Go Big Read launches third year of common-reading program

What are you reading?

Ask that question around the UW–Madison campus this fall and the answer is likely to be “Enrique’s Journey.”

The book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sonia Nazario is the selection for Go Big Read, the university’s common-reading program. Now in its third year, Go Big Read engages students, faculty, staff and the entire Madison community in a vibrant, academically driven experience that has thousands of people reading, talking and sharing their reactions and opinions.

Nazario recounts a 16-year-old Honduran boy’s attempts to reach the United States to find his mother, who left when he was 5 years old to earn money to support Enrique and his sister back home. His harrowing journey, clinging to the tops and sides of trains, is one taken by thousands of immigrant children who try to come to the United States each year to reunite with their parents.

About 5,000 students received copies of “Enrique’s Journey” at the Chancellor’s Convocation for New Students on Sept. 1. Interim Chancellor David Ward called the book “a story of hope even in the darkest circumstances.”

“We expect this book will foster debate. … It asks each of us to think if what we believe in is fair and just,” Ward told students at the convocation.

Finding the right book for the program wasn’t easy. Charles Snowdon, co-chair of Go Big Read’s review committee and a professor of psychology, says he read at least 25 books in the first three months of the year. The committee was ultimately drawn to books focused on immigration and the questions “Enrique’s Journey” raises about the experience of making a transition from one culture to another and the reasons immigrants decide to leave home and come to the United States.

“What would your experience be like to leave your kids and move to somewhere else?” Snowdon asks. “What is the best outcome for your kids … and what sacrifices are the right ones to make for the well-being of your kids? I’m not sure that there’s any good choice she could have made in her situation.”

All house fellows on campus received a copy of the book, and there will be discussions and events within University Housing to explore the book’s themes. More than 60 courses on campus are including the book as part of instruction this semester.

Professor Leann Tigges, professor of community and environmental sociology, had hoped to incorporate the previous Go Big Read selections into one of her courses, but neither was the right fit. With “Enrique’s Journey,” Tigges was thrilled to find a perfect companion to the required readings for her sociology course, Gender and Work in Rural America.

Tigges is interested in the transformation of the U.S. economy and how that affects workers. The books for her class provide in-depth analysis of how uniquely rural industries are changing, and Tigges says “Enrique’s Journey” will add another layer to the discussion.

“I see ‘Enrique’s Journey’ as telling a more personal story about immigrant lives and helping students understand the issues of immigration into the U.S. and labor aren’t confined to the food system, nor to Mexico,” she says.

Author Nazario will give a talk open to the public at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 27, in Varsity Hall in Union South. No tickets are required, and the event will be streamed online. For more information about streaming, visit http://www.gobigread.wisc.edu/ on the day of the event. 

The Go Big Read website features a tool kit for book groups reading “Enrique’s Journey,” including questions and discussion guidelines for group leaders and participants. For members of the greater Madison community, eight Madison Public Library branches have scheduled book discussions between Sept. 17 and Jan. 26.