“Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” is a protest song with lyrics by Woody Guthrie and music by Martin Hoffman (click HERE) about a 1948 plane crash in which farm workers being deported to Mexico were killed. Guthrie was struck by the fact that some radio and newspaper coverage of the Los Gatos plane crash only gave the names of the American flight crew and security guard, referring to the migrant workers who were legal participants in the government-sponsored Braceros Program simply as “deportees.”
Below is an adaptation of Guthrie’s song that was penned by a temporary adviser (0515) from AALA’s School Support Administrators Department who was inspired enough by his/her RIF letter to capture in song how invisible and devastating being released from your position without cause can be.