Wendy guthrie lyrics, and the plane crash happened in 1948 the news report when across the country, Woody Guthrie was in new york at the time of course one of the great rebellious folk icons that he is, he heard the news report and he really was upset at the omission of his name. He himself traveled to the san joaquin valleys in the 30s and 40s so he was aware of the plight of the migrant farmworkers. He was upset, he said thats not a way to treat our brothers and sister so he wrote a poem about it. In his poem he attempts to restore the dignity of those anonymous by giving them fake names and he says, goodbye to my wand, goodbye rosalina, adios, he wont have a name when you ride that big airplane, all they will call you will be deportees. It was that phrase, all they will call you is deportees, and i thought is that all they will call us . I come from a family of migrant farmworkers. Thats my story. So i gravitated to that. What are they call you . To me that was a poetic boat piece of that so use that for the title of the book. During world war ii there talks between mexico and the united states. This is the early 40s. The results were how can mexico be an ally for the u. S. During this time of need and the result of that was what they called a program for program meaning arms, in this case working arms. So america said we could use more workers here say look to the brothers and sisters in the south and begin the program is started to bus and train people in. The first series of that the first Pilot Program was that they imported about 4000 workers to Central Valley, little north of fresno. It was such a success by the standards they began working in the fields right away they said bring more, bring more so within the next couple of years they have 50000 workers coming in and now they were only being used for Agricultural Labor their use for railroads and all kinds of things across the country during world war ii. So, after the worse over what to do with the brothers and sisters we invited to work with us, its time to send them back was the idea. In fact, some of the politicians in the Central Valley at the time of, and state that the kind of workers that were working for is the kind that does a great job. , doesnt look for trouble and that we can send the back were done. They would say that publicly. And so 1948 and now a few years after the war has ended 1948 they begin actually 47 they begin sending back mass deportation. They do mass roundups all across the valley especially because this is where big portion of the work is come. So in some cases the workers contracts were up, in some cases they were here without papers in some cases there are rounded up, part of the round up in many of the cases throughout histories from the 30s, 40s and 50s some of them were american citizens that they were sending back. The dragnet was so wide, they just said like brown skin people everybody get in its on the back. Thats what was happening that morning in 1940. They had rounded up a group of workers they were sending them back and deporting them. This time they just started to use the d. C. Three airplanes which they were the workhorses of world war ii but now they have this surplus and what we do with the airplanes . Lets change the name, theyre called c47 airplanes at the time they said that scott d. C. Three lets do away with the stink and the award rome of war. The will deport and thats what they did. In 1948 this airplane leprechaun, california 1928 and 9 30 a. M. And as it took off it was headed toward tijuana to drop off 28 mexican citizens, all men except one woman. And the airplane also had a pilot and copilot stewardess who is the pilots wife and an immigration officer. So an hour into the flight, coming into Fresno County, and find over the diablo range. The plane experienced difficulty with the left engine and blew out caught fire, torch the wing off. The pit plane began to tumble in the air and as it was coming in a crash right into the canyon which is just about 60 miles southwest of fresno. It was annihilated. All of the folks, ranch owners and the gaston family on the property, they witnessed it. There is a nearby Fresno County prison and they all sought happen and witnessed it. And so a lot of those folks are the ones i used and interviewed for the book, the eyewitnesses to change their life for the people who witnessed it too. So thats what was happening that morning. The media reports of the incident at the time it was labeled the worst airplane disaster in california history, this is 1948. In the media and a lot of the reports referred to them is deportees. The Associated Press has one of the more popular one the 20 deportees also back to mexico were killed. But out of all of them there is no mention of the names with the exception of one newspaper know, too. The fresno made an attempt to publish the names a couple of days after the accident. The names were badly misspelled, roni is, some look like they were spelled phonetically, but it wasnt a ten. The only publish like a dozen of the names. The only newspaper that did publish the popular belief at the time or even the was maybe they didnt have access to the names or how do they find the names and i thought to myself as an author was exploring this i thought there is a manifest somewhere. It was a government program. Somebody has the names. And lo and behold i find an article published in a spanishlanguage independent newspaper only published in fresno specifically for the Mexican Community and its published in chinatown and that newspaper list. It says here the names of all the dead who died in this plane crash. Not only their names, but heres their hometown and their surviving Family Members. It lists all of them. When i found that article it was a jackpot. So with those only Spanish Language newspaper that gave them justice. They just say the names, it was a basic human right, wasnt about trying to use some bias, its just heres the name and the family them members. And that newspaper published it. They came to me by way of one of the Family Members when i first found the first Family Member there still all around and they heard the story. And he said, he said, do you have a list of the names i said yes but the list i have is inaccurate. When he says i have a list to and he said hang on, and he opens up the envelope and he reaches in and pulled out this old tattered sepia stained wrinkled newspaper and its from 1948. The Mexican Consulate has sent his family this newspaper as evidence of their Family Members death. And that family kept up over 60 years. So he gave it to me unless only surviving newspaper ive tried to find other copies and i havent found any, the silly one. One thing i knew in front was that a new i didnt feel like i needed to be with any political agenda because the story was a human story. In the story itself was a metaphor already. Heres this one vehicle transporting 28 mexican people. Four of them caucasian, the pilots, world war ii hero. The copilot was also world war ii hero. If you get a phone line that plane thats what you want fine with you. He had crash landed that plane before during world war ii in india and that was like a graveyard for those, he crash landed safely and hes phone that in one engine before, he had over 2000 hours before, thats a pilot you wanted. He was a newlywed, 30 years old and his wife was a stewardess, the pats name was Frank Atkinson and his wife was bobby. Theyd only been your very the year before. Theyre just starting their lives. This was going to be his last flight when he would retire and go back to work for the military. His wife was not a stewardess, his wife at the time of not sure what she was doing but she was a stewardess, she had no business being on the airplane in other words. But a stewardess cannot make it that morning and called in sick. According to the family one was hung over from the party the night before. And i guess at the time you could not fly that without someone on board so he said to his wife would you come with us you dont have to do much just come on board to this quick trip i will get paid extra. So she jumped on the plane with them in the family only two weeks before that accident frank had experienced difficulty in another airplane and his wife had made a comment to friends and family said if something were ever to happen with frank i would want to be with him. Those two weeks before something actually did happen. So is able to interview the family frank was an amazing young man. One of the most beautiful comments i heard about somebody read the book, axel ramirez, he said one of the most profound stories that impacted me was the story of frank. Because a can identify with him. One of the grandsons of a migrant farmworker and had to struggle to make it here on his own, and i said why . And he said, because as young man i can relate to what he was doing for his family. As a young man he would go out cut real ties and make 50 sensor back to his parents and help them survive. I remember doing that same thing for my mother. I would go back and do something and bring her back the change i was making. So i knew early on that i had to do was talk about the humanity behind each person. Frank, his wife, the last love letter he wrote to his wife 1947, not the last one but a love letter he wrote home in which there preparing for their wedding. I put that sidebyside with one of the last love letters that the passenger sent home to his wife about how hes struggling trying to work for one farmer and another piece on his wife i know we have a few garbanzo beans, sell those and i will be sending money home soon. We see them sidebyside, all the glaring humanity illuminated. I dont have to push any. Host a political rhetoric around that. The humanity is possible. You read the letters and you cant deny that here is to men who love their family, working hard for the family. In general 30th, 1948 the Funeral Services happen at Holy Cross Cemetery in fresno, california. For 500 people are here, the services had 28 conference lined up. Again, on that day of january 30 the only entered a few the coffins because it wouldve taken all of todays so for the audience and crowd they viewed a few. Then once they dispersed a lot about their lives the coffins are put underground. Over and then there was wasnt initially but years later someone donated a placard and that parts uncertain because theres no record of it maybe it was their first note diocese for someone interested, but years ago someone donated a placard and it said was anonymous, this is 28 mexican citizens died in a plane crash january 20, 1948, rest in peace. Just like 28 people died, rest in peace. Thats all it had for years. Uninterested giant patch of green grass. They dont allow any other headstones anymore. I should inquire about buying that for myself my family and they cant because its a patch for they are all buried. It wasnt until when i came upon the story in 2010 i learned of it this is the first place i came to is astonishing i was the largest mass grave. So all the remains pushed into this grave covered over an anonymous placard and that was it i knocked on the door and i said you have the names and they said well lets look they looked up the filing came back and said we dont have the names, we have the file but on the file name should be typically goes it just says mexican national, 28 times. And that was it. Even they were astonished by the, they werent around at the time but the cemetery director was new and he says that blows me away. So we started talking and i said im looking for the names. I went to the hall of records and they wont give me access to the names because i have to be related to one make you give me access to that one person. But you have official business maybe you can go. And he says ill do that. He went a week later he calls me and says i have a list of names. So we stood right here at the headstone looked at the list of names together. And were excited because it was the first, middle and last name. We could tell some are still wrong but it was a start. Was that list of names that let me on. Once i had that i asked him, what would it take . Your cemetery director what would it take to put them on a headstone here . And he said well you take two things, permission from the bishop, and money. I said how much . And he said at least 10000 probably. Listen okay you work on getting permission from the bishop and ill work on race and money. In fact about a month prior to the eyes with a good friend of mine, local musician who we had been collaborating together and he and i for said to ourselves, once we find the list we should figure out how to put the headstone there. On that day he was standing at the cemetery director and i really had that idea cooking and i knew that we had artist power musician power we would raise that money. And we did. Within three or four months we race 14000. Carlos got permission from the bishop. So on labor day 2013, we installed the headstone behind me. That headstone is now four by a granite slab that is used to bury the bishop, and on that slab its english and spanish tells you the story of what happened and it has the names of every passenger including the crew as well. And that has 32 leaves around the stone because of Woody Guthries lyrics. Theyre not just deportees, not anymore, and one of the beautiful things of this memorial headstone behind me is that we still included in the foundation the original of how it went from anonymity. All of the talks earned immigration today, all the rhetoric has become a vast sea of noise. Some of it is of value, it creates a valuable dialogue, but a lot of it, especially today as we enter this new administration we start to hear everywhere the people in general we start to hear the rent up, the polar of us versus them, immigrants versus americans. And that rhetoric is out there. I feel like what gets lost in part of that is intentional. And those abstractions that i was mentioning and if you like this book really provides the opportunity for us to look through the rhetoric and cut through it and to just look at one situation, 28 mexicans, for american citizens, all crashed and all regardless of race, regardless of social status, regardless of spiritual belief or background, they all met the same fate together, none spared. In the end, there in one vehicle transported or deported to that great other place in the sky and thats what i hope people take from it. Were all in this together. This is book tv and cspan2. One prime time during the august congressional recess. Sure knew some of the stops tonight we have made on our citys tour around the nation