The following photo (taken in 2000) and words are by Don Bartletti. They are a fine tribute to the best in us, and an antidote to the worst. -- Olney Garkle

Copyright © 2000, Don Bartletti

I was on the roof of a pitching gasoline tank car on a freight train I'd hopped 15 hours earlier in Tapachula, a Mexican border town in the southern state of Chiapas. With me on board were 40 or 50 stowaways, some children as young as 12 -- all illegal immigrants from Central America, trying to bypass Mexican authorities as they made their way north to the United States. They call this train "The Beast" for its terrors: hunger, thirst, brutality from cruel gangsters and corrupt police, amputation or death for those who slip and fall under its steel wheels. For weeks I'd been riding the rails to document the journey of its youngest passengers: Honduran children hoping to reunite with mothers who left them behind many years before when they sought work in "El Norte".

The tank car rocked wildly from side to side, and my eye caught sight of a horse running through a stand of banana trees. My concentration focused through the camera's viewfinder and I spotted two children astride the galloping horse, racing the train. I managed to squeeze off five frames before the horse disappeared into the jungle ahead of me.

When I see this image I marvel at its content. For me it captures the essence of joy, in the midst of a difficult journey. A surge of memory always sends me back to the train, to the things this picture didn't record. I can hear the whistles, yells and applause of the stowaways next to me cheering for the Chiapas racers.

(Originally published in The Good Weekend, December 9, 2006)