Woody Guthrie was reading a newspaper. The headline read 32 die in plane crash over Mexican-American border. The story gave the names of 4 Americans and simply said the rest were deportees. This angered Woody and prompted him to write this song. He realized that what is going on is almost exactly li...
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 again
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
My 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 thieves
The 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"
Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can raise our good crops?
To fall like dry leaves and rot on out topsoil
And be known by no names except "deportees"
Deportee (Plane Crash at Los Gatos) was written by Woody Guthrie.
Woody Guthrie released Deportee (Plane Crash at Los Gatos) on Mon Mar 01 1948.