Richard Shindell - Deportee lyrics

The crops are all in and
The peaches are rotting
The oranges are packed in
Their creosote dumps
They're flying 'em back to that Mexico border
To take all their money 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 the big trucks till
They lay down and died

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when
You ride the big airplane
And all they will call you will be deportee
Some of us are illegal
And all are not wanted
Our work contract's out and we've
Got 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 armies
We died on your plains
We died 'neath your trees and
We died 'neath those bushes
Both sides of that river
We died just the same

The sky plane caught fire
Over Los Gatos Canyon
Like a fireball of lightning
It shook all our hills
Who are all these friends
Dying 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 and rot on my topsoil
And be known by no name except deportee