Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) [Woody Guthrie cover]

Who are these dear friends who are falling like dry leaves?

I’m in the studio this week, so I’ll let this song do the talking. The lyrics feel like they could have been written today, but Woody wrote them in 1948 after news outlets referred to victims of the Los Gatos plane crash not by name but instead as “deportees.” The song has been recorded and performed by a bunch of the Greats, including Joan Baez and Dolly Parton, and I was reminded of it a few weeks ago thanks to Starship reader Dusty Petersen’s request.

Many years later, author Tim Z. Hernandez traced their names, and I’m going to include them here:

Miguel Negrete Álvarez, Tomás Aviña de Gracia, Francisco Llamas Durán, Santiago García Elizondo, Rosalio Padilla Estrada, Tomás Padilla Márquez, Bernabé López Garcia, Salvador Sandoval Hernández, Severo Medina Lára, Elías Trujillo Macias, José Rodriguez Macias, Luis López Medina, Manuel Calderón Merino, Luis Cuevas Miranda, Martin Razo Navarro, Ignacio Pérez Navarro, Román Ochoa Ochoa, Ramón Paredes Gonzalez, Guadalupe Ramírez Lára, Apolonio Ramírez Placencia, Alberto Carlos Raygoza, Guadalupe Hernández Rodríguez, Maria Santana Rodríguez, Juan Valenzuela Ruiz, Wenceslao Flores Ruiz, José Valdívia Sánchez, Jesús Meza Santos and Baldomero Marcas Torres.

(Original reporting of the event named only the four Americans killed on the flight: Frank Atkinson, Marion Ewing, Bobbi Atkinson, Frank E. Chapin.)

Next week I’m on a boat. That should be more cheerful. Carry on. OxO—Jeffy

Photo credit: University of Arizona Press

This Week in Wilco, Etc.

2015 / February 17: The previously unreleased last Pops Staples album, Don’t Lose This, is finally issued on dBpm/Anti- Records. The album is produced by Jeff at The Loft.

2002 / February 21: Jeff plays an 11-song promo-only Yankee Hotel Foxtrot show at Tanzhalle St. Pauli in Hamburg, Germany.

2023 / February 23: Jeff shares two different versions of “You Are Not Alone” on Starship Casual. The first is Jeff’s guide vocal demo and the second includes a background vocals demo.

Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) [Woody Guthrie cover]