It’s Arlo Guthrie and Hoyt Axton doing this Woody Guthrie.
He wrote this in 1948 in response to another wave of populist hatred. The media was victimising immigrants and migrant workers.
The workers were brought in from Mexico to work in the fields for a pittance. They were desperate and worked hard. When they were no longer needed they were shipped back and dumped.
A plane crash killed 28 farm workers being shipped back to Mexico. The media reported that they were JUST deportees. Woody thought they were human beings worthy of being named. He wrote those song to give them the dignity they deserved. They were never just anything.
Today we find unsavoury politicians scapegoating immigrants without looking at their plight or solutions to the problem.
At this time of vilification and fear for the dreaded ‘Immigrants’, it is good to remember what Woody Guthrie wrote about the plane crash at Los Gatos. Illegal immigrants were being exploited as cheap labour and then shipped back to Mexico. The plane crashed and they were killed. The reporting was of a bunch of ‘Deportees’ being killed.
Woody wanted to write a song commemorating them as ‘real’ people. He wanted to incorporate all their names.
At this time – a religious festival – a festival of plenty – we would do well to remember the real message. These immigrants are not the evil rapists, drug dealers and murderers we have to build walls against; they are real people. We should care.
One thing I despise is the hypocrisy of many religious people – Jesus wasn’t about building walls and carrying guns was he??
The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting The oranges are filed in their creosote dumps They’re flying ’em back to the Mexico border To take all their money to wade back againGoodbye to my Juan, farewell Roselita Adios mes amigos, Jesus e Maria You won’t have a name when you ride the big airplane All they will call you will be deporteesMy father’s own father, he waded that river They took all the money he made in his life It’s six hundred miles to the Mexico border And they chased them like rustlers, like outlaws, like thievesGoodbye to my Juan, farewell Roselita Adios mes amigos, Jesus e Maria You won’t have a name when you ride the big airplane All they will call you will be deporteesThe skyplane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon The great ball of fire it shook all our hills Who are these dear friends who are falling like dry leaves? Radio said, “They are just deportees”Goodbye to my Juan, farewell Roselita Adios mes amigos, Jesus e Maria You won’t have a name when you ride the big airplane All they will call you will be deportees
I thought this was pertinent with the hatred being directed at migrants at the moment. Our economy depends on immigrant labour. They are brought in and paid poor wages. The bosses exploited them and still do.
In Britain we bring in tens of thousands of Eastern Europeans to pick crops.
In the USA they bosses exploited Mexicans. They paid them poor wages and they toiled in the fields. When the crops were picked they shopped these illegal immigrants to the feds who shipped them back to Mexico as illegal immigrants.
In 1948 a plane carrying a bunch of these immigrants crashed on the way back to Mexico. All the illegal immigrants were killed. All the papers took the stance that they were merely deportees. They didn’t even bother naming them.
It infuriated Woody. He saw them as people – husbands, wives, children – people who had lost their lives trying to gain a living for their families. He wrote a song to recognise that; to name them and give them dignity. He used the disparaging word – deportee!
I thought this was relevant today!
Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (also known as “Deportee”) Words by Woody Guthrie
The crops are all in and the peaches are rott’ning,
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;
They’re flying ’em back to the Mexican border
To pay all their money to wade back again
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won’t have your names 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,
And they rode the truck till they took down and died.
Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
Our work contract’s out and we have to move on;
Six hundred miles to that Mexican border,
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.
We died in your hills, we died in your deserts,
We died in your valleys and 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.
The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, “They are just deportees”
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 to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except “deportees”?
Woody Guthrie was a champion of the underdog. He stood for fairness and equality against the exploitative bosses and racists. He stood on the picket lines and wrote songs that highlighted the callous indifference of bosses who used peoples poverty, misery and hopelessness to enhance their huge wealth.
Deportee was Woody’s song about the terrible plight of the poor Mexican wetbacks.
These poor people had no work or future in Mexico. They risked their lives crossing the Rio Grande and walking for days through the deserts in order to toil in the fields picking crops for a pittance.
After being worked to the bone they were shipped back to Mexico. They were cheap labour to be discarded when it became inconvenient.
One flight of migrant workers being deported back to Mexico crashed killing all on board. The crash hardly raised a headline. They were merely deportees.
Woody questioned the morality of how we are running the world. So that the rich can get richer and the poor kept in abject poverty so they can be exploited for cheap labour. Is this the way to create a society? To treat the desperate as criminals whose lives are cheap?
There’s a better way, a fairer way. We can solve world poverty and create a better system.
We can address the world overpopulation that is the driver behind most of the world’s problems and environmental destruction.
Woody gave them names. He highlighted the fact that they were human beings with dignity who were forced by circumstance to risk their lives again and again.
Deportee (also known as “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos”) Words by Woody Guthrie, Music by Martin Hoffman
The crops are all in and the peaches are rott’ning,
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;
They’re flying ’em back to the Mexican border
To pay all their money to wade back again
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won’t have your names 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,
And they rode the truck till they took down and died.
Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
Our work contract’s out and we have to move on;
Six hundred miles to that Mexican border,
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.
We died in your hills, we died in your deserts,
We died in your valleys and 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.
The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, “They are just deportees”
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 to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except “deportees”?
