A mother will do everything in her power to save her endangered child.
Cecilia Domeyko’s Sacrifice on the Border: A Mother Searches for Her Stolen Child is the gripping story of Yoali and her little boy Elisito who is yanked from her arms as she crosses the river into El Norte, and her desperate search for him to save him from a terrible fate. The toddler has been stolen by Guayo, the boy’s trafficker father who does not recognize the child as his own and who plans to sell the boy on the black market.
Guayo tries to convince Yoali the child has drowned but her mother’s instinct tells her he is still alive, even when she is raped and then kept captive for months in a transit house by a corrupt trafficker.
When Yoali is finally rescued by her family in El Norte it takes her time to recover. Not even her relatives believe Elisito is alive. Frank, an American policeman who falls in love with Yoali is the exception. He will risk his life and career to help the young mother find her lost boy.
Guayo has handed Elisito to Coyota a fellow trafficker until someone is willing to pay a high price for his adoption. But the cartel bosses have found a better deal. Elisito will be sold for body parts. Organ trafficking is a profitable business in the underworld. Guayo is delighted but Coyota wants no part of the evil plan. She and Gato, another trafficker with a heart, escape with the child south of the border.
Yoali is desperate to find Elisito. Then Frank decides to risk his life and his career to help her. When Yoali and Frank find out who has taken Elisito, they set off on a motorcycle hot on the heels of Coyota. The pair are joined by the Osos, a family of bikers who say they know the safest routes through drug infested territory.
But there is no safe passage. The group encounters deadly violence, corruption and danger. They must fight to survive. Yoali is moved to keep going by her passionate love for her child. Frank is there by her side, and the couple find love for each other as they carry on their search for him.
Story Structure
The story is written from different perspectives. The readers can get into the mind of each character as the plot weaves together to form one moving telenovela-like story. We get a feel for the imagery through different monologues, flashbacks, and retelling. Domeyko has a clever storytelling style as she introduces the characters one by one while still keeping up with the linearity of the story.
In the opening we are introduced to Yoali and her birthplace, the small southern town of Queseria. Yoali is an innocent young girl when she is seduced by handsome Guayo, who is passing through the town. Yoali becomes pregnant with Elisito, and when Guayo comes back, she leaves with him to El Norte believing she and her child will have a better life there.
In part two Yoali’s love for her boy grows as she recovers from the ordeal of losing her child in the river. While living with her northern family she meets Frank and the love between the two will lead to their search for Elisito together. We meet the Oso family who will be critical to the quest. We learn that Coyota, who has been asked to care for Elisito until he is sold is against the plan that Guayo has concocted, and that she and fellow trafficker Gato have decided to save the boy by escaping with him south of the border.
Guayo is apprehended by a border patrol and placed in a detention center until his escape. During her time in El Norte Yoali has become a singer-writer and has begun a slow climb to fame.
In part 3 and the conclusion of this exciting story, the characters all end up where the story began, in Queseria where readers may hope for but are not assured of the triumph of love over hate.
Character Arcs
The story is told from the point of view of each character, as he or she moves the plot forward. At the start, Yoali is an innocent young girl. The loss of her child and her desperate search for him will transform her into a vibrant young woman. Frank’s love for Yoali will bring out her more sensuous side, and also gives her the strength to carry on in the face of hardship and danger. Frank also evolves in the story from a rather naïve character into a leader willing to risk his life for a young mother. Other characters are also transformed. Hard hearted Coyota falls in love with Elisito and her growing affection leads her to do anything in her power to save the child, as if he were her own. The only character to stay unredeemed is Guayo who at every turn in the plot will choose evil over good.
Takeaway
The main takeaway of the story is the value of love. Love for self, love for others, love for family, love for the community, and the power of a mother’s love. Throughout the storyline the author explores different actions, each one involving sacrifice, all building to a greater kind of love, one that is universal and spelled with a capital A.
Readers can get a copy of Sacrifice on the Border: A Mother Searches for Her Stolen Child by Cecilia Domeyko on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and on BookBaby/CeciliaDomeyko/BuyHere. This link leads to the book in English, Sacrifice on the Border, and the Spanish original version: Sacrificio en la Frontera.
To get to know more about the author and her other works, please visit: www.ceciliadomeyko.com.
QUOTE| Ms. Domeyko’s mastery of the first-person narrative transports you into the gritty realities and sublime emotional peaks everywhere to be found throughout this engrossing story. – Thomas J. Schum, Amazon Customer.
Book Title| Sacrifice on the Border: A Mother Searches for Her Stolen Child
Author| Cecilia Domeyko
Publisher| Editorial Akeru Publicaciones
Published date| February 9, 2020
Genre | Adventure
Author’s Bio
Cecilia Domeyko was born in Chile and spent her childhood traveling to various parts of the world with her diplomat parents. She began her career as a foreign correspondent in Washington, DC writing for Latin American magazines and newspapers. She turned to filmmaking, producing documentaries about human rights, and the rights of women. Her work has aired in the US on PBS and Univision, and internationally on ABC Australia and Canal Plus. Her series of fiction programs for television aired on CNN-español in 18 Latin American countries and nationally in the US on Univision and Telemundo.
Her novel Sacrifice on the Border tells the story of Yoali, a woman whose toddler is stolen when she crosses the border into the U.S. While fiction, the story is based on Cecilia’s research into the plight of migrant families and talks about the issue of child trafficking on the border.
Sacrifice on the Border is a love and adventure story rolled into one, the characters each telling their own version of events, moving the storyline forward to the heartrending finale.
The novel had its first launch in Miami, Florida at Altamira Books in 2017. A second launch took place at the Embassy of Chile in Washington, DC in 2019.
Cecilia Domeyko lives in Washington, DC, and both her English and Spanish versions of the novel are available for purchase online.
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