The Only Road

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Where is Guatemala? List facts you know (or can make realistic speculations about) regarding the country and what living there might be like for the majority of people.

Teaching Suggestion: The action of The Only Road is driven by conditions in the main characters’ home country of Guatemala. Learning more about this country will increase students’ understanding of the novel’s plot and their empathy for Jaime and Ángela. You might ask students to attempt a preliminary answer to this prompt before accessing the resources below as a way to activate their prior knowledge and increase their retention of any new information they encounter.

• This 11-minute video from Geography Now! introduces Guatemala’s geography, demographics, and culture. If you play this video with its subtitles on, students will be able to gather helpful hints about how to pronounce words they will encounter in The Only Road (such as “Xavi”).
• This 15-minute video from Discover Humanity offers a visually engaging and thoughtful profile of Guatemalan life. Note that this video is presented in Spanish, but accurate English subtitles are available.

2. What are some of the reasons that people might immigrate to the United States from Guatemala and other Central American countries? What are the most common methods for making this journey and crossing the border into the United States?

Teaching Suggestion: With sensitivity in mind for individuals’ circumstances, small group members might find it helpful to first brainstorm prior sources of knowledge (news, social studies classes, books, and films) that would help in answering or approaching this question logically. Information from these or similar resources can help students develop additional context on the topic.

• This 7-minute video from ABC News explains the reasons for Guatemalan immigration to the US.
• This 17-minute video follows the immigration journey of a family riding the cargo trains north through Mexico. (Content Warning: This video discusses family separation during immigration and may be upsetting to students and those who have experienced trauma during migration.)

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

What do we mean when we call something a “no-win” situation? Describe a time when you had to make a choice between two bad options. Was there really a “right” choice in this situation? How did you make up your mind about what to do?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt is meant to help students emotionally connect with the novel’s characters. Jaime and Ángela’s family is faced with only bad options, and the road north seems like the best of the possibilities. Students may enjoy discussing this question aloud; hearing others’ reactions to this kind of choice might deepen their understanding of how difficult and personal making a choice in a “no-win” situation really is.