We Need More Novels that Emphasize the Basic Humanity of Immigrants

A review of 'Emerald Road' by Orlando Ortega-Medina

Walter Rhein

Mar 30, 2025

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I remember going through immigration at the Miami airport in 2009. My wife had a perfectly valid visa in her passport, yet she was still separated from me for more than three hours. When we finally left, I drove until I almost collapsed. Then we got a hotel and I did collapse.

The stress was overwhelming. Yet, we were traveling with all the appropriate documentation under a presidential administration that hadn’t dedicated itself to vilifying immigrants. We’d come by choice rather than as an act of desperation, and still it was difficult.

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I can’t even begin to imagine what people are going through now.

My wife is employed at the local school district. She often works with refugees, immigrants, and other English language learners. There are nights when she comes home and cries. When politicians or the media mention immigration, they rarely talk about the plight of innocent children who are in desperate need of help and compassion.

Emerald Road by

Orlando Ortega-Medina

is a story about a young man who is forced to flee his country under the worst possible circumstances. This is the kind of novel that might encourage a public that has been indoctrinated with an ideology of grievance to remember that immigrants are people too.

We need a reminder that it’s only through a celebration of our shared humanity that we can ever find joy.

The crushing stress of immigration

I’ve been struggling to find the words to describe this book because it churned up so many powerful emotions. I’ve seen my own wife and children be mistreated because of the color of their skin. My wife speaks with an unmistakable accent. These days she’s forced to wear her passport card around her neck on a lanyard in order to fend off harassment.

Innocent women and children are being harassed. These are documented citizens. I can only imagine what human beings without the proper documentation are forced to endure.

That they are human beings should be the point of emphasis in that sentence.

With my own eyes, I’ve seen how some people convince themselves to deny the basic humanity of the people they meet. My wife sees this in her work. Struggling students with accents and darker skin are often dismissed as “lost causes.”

Not by my wife.

When we think about cruelty, we imagine verbal assaults and physical violence. People think they are not cruel because they don’t join a mob in kicking and beating a prostrate target. But we need to understand that indifference is just as much an act of cruelty. A teacher that doesn’t bother to make the effort to instruct a struggling child is just as guilty as a man who clenches his hand into a fist.

When everyone in our society accepts that truth, we’ll have made progress towards constructing the world our children deserve.

Civil war comes to El Salvador

Emerald Road follows the journey of young Isaac Perez who is also a character in Ortega-Medina’s The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants. In both of these works, I got the strong sense that these were fictionalized versions of true stories. Ortega-Media deftly captures the essence of the human experience, and for that reason alone his work is worth your time.

In an early scene, Isaac reflects on the novel Dune. I identified with him as the kind of kid who devours books in order to achieve some understanding of his place in the world. I found the early scenes where Isaac goes through his daily routine in El Salvador to be captivating.

Isaac becomes romantically involved with a handsome young man who works as an altar boy at a nearby cathedral. Anyone who reads these scenes will recognize the confusion, and excitement that you experience when you first begin to explore your sexuality. We are all human beings. We are the same.

But Isaac is unfairly denied the opportunity to explore the complexities of his budding feelings openly. When an authoritarian regime comes to power, he finds himself a member of a community that’s targeted for violence.

After a tragic altercation with a group of military personnel, Isaac is forced to flee with his dog, not in the hope of finding a better life, but simply to survive.

Isaac’s dog Ahbhu

Isaac’s relationship with his dog Ahbhu is one of the narrative elements that truly elevates this novel. Ortega-Medina beautifully depicts Isaac and Ahbhu’s special form of communication. Those of you who own dogs know how capable they are of conveying their thoughts to you.

For example, my Labrador will occasionally come into my room and simply stare at me until I follow him. He might as well be talking, and I admire Ortega-Medina’s choice to express Ahbhu’s thoughts as italicized speech.

But as the interactions between Isaac and Ahbu develop, the extent of Isaac’s emotional crisis becomes increasingly clear. He is attuned to Ahbhu, and learns to listen to the dog’s instincts about people and dangerous situations. When Ahbhu commands Isaac to run, Isaac obeys without question.

Although the relationship between Isaac and Ahbhu is touching, it’s heartbreaking as you come to realize Isaac is only hanging on to life by a thread.

A quest to find humanity

How many human stories consist of an arduous journey that’s only made possible through the distant hope of finding a better life? Even Jesus had to flee the place of his birth, yet somehow that story rarely enters into modern political discussions regarding immigration.

Emerald Road gets its title from a conversation about The Wizard of Oz where the characters conflate the yellow brick road and the Emerald city. But the title is appropriate because both of those things represent hope. One is a journey, and the other is a destination, but the motivation is the same.

Perhaps the fundamental takeaway from this book is how quickly a nation can fall into disarray. The freedoms you take for granted one day can be gone the next. When that happens, you might discover you’re no longer the person who closes the door in the face of immigrants. Instead, you’re the one outside knocking and appealing to the basic human decency of a stranger.

How would you want your own children to be treated if they were forced into that situation? Perhaps we’d be better served if we took that sentiment as the starting point for the society we wish to create.

Grab a copy of Emerald Road here.