When Anderson was two years old his father placed him with his paternal grandmother in Medellin, the beautiful "City of Eternal Spring" then controlled by the notorious drug cartel of Pablo Escobar. Anderson ran away from home at the age of 14, joined a gang and disappeared into the dark world of crime and violence by which runaways survived on the streets of Medellin - a world so dehumanizing that within two years he severed his gang ties to pursue an honest "career" as a street vendor.