The words to the song Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) were written in 1948 by Woody Guthrie as a poem, shortly after the event it describes took place. The melody was later written by schoolteacher and eventual suicide Martin Hoffman.
It has been covered by seemingly millions of people; the best and most interesting versions will be linked to below.
Before proceeding further, it should be noted that the “Los Gatos” in the song title is not the city in the San Francisco Bay Area (near San Jose), but rather Los Gatos Canyon in Fresno County of the golden state. Los Gatos Canyon, about 20 miles northwest of Coalinga, and the city of Los Gatos are about 150 miles apart, approximately equidistant from Pinnacles National Park, which is located between them and circled on the map below.
Rabble rouser (protest singer/labor activist) Woody Guthrie was irritated by the way the plane wreck was reported in the account that he read (in a New York newspaper). His problem with the reportage was that it didn’t name the migrant farm worker victims who were being deported back to Mexico (due, at least from Guthrie’s perspective, to racism), thus treating them as statistics rather than humans.
More of the details of the crash and the song can be found here.
Here are the lyrics that Woody wrote:
The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are packed in the creosote dumps
They're flying you back to the Mexico border
To pay all your money to wade back again
CHORUS:
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees
My father's own father, he waded that river
They took all the money he made in his life
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees
They rode the big trucks till they lay down and die
(CHORUS)
The skyplane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon
A fireball of lightning, and it shook all the hills
Who are these comrades that died like the dry leaves
The radio tells me they're just deportees
(CHORUS)
We died in your hills and we died in your deserts
We died in your valleys we died on your plains
We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes
Both sides of the river we died just the same
(CHORUS)
Some of us are illegal, and others not wanted
Our work contract's out and we have to move on
But it's six hundred miles to that Mexican border
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.
(CHORUS)
Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit
To fall like dry leaves and rot on the top soil
And be called by no name except "deportee"
(CHORUS)
Woody Guthrie’s friend and fellow folk/protest singer Pete Seeger then began performing Deportee at his concerts, as a chant.
Seeger didn’t sing Deportee, because at first, as mentioned above, the words above were not really lyrics at all, but rather poetry. It was not until a decade later, in 1958, that Martin Hoffman wrote an accompanying melody, and all the links below are to renditions of the song as a song (not a chanted poem).
Below are some of the versions of the song that you might enjoy; there are many others that you might also enjoy, some by household names (or those who were at the time household names, at any rate) such as Judy Collins, The Kingston Trio, The Brothers Four, Odetta, Joni Mitchell, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dolly Parton, and Gene Clark (formerly of The Byrds, whose version is linked to below).
Oddly, I could not find the original version of Deportee by Woody Guthrie on youtube. All of the versions which claim to be Woody Guthrie are actually of his son Arlo. Links to two duets featuring Arlo are provided below.
The next best thing, perhaps, to a version by Woody himself are the following:
John McCutcheon tells the story in his version of the song, which includes a reading of the names of all of the victims of the plane crash and who were buried in a mass grave in Fresno (note: they were all legal aliens whose work visas had expired):
Cisco Houston (frequent Woody Guthrie collaborator)
Pete Seeger:
Jimmy LaFave & Friends
Bruce Springsteen, in conjunction with his winning the 2021 Woody Guthrie Center Award (just three weeks ago, 5/13/21, as I write this):
The Byrds:
Billy Bragg:
Bob Dylan and Joan Boaz
Arlo Guthrie with Emmylou Harris:
The Highwaymen, (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson) with Johnny Rodriquez:
Sweet Honey in the Rock (this is the only version that’s much different than the others):
Nanci Griffith et al:
Old Crow Medicine Show:
Hoyt Axton and Arlo Guthrie (the second duet on which Woody Guthrie’s son Arlo appears):
For the record, these are the names of the victims of the plane crash:
Francis C. Atkinson, pilot
Atkinson's wife Bobbie, flight stewardess
Marion H. Ewing, co-pilot
Frank E. Chaffin, INS guard
The "deportees" who were unnamed in the New York Times report:
Julio Barron
Manuel Calderon
Francisco Duran
Santiago Elisandro
Rosalio Estrado
Bernabe Garcia
James A. Guardaho
Severo Lara
Elias Macias
Jose Macias
Tomas Marquez
Louis Medina
Manuel Merino
Luis Mirando
Martin Navarro
Ygnacio Navarro
Roman Ochoa
Ramon Perez
Apolonio Placentia
Ramon Portello
Guadalupe Ramirez
Alberto Raygoza
Guadalupe Rodriquez
Maria Rodriguez
Juan Ruiz
Salvadore Sandoval
Jesus Santos
Musical Artifacts with some of the Versions linked to above
Woody Guthrie – 100th Anniversary Collection
https://www.amazon.com/100th-Anniversary-Collection-WOODY-GUTHRIE/dp/B008PCDP9I/garrphotgall-20
This Land: Woody Guthrie's America by John McCutcheon
https://www.amazon.com/This-Land-Guthries-McCutcheon-2011-05-04/dp/B01G4BZAJY/garrphotgall-20
Pete Seeger Sings Woody Guthrie
https://www.amazon.com/Pete-Seeger-Sings-Woody-Guthrie/dp/B00242VP0G/garrphotgall-20
Cisco Houston Sings the Songs of Woody Guthrie
https://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Houston-Sings-Songs-Guthrie/dp/B000000EE8/garrphotgall-20
Previous installments of the series “The Name of That Tune” are:
#1: The End of the World: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/the-end-of-the-world
#2: City of New Orleans: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/city-of-new-orleans
#3: Hobo’s Lullaby: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/hobos-lullaby
#4: Ghost Riders in the Sky: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/ghost-riders-in-the-sky-a-cowboy
#5: Sixteen Tons: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/sixteen-tons
#6: The Battle of New Orleans: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/battle-of-new-orleans
#7: The Big Rock Candy Mountain: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/big-rock-candy-mountain
#8: Pachelbel’s Canon In D Major: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/pachelbels-canon-in-d-major