Existing comment:
2003 Feature
Chiapas Racers
Photojournalist Don Bartletti documented the desperate migration of Central American children searching for parents who had immigrated to the United States. Traveling alone, the thousands of young immigrants faced danger not only from the treacherous journey but also from thugs, thieves, and rogue authorities.
To retrace the route of Enrique, an Honduran teenager who had reunited successfully with his mother in North Carolina, Bartletti rode atop freight trains through the Mexican jungle. While he was clinging to a gasoline tank one day, a local boy and girl on horseback suddenly broke through the foliage and raced alongside the tracks. Within seconds the riders were gone, but Bartletti had captured their reactions to the stowaways aboard the train.
"It was one of those moments on this trip, one of the few moments of joy, because everybody was yelling and clapping and "Yeah!," Bartletti recalled. "I've gotten reactions and letters from around the world [about the photograph]. I think what it gives people is a sense of joy and hope among such poverty." |