Pablo Escobar was born on a cattle ranch in

1949, the second year of The Violence, a civil

war that saw millions of Colombians flee their

homes and left hundreds of thousands dead.

Slicing people up with machetes was popular

and led to a new genre of slaughter methods

with ornate names. The Flower Vase Cut began with the severing of the head, arms and legs. The liberated limbs were stuffed down the neck, turning the headless torso into a vase of body parts. A victim stabbed in the neck, who had his tongue pulled out through the gap and hung down his chest was wearing a Colombian Necktie. The turmoil affected nearly every family in Colombia. It accustomed Pablo's generation to extreme violence and the expectancy of a short and brutal life. Pablo's parents were Abel de Jesús Dari Escobar, a hard-working peasant farmer who traded cows and horses, and Hermilda Gaviria, an elementary school teacher. As her husband was mostly absent due to work, Her-milda cooked, cleaned and took care of her family. Pablo was the third of seven children.

One day, tiny Pablo wandered away from home. Hermilda found him under a tree, with a stick, playing with a snake.

"See, I'm not hurting you," Pablo said to the snake.

Gazing affectionately, Hermilda knew that Pablo was a sweet boy who loved animals. The nearest school was so far away that Pablo and his brother, Roberto, had to wake up early. With no means of transportation, it took them an hour to walk there in worn-out shoes.

Rather that wear shoes with holes in them,

Pablo decided to go to school barefooted. His

teacher sent him home. Humiliated, Pablo

told his mother that he needed new shoes to stay in school. As she had no money, she deliberated her options and shoplifted a pair of shoes. At home, she noticed that each shoe was a different size. Disheartened, she confessed to a priest, who advised her to return the shoes and get them on credit. She bought the shoes and arrived home, exhausted and anxious. With such a large family to feed, she complained about their lack of money.

"Don't worry, mom," Pablo said. "Wait until I grow up. I'll give you everything." As The Violence between the Conservative and Liberal parties escalated, the family was warned to leave or else risk having their body parts re-assembled into art. But having no safe place to go, and loving the animals, the beautiful countryside adorned with wildflowers, and air that carried a taste of pine and resin from the forest, they chose to stay.

Pablo was seven when the guerrillas entered his village near the town of Rionegro, the Black River. Trembling, he heard machetes hacking the front door and threats of murder. He clung to his mother, who was crying and praying. His father said they would be killed, but at least they could try to save the kids. They hid the kids under mattresses and

blankets.

The front door was so strong that the guerrillas eventually gave up trying to break in. Instead, they set fire to it. Wincing and coughing in a house filling with smoke, Pablo's parents braced to die. But soldiers arrived and the guerrillas fled.

With a burning building illuminating the street, the town's survivors were escorted to a schoolhouse. Pablo would never forget the charred bodies and the corpses hanging from the lampposts. Internalized in the terrified child, the horrors of The Violence would reemerge years later, when he kidnapped, murdered and bombed to maintain his empire.

Growing up with six siblings, Pablo bonded the most with Roberto, who was two years his senior. Roberto was intelligent and had a passion for mathematics, electronics and cycling. Pablo enjoyed watching Roberto construct things such as radios, but rather than join in, he sat around for most of the day as if lost in thought.

Pablo and Roberto were sent from the family's ranch to live with their grandmother in the safety of Medellin, known as the City of the Eternal Spring due to a steady climate averaging around 22.2°C or 72°F. Downtown was a cluster of glass and steel skyscrapers separated by roads lined with trees. The surrounding expanse of houses grew more dilapidated towards the shantytowns, slums and

garbage dumps- places crammed with dis-placed people where gangs of street kids, thieves and pickpockets roamed. The tough residents of Medellin worked hard to get ahead.

Pablo's grandmother was an astute businesswoman who bottled sauces and spices

and sold them to supermarkets. Under her loving but stern hand, Pablo and Roberto had to go to church and pray every morning.Although they loved the weather and the mountainous landscape, the second largest city in Colombia with all of its fast cars and over a million people intimidated the brothers, who were accustomed to the tempo of ranch life. They were delighted when their parents joined them, but their father disliked living in the city, so he returned to the countryside to work on other people's farms. Eventually, the brothers fell in love with Medellin.

The atmosphere at home was heavily religious. They had a figurehead of Jesus with realistic blood. After his mother told him Christ's story, young Pablo was so sad that when lunch was served, he put a piece of meat in his corn cake and took it to the figurehead. "Poor man, who made you bleed? Do you want a little meat?" This act convinced his

mother that he was kind and religious. For the rest of his life, Pablo would always try to sleep with an image of Jesus nearby.

Hermilda enchanted Pablo with stories

about his grandfather, Roberto Gaviria, who

had smuggled whiskey. With long-range planning and a creative imagination, Roberto the bootlegger had outsmarted everyone, including the authorities. Pablo wanted to emulate his grandfather's success.

.

.

Growing up in a suburb of Medellín called Envigado, the kids built carts from wood and raced down hills. They made soccer balls from old clothes wrapped inside of plastic bags, erected makeshift goalposts and played with the other kids in the neighbourhood. It was Pablo's favourite sport. A popular prank was to stick chewing gum on a doorbell, so that it rang continuously.

.

.

On the streets of Medellin, some of Pablo's leadership and criminal traits started to emerge. Although the youngest in his group, he'd take the lead. When the police confiscated their soccer ball, he encouraged the group to throw rocks at the patrol car. The police rounded up several of the group and threatened to keep them in jail all day. Only Pablo spoke up to the commander. He told

them they hadn't done anything bad. They were tired of the ball being taken and they'd pay to retrieve the ball. Some of the kids in the group ended up in business with Pablo later on.

.

.

In his early teens, Pablo was elected president of his school's Council for Student Wellness, which demanded transportation and food for indigent students. He learned about the US meddling in South America for its own advantage, which often increased the suffering of the most poverty stricken people. He hated that the poor were the biggest victims of violence and injustice.

.

.

During this time, he absorbed anti-imperialist phrases which became mantras for the rest of his life. He heard rumours that the CIA had facilitated the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, a leftist presidential candidate who had defended workers'

rights and promised an equitable land reform. Gaitán's death had ignited The Violence that had threatened Pablo's family.

.

.

.