"Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" is a protest song with lyrics by Woody Guthrie and music by Martin Hoffman detailing the January 28, 1948 crash of a plane near Los Gatos Canyon, west of Coalinga in Fresno County, California, United States. The crash occurred in Los Gatos Canyon and not in the town of Los Gatos itself, which is in Santa Clara County, approximately 150 miles away.

Guthrie was inspired to write the song by what he considered the racist mistreatment of the passengers before and after the accident. However, the local newspaper, The Fresno Bee, covered the tragedy and listed just a few of the known names of the deportees, though they were erroneous.

Outraged by the lackluster coverage of the disaster and the omission of the Mexicans' names, A decade later, Guthrie's poem was set to music and given a haunting melody by a schoolteacher named Martin Hoffman. Guthrie felt that it was wrong to render food inedible by poisoning it in a world where hungry people lived.

"Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" has been described by journalist Joe Klein as "the last great song he [Guthrie] would write, a memorial to the nameless migrants 'all scattered like dry leaves' in Los Gatos Canyon".

  • Stan Ridgway on The Complete Epilogues (2016).
  • The Last Internationale on TLI Unplugged (2017).
  • Eilen Jewell as a single release (2026).
  • Wolfe Tones on "20 golden Irish ballads, vol.1"
  • The Klezmatics and Sofia Rei on We Were Made For These Times (2026).

Notes

  • Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) song lyrics at woodyguthrie.org
  • Check-Six.com - The "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos" Canyon (includes full passenger and crew list)
  • All They Will Call You by Tim Z. Hernandez a book about the crash