TAKE ACTION
I am not sure what to do, but I’m convinced we all should do something.
Maybe it’s time to re-visit “Deportee” with Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.
My co-worker and I once ventured out to the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville to hear the amazing voice, and to be in the very presence, of Joan Baez. It was a wonderful night. She was relaxed and radiant — and that voice! If her voice had lost an iota of purity or strength, we sure couldn’t tell it.
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These days, I am remembering her rendition of “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” by Woody Guthrie and Martin Hoffman. She sang with conviction and passion — that pure voice and that great heart.
In 1948, Woody Guthrie was struck by the fact that national news coverage of a fatal plane crash in Los Gatos Canyon in California, did not list the names of 28 migrant farm workers being deported to Mexico; they were referred to as “deportees.” Woody Guthrie gave them identities in his poem: “Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita; adiós, mis amigos, Jesús y María…” Years later, the poem was set to music by a school teacher, Martin Hoffman. The song was performed, and popularized, by Pete Seeger.
I heard that Joan Baez was back in Nashville recently for two performances at the Ryman Auditorium with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Indigo Girls. I checked the set list and sure enough — there was “Deportee!” How I wish I could have been in Nashville for those nights of music, love, and hope. In these times when sanctuaries and bans and deportations are in the news and in the courts, I hope that everyone gets to hear Joan Baez singing that song!
“Action is the antidote to despair.” Joan Baez
