As a 9-year-old boy, Javier Zamora traveled over 3,000 miles to be with his parents, who had fled El Salvador to live and work in the United States. Zamora traveled with a group of people who were initially strangers and the various people they paid to help them survive the two month journey. Zamora’s memoir about the experience, “Solito,” is the choice for Multnomah County’s ‘Everybody Reads’ program in 2025. We talk to Zamora in front of students at Portland’s McDaniel High School.