Immigrants - They get the Song Sung

So I was wandering the internets this morning and I came across this goose-bumply video from the Hamilton Mixtape. It's definitely not a folk song, but it made me think of several folk songs, and the theme is one that has echoed throughout folk music for generations. If you want to be inspired and scared and indignant a little bit, here it is (apparently it's so new that Blogger can't find it at YouTube so I have to give you the link):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_35a7sn6ds

Of course, today is Folk Friday so that means the real reason we're here is to sing along with a good folk tune. American folk music has always had a political side, and nobody embodied that side better than Woody Guthrie. He wrote a song about immigrants that still haunts me today. It's been covered by several artists, but I kind of like the rawness of this version with Guthrie singing it himself.

It's called "Deportee."

Here are the lyrics:

The crops are all in
And the peaches are rotting
The oranges piled up
In their creosote dumps
You're flying 'em back
To the Mexican border
To spend all their money
To wade back again

Good bye to my Juan
Goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos Jesus why Maria
You won't have a name
When you ride the big airplane
All they will call you
Will be "deportees"

Some of us are illegal
And others not wanted
Our work contract's up
And we have to move on
Six hundred miles to that Mexican border
They chase us like outlaws
Like rustlers, like thieves

Good bye to my Juan
Goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos Jesus why Maria
You won't have a name
When you ride the big airplane
All they will call you
Will be "deportees"

The skyplane caught fire
Over Los Gatos Canyon
A fireball of lightning
Shook all our hills
Who are all these friends
Who are scattered like dried leaves
The radio said
They were just "deportees"

Good bye to my Juan
Goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos Jesus why Maria
You won't have a name
When you ride the big airplane
All they will call you
Will be "deportees"

Songwriters: Martin Hoffman / Woody Guthrie