Deportee

The crops are all in and the peaches are rott'ning

The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;

They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border

To pay all their money to wade back again

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita

Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;

You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane

All they will call you will be "deportees"

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

And they rode the truck till they took down and died

Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted

Our work contract's out and we have 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 valleys and 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, and 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 big orchards?

Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?

To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil

And be called by no name except "deportees"?