\imagegraphics doesn't interpret \ escape in filename - latex

Question

I'm trying to insert a background image with the beamer package using the following:
\usebackgroundtemplate{%
\includegraphics[width=\paperwidth,keepaspectratio]{/path/to_file/background.png}%
}
The problem I'm having is that my background file path has an underscore in it, as I put in the example above. (This is my home directory on OS X, so I can't really change it.) When I generate this via pandoc the resultant latex file has the underscore escaped with a \, so it looks like this:
\usebackgroundtemplate{%
\includegraphics[width=\paperwidth,keepaspectratio]{/path/to\_file/background.png}%
}
but this makes it impossible for includegraphics to find the file and so it fails at that point.
If I manually remove the \ from the latex, or move the file to, say, the root directory, so that there is no underscore in the path, all is well. Here's the exact error:
LaTeX Warning: File `/Users/my\_name/Downloads/background.png' not fou
nd on input line 102.
! Package pdftex.def Error: File `/Users/my\T1\textunderscorename/Down
loads/background.png' not found: using draft setting.
So is there something I can do to tell includegraphics that the name is escaped, or to remove the escaping?
Here's the YAML:
---
name: John Doe
backgroundImage: /Users/my_name/Downloads/background.png
---
Text to add to template:
$if(backgroundImage)$
\usebackgroundtemplate{%
\includegraphics[width=\paperwidth]{$backgroundImage$}%
}

Answer 1

YAML values are interpreted as Markdown, unless specified otherwise. The backgroundImage is hence translated into LaTeX when used within $backgroundImage$.
The solution is to force literal interpretation of the input by telling pandoc that you know what you are doing, and that the input is already formatted as LaTeX:
---
name: John Doe
backgroundImage: '`/Users/my_name/Downloads/background.png`{=latex}'
---
This is based on the raw attribute extension, which is enabled by default for pandoc flavored Markdown.