The 9-year-old girl huddled in the back of the banana truck with 60 others. A badly burned baby boy screeched. Bombs rained down all around them as a civil war ripped apart El Salvador after the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero.

Karen Rayes-Rodriguez gave thanks she made it out. Her 1989 journey remains forever frozen in her mind, and she says she?ll never lose empathy for those who risk everything for a life of peace and freedom.