Javier Zamora

Memoirist, poet, and speaker Javier Zamora believes that immigrants must keep ownership of their own stories.

In his award-winning memoir, Solito, he explores his harrowing journey to the US as an unaccompanied nine-year-old that gives a unique and unforgettable glimpse into the realities of child migration.

Accompanied only by strangers and a hired “coyote,” he left his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with his mother and father in the United States. The three-thousand-mile journey is supposed to last two weeks but stretched into two life-altering months spent among strangers turned guardians as they traveled to the United States.

Narrated by his nine-year-old self, Zamora’s memoir, Solito, provides an intimate account of his near-impossible journey and the unexpected moments of kindness, love, and joy scattered across perilous boat trips, desert treks, arrests, and betrayals.

Zamora’s Solito is the selection for the 2025-2026 UC Davis Campus Community Book Project.