Map Of Latin American Dreams By Martin Weber

A teen-ager sits on the roof of a ramshackle home in Medellín, Colombia. She looks out assertively at us and holds the chalkboard on which is written her dream: "That my parents smile again." Medellín has a reputation as a dangerous city; it was the headquarters of the infamous Pablo Escobar, the drug lord who organized the terrorist Medellín Cartel war against the Colombian government. Another young man from Medellín -- posed shirtless to reveal a scarred and burned body -- wrote: "My dream is to die."
Nearby, an acrobat in La Nina, Argentina, contorts for the camera, her sign reading, "I want to be a lawyer." In La Habana, Cuba, a teen-age girl holds a stuffed bear: "I want to marry an American." A young girl sits on the ground at Maclovio Rojas, on the Mexico/U.S. border, holding a sign saying, "I want to be a police woman." To either side of her stand two other children: One holds a toy pistol pointed at her, the other slumps in a sheepish, head-down pose.