Luthier, Barbosa.

Felipe Martínez has been making beautiful Colombian stringed instruments in his home in Barbosa for decades. He was selling this guitar, which he spent over a month assembling out of Brazilian Palo Santo wood, for about $800.

Back in the 1980s, Martínez spent a few years working as a carpenter in Boston and New York. But life was hard there, and he missed Colombia; "Your homeland is always best for you," he told me.

I met Martínez right after a conversation with a fruit stand attendant in his early 20s who kept asking me how he could find work in the United States. He'd already made the 10-hour bus trip to Bogotá and stood in line all day at the American embassy to have his visa application rejected. He said he knew people who had crossed illegally through Mexico. For many Colombians, there aren't really any other options to get to the U.S. .