability reading circles. The students LOVED this book and were deeply moved by the theme and story. Their conversations about immigration - legal and illegal - were very thoughtful. Ten year olds cannot typically embrace the complexity of any argument, but the difficulty of resolving issues of immigration were not lost on them. On behalf of their recommendations, I also recommend this book.

Interesting, educational, and thought provoking.

Delfino's Journey begins in an Aztec village in southern Mexico. After he and his slow-witted but intuitive cousin Salvador almost drown crossing the Rio Grande and are tricked into a slave camp in Texas, they eventually escape and make their way to Houston where they find jobs, solve a murder, and help bring about the closing of the slave labor camp. Finally, Delfino is able to send money to his pregnant sister in Mexico and faces a brighter future. The author incorporates Aztec mythology with realistic situations that illegal immigrants often face into a believable story that can be read on several levels and offers much food for thought about intelligence, languages, exploitation of immigrant workers, and Aztec philosophy and mythology.

Houston Chronicle

A new title about the im migrant experience, Delfino's Journey (Texas Tech University Press...) by Jo Harper, tells the contemporary story of a 14-year- old Indian boy's desperate excursion across the Rio Grande to earn money so his weak, pregnant sister in Mexico can get medical help. Delfino's impatience contributes to his becoming the victim of a slave-camp operation in Texas. Although the slavery issue seems to stretch reality, this exciting and suspenseful novel weaves Aztec legend and values with current issues of illegal entry into the United States. Young readers will love the tension. --Barbara Samuels is co-director of the Greater Houston Area Writing Project and a consultant with the Rice School Writing Project.