Deportees
from: Rise As One
This was one of the first songs I ever learned to play on guitar. It remains one of my all-time favorite songs. The more lilting waltz arrangement has evolved over the last 25 years.
The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are stacked in their creosote dumps
Their flying you back to the Mexico border
To pay all your money to wade back again
My fathers own father he waded that river
They took all the money that he made in his life
My brothers and sisters they worked in the fruit trees
They rode the big trucks till they took down and died
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big aero-plane
For all they will call you will be deportees
Now some of us are illegal and others not wanted
The work season ends and we have to move on
Six hundred miles to the Mexico boarder
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers and thieves
We've died in your hills and we've died in your deserts
We've died in your valleys, we've died in your plains
We've died in your trees and we've died in your bushes
Both sides of the river we've died just the same (chorus)
A sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos canyon
Like a fireball of lightning it shook all our hill
And who are these friends all scattered like dried leaves
The radio says they are just deportees
Is this the best way we can grow your good orchards
It this the best way we can grow your good fruit
To fall like dried leaves and rot on your topsoil
To be known by no name except deportees?
The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are stacked in their creosote dumps
Their flying you back to the Mexico border
To pay all your money to wade back again
My fathers own father he waded that river
They took all the money that he made in his life
My brothers and sisters they worked in the fruit trees
They rode the big trucks till they took down and died
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big aero-plane
For all they will call you will be deportees
Now some of us are illegal and others not wanted
The work season ends and we have to move on
Six hundred miles to the Mexico boarder
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers and thieves
We've died in your hills and we've died in your deserts
We've died in your valleys, we've died in your plains
We've died in your trees and we've died in your bushes
Both sides of the river we've died just the same (chorus)
A sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos canyon
Like a fireball of lightning it shook all our hill
And who are these friends all scattered like dried leaves
The radio says they are just deportees
Is this the best way we can grow your good orchards
It this the best way we can grow your good fruit
To fall like dried leaves and rot on your topsoil
To be known by no name except deportees?
© 1961 Woody Guthrie, Ludlow Music