Nanci Griffith - Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos) lyrics

The crops are all in and
The peaches are rotting
The oranges are stacked in
Their Creosote dumps
They're flying them back to the Mexico border
To pay all their wages to wade back again

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 on the trucks till
They took down and died

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita
Adios, mis amigos, Jesus and Maria
You won't have a name when
You ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be "deportee"

Somos ilegales y mal recibidos
(Well, some are illegal and
Some are not wanted)
Se a caba el contrato y de alli a caminar
(Our work contract's out and we've
Got to move on)
Six hundred miles to that Mexico border
They chased us like outlaws, like rustlers
Like thieves

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

The sky plane caught fire
Over Los Gatos Canyon
A fireball of lightning
It 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 best orchards?
Is this the best way we
Can grow our good fruit
To fall like dry leaves and
Rot on our topsoil
And be known by no name except "deportee?"

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita
Adios, mis amigos, Jesus and Maria
You won't have a name when
You ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be "deportee"