All They Will Call You

by Tim Z. Hernandez

All They Will Call You is the harrowing account of “the worst airplane disaster in California’s history,” which claimed the lives of thirty-two passengers, including twenty-eight Mexican citizens—farmworkers who were being deported by the U.S. government. Outraged that media reports omitted only the names of the Mexican passengers, American folk icon Woody Guthrie penned a poem that went on to become one of the most important protest songs of the twentieth century, “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee).” It was an attempt to restore the dignity of the anonymous lives whose unidentified remains were buried in an unmarked mass grave in California’s Central Valley. For nearly seven decades, the song’s message would be carried on by the greatest artists of our time, including Pete Seeger, Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez, yet the question posed in Guthrie’s lyrics, “Who are these friends all scattered like dry leaves?” would remain unanswered—until now. Combining years of painstaking investigative research and masterful storytelling, award-winning author Tim Z. Hernandez weaves a captivating narrative from testimony, historical records, and eyewitness accounts, reconstructing the incident and the lives behind the legendary song. This singularly original account pushes narrative boundaries, while challenging perceptions of what it means to be an immigrant in America, but more importantly, it renders intimate portraits of the individual souls who, despite social status, race, or nationality, shared a common fate one frigid morning in January 1948.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, Book Club, Social Justice, Music, Historical

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 2017

Reviews

[Trudie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered this is not the best book to read on a plane. The opening and closing sections of this narrative deal in gruesome detail with the 1948 Los Gatos DC-3 crash which killed all aboard, including 28 Mexican farmworkers.
This is a heartbreaking tale and Hernandez does a phenomenal amount of investigative work to locate the families of the deceased and to give a kind of reimagining to the lives of these Mexican immigrants and how they ended up on the fateful flight. All They Will Call You becomes less a story of a plane crash but rather a story of immigration in the first half of the twentieth century. The humanisation of victims that had been listed only as "Mexican National" on the mass grave they were buried in, is the real crowning achievement of this book.

I really wish readers were tackling books like this instead of elevating something like American Dirt as representative of an immigrant experience.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woody Guthrie's "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)" has haunted me for years. I first heard it sung by either Cisco Huston or Pete Seeger, then later Joan Baez and Bob Dylan and many others. It is a moving song by itself, with the lyrics penned by Woody in 1948 after he read about a terribly tragic plane crash in southern California took place when 28 migrant workers were being returned to Mexico. In addition to the workers, the Customs person in charge of them, the two pilots and the stewardess all died when the plane broke apart and fire consumed them, sometimes even as they were still belted in to their seats. I did not know anything about this incident until we bought Tim Hernandez's book at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa. Almost more relevant today even than then, when all the bodies of the deportees were put into a mass grave and no names were listed on the stone that marked the grave. This book should have a wider audience. For those who don't know the song, find versions on youtube. You will not be sorry.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A difficult story to wrap yourself around. Except then, it really isn't. How much do things change versus stay the same? A very timely topic given the current atmosphere in the United States towards immigrants. A horrific plane crash that at the time was the worst in California history. 28 Mexican undocumented immigrants are being flown home, deported. All are lost along with a crew of three and the immigration officer. They are killed in a horrific structural failure in midair over Los Gatos Canyon west of Coalinga California on January 28, 1948. The description of the event is well done, though horrific. I will leave that for you to read yourself. The bulk of the book surrounds the disregard for those 28 "deportees" and their loved ones. This is juxtaposed to the honorable burials of the four Caucasians on board. The immigrants are never properly identified or flown back to Mexico for burial by their families. They are buried in a mass grave in Fresno. No headstone honors their names. They are simply "Mexicans". The families suffer decades of uncertainty in some cases. There are no funerals held in Mexico. No honoring formally the lives lost. The lives dedicated to hard work for their families. The hypocrisy of their being in the country as undocumented, but their work necessary for the success of The Valley farms and ranches which would not survive without them. The title of the book comes from a poem written about the accident by Woody Guthrie which was later put to music and sung by Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie. "All They Will Call You Is Deportee". You meet family members the author is able to track down, some in the Central Valley of California and some he finds in Mexico. You grieve with the families as they hear details about their lost relatives from 65 plus years ago. You see these folks as they were. Fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins, fiancées, and perhaps aunts, as there was one female deportee amongst them. The author's efforts are rewarded with some healing for these families and a ceremony respecting their lives that feels more satisfying than a mass grave with no names. I am reminded of the words of Dr. Paul Farmer of Partners In Health who claims that much that is wrong with the world is caused by the thinking that some lives matter more than others. Mr. Hernandez' writing helps rectify that wrong! Great read!

[Thomas Ray]

About the 28 deportees who died in the plane wreck at Los Gatos Canyon in 1948, subject of the Woody Guthrie song:

https://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/P...

Folksinger Joe Jenks credits this song with inspiring his career choice. He has a terrific article about it on his website, as of October 2021:

https://www.joejencks.com/news

[Holl · Rating 5 out of 5]

An account of a plane crash in CA in which 28 Mexican citizens died. (Shockingly) the US let all of the victims down, failed to publish their names, honor their families, etc. A personal glimpse into each victims world. Off brand for me but so good and… unifying (?) re: the human experience of loss. 10/10 will be talking about for a while to people who did not actually inquire

[Alaíde Ventura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Y sin embargo, surge la pregunta de la traducción: "¿por qué está en inglés esto (una carta, un testimonio)?", y "¿por qué no está en español con la traducción en nota a pie, o al revés?".
Me gustaría leer algunos documentos en su versión original.

Finalmente, las traducciones que sí existen, ¿quién las hizo? Hay una mención en los agradecimientos, pero no un crédito tal cual.

[Mikel Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This tragic story of a plane crash almost 80 years ago is as fresh as today’s headlines about forced deportation. Award-winning author Tim Z. Hernandez reconstructs the accident along with the lives of the victims and their survivors.

I love his insights into the hopes and dreams of all aboard—the 28 migrant farmworkers, the pilot and his pregnant wife (subbing for a stewardess who called in sick), the co-pilot, and immigration agent. His reconstructed cockpit conversation is alarming. The way he describes the fear of passengers who saw the left engine catch fire and explode is harrowing. His images of passengers ejected after the left wing tore off and hurled them to their death still strapped in their seats, screaming from the flames searing their flesh during one minute of descent in living hell, may torment your sleep tonight.

The mass funeral description is heartbreaking. “The crowd gathered around the caskets. Twenty-eight of them. What was inside each casket would never be seen. By anyone. Mismatched or not, the severed arms, fingers, torsos, and heads of Ramón, Guadalupe, Juan, Luis, young Tomás, María, and the rest of the passengers were gathered up and stuffed into black plastic bags and placed inside the caskets. Because there weren’t nearly enough body parts to fill all twenty-eight caskets, some of them would remain completely empty. Empty caskets interred before the crowd. The twenty-eight boxes a mere representation of twenty-eight lives. As a way to identify the caskets, they would be labeled A to Z. The human beings, however, would go unidentified for sixty-five more years.”

Eventually, over the years, victims were identified, but names were as mangled as the bits and pieces of bodies found at the crash scene. The poignant interviews with some survivors, located by Hernandez across the USA and Mexico after years of not knowing for certain what happened to family members or loved ones, bring a bit of closure. Woody Guthrie wrote a protest poem about the injustice of identifying only the four victims of the crash who were USA citizens, and not the 28 deportees, and it became a haunting and legendary protest song: Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee). Disclaimer: I received a reviewer copy from the university press publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Linda Doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the author's Manana Means Heaven a couple years ago, and I loved it. So I was eager to read Hernandez's latest, All They Will Call You. I was not disappointed. Omigod, what a book. Hernandez brings this heartbreaking story to life through both beautiful storytelling and gritty details: "Paper, Ladies garments, Unexplained number of shoes, Baby clothes..." This is a list of the debris that rained from the sky as the plane crashed. And the depiction of the crash is where I lost it and broke down in tears. Through his writing, Hernandez commemorates the lives of the overlooked victims of this tragic accident.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his most recent work Tim Hernandez is at once poet, novelist, detective, historian, and above all a consummate listener. His sensitivity to the stories enshrined in Woody Guthrie's "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)" is breathtaking. The stories that emerge in his novelistic telling are riveting.

[jess ~has abandoned GR~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

You may have heard of a protest folk song written by Woody Guthrie called "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)." It's been covered by a ton of folks, like Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez, and tells the story of a plane crash in 1948 where dozens of Mexican nationals and a few Americans died in a horrific blaze. At the time, no one was sure who the Mexican nationals were on board. Their families never got closure.

Tim Hernandez set out on an adventure a few years ago to name these victims and tell their stories.
Before I get into what this book is, it's important to cover what it is not. It is not dry or academic. It is not about how airplanes work, or the politics of how the US has treated migrant workers.

What it is is a series of short vignettes giving a name and face to the victims -- a short tale of a romance, told by the 90-something year old woman who was the girl he left behind; a tale of a man who brought his love of baseball to each labor camp be joined; a small town struggling to build a well.

I anticipated this book taking a while to read but I read it two sittings and would have happily read another 100 pages.

I highly recommend this to anyone -- unless you're about to board an airplane anytime soon. ;)

[Nikki BoHo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been quite a while since I have been so moved by a book. A heartbreaking but necessary read. Highly recommend this book!

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gosh, this was awesome! I had always just assumed this song was a made up liberal rant. As a folk song writer, it was really great to learn the real events and see how the song was developed. Author was heartfelt and sensitive to the subject matter. My only knock is the made up details in many scenes, quite a few scenes that we really don’t know exactly how they went down, yet author makes up plausible scenarios…ex: scenes on the airplane, Martins suicide…

[Kristel Greer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The morning of 28 January 1948 a devastating plane crash occurred Los Gatos, California and all lives perished. A lot was known about the two pilots, the stewardess and the Immigration Officer after the crash but the names, lives and history of the 28 Mexican deportees who also died was another story entirely. The author spent years trying to locate the unmarked grave of the 28 Mexican victims and track down their real names as some had been misrepresented in newspapers and official documents over the 60 years since the crash as well. He also spent copious amounts of time tracking down surviving family members to piece together the true story of the 27 men and 1 woman from Mexico who died in the crash and had since been silenced but even those were few and far between.

The book gives witness accounts of the horrific and brutal crash that left every recoverable body in pieces and even some unaccounted for due to the explosive violence of the crash itself. The personal histories of the five families the author tracked down also gave humanity back to the silenced Mexican deportees. A narrative woven with hard facts and fictional thoughts and memories brings the lives and last moments of these brave immigrants who risked everything to travel to American for work to earn money for their families back home but sadly paid the ultimate price for that journey.

This was a heart wrenching 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟. The author truly sought the truth and was passionate about ensuring that the names of ALL passengers were known and remembered. I was shocked at the treatment that the Mexican victims were given and the lack of communication with their families. The factual details of the flights, crash and shocking aftermath at both crash site and afterwards was hard to read at times but it was essential that the true story be told. The human side of the men and women aboard the flights both crew and passengers spoke of hope for their families in so many ways that was tragically cut short. Emotionally invoking and important story.

[Deena · Rating 4 out of 5]

There has never been a time in the history of this country when immigration was not a point of contention.

This is not a political book about immigration. It's not even really about immigration. But it would be worth the time to read for anyone who thinks they have strong views on immigration issues.

What this book really is, and why it is worth reading, is the story of some of the people who died in a plane crash in January, 1948. A few days after the crash, Woody Guthrie wrote a poem about them - specifically decrying the fact that even then, such a short time after their deaths, their names and stories were already being lost to history. Guthrie wrote a poem, and then a decade later another man wrote a melody. Pete Seeger learned the melody from its composer, and recorded it (giving credit where it was due). That song has become a staple for folk singers (and others). Dozens have recorded it. My favorite version is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrRak...

In 2010, Tim Hernandez began to search for the names - and more importantly, the stories of people themselves. The book is about those stories, and his search for them. The chronology isn't linear; sometimes that makes sense, but other times it is a bit random and puzzling. That being said, it's well written and well worth the time.

[Joni Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story about the people who were forgotten in a tragic accident many years ago. Admire the research the author did tracking down the families and listening to their memories. A great reminder that the media always has a slant, a preference for some people's stories over others. Thanks for bringing these people to life.

[Cindy Lucas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad telling of a tragic event, but the stories of the "deportees" and their families needed telling. Poignant in our day as we discuss those seeking asylum. Woody Guthrie memorialized the story in his lyrics:
The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are piled in their cresote dumps
They're flying you back to the Mexico border
To pay all your money to wade back again

My father's own father, he wanted 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

Good-bye to my Juan, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus why Maris
You won't have a name when you ride the big air-plane
And all they will call you will be deportees.

Some of us are illega, and others not wanted
Our work contract's out and we have to move on
But it's six hundred miles to that Mexican border
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like theives.

We died…

Good-bye to my Juan, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus why Maris
You won't have a name when you ride the big air-plane
And all they will call you will be deportees.

A sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos canyon
Like a fireball of lightning, it 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?

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is rare that a book makes me cry, but here we are. Whether the tragic content, my affinity for the author and his desperate quest, or the palpable loss and longing permeating the telling, it touched me deeply. This, this is why I write. This is why I seek to pull the dry bones of stories from the ground where they slumber. Nowhere but in this story of the souls lost in what was the worst plane crash on American soil is the malleable, unsteady nature of history more apparent. It’s not written by the winners, but by those who strive to tell the tale.

And if it were not for the author Tim Hernandez, the Mexican farmworkers who perished the Los Gatos Canyon crash would have remained as nameless as they were in the report that prompted a righteously angry Woody Guthrie to compose their eulogy. Ignored in life, dishonored in death and forgotten by history, instead the soil they had cultivated for the life blood of this country elected to take them. But we, the generations that have followed, we do not forget. We do not falter. We’ll carry the tale on our lips, in our hearts and inscribe it on the souls of our children, for no one with such a brilliant legacy can go nameless for long.

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was at school we were taught the state-sanctioned version of historical events. But, as I grew, I came to realise that history doesn’t come in a neat package. Each passage is a series of parallel lines, reflecting different peoples’ perspectives, that overlap at some points, diverge at others. There is no single, simple, narrative.

This is particularly true in the story that Tim Hernandez tells here, where, for lack of formal, historical documentation, he had to rely on a patchworks of eye witness accounts and the testimonies of the relatives of those lost in the Los Gatos Canyon plane disaster of 1948.

For that reason, Hernandez’s book feels a little “bitty” at some points but with a combination of authenticity and personal feeling which is rewarding to the reader. He also delves into the origins of the song “Deportees”, the piece that sparked my own interest in this event which could easily have become an even-lesser historical footnote otherwise.

Hernandez has successfully brought it further into the light and added to a store of knowledge that was shamefully lacking for too long.

[Indira · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredibly written. It’s about the plane crash of Los Gatos Canyon, which a lot of people didn’t know about. I didn’t until I read this book in my english class. I can confidently say it is a necessary book for history classes to touch on. This book sheds light on the shortcomings of the US government when handling this tragedy. As a country, we can’t be blind to our mistakes or we’ll continue to rhyme them over and over again.

This book takes you through the life stories of some of the passengers on the plane. This was SO important to the families who lost loved ones. It helped them heal by being able to speak about their loved ones and be listened to.

It then walks you through the actual plane crash. The author sat in a model of this plane to write his story throughly. This connects you to these people even more. It makes you care what happens to these people, what happens to them, and how their stories are told.

Stories are important. The stories of history are even more important. We needa listen to them.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a treasure, a thing to be cherished. My experience of reading this was so emotional that I could read only one or two chapters at each sitting. Other reviews describe the book’s subject well, so I will not add to those excellent reviews.
The author’s accomplishment, the seemingly impossible task of recovering the stories —of this event and the people involved —seems nothing short of miraculous. My heartfelt thanks to the wonderful author who created this gift, this beautiful work of art. The 5 years of work that went into it must have seemed so daunting, and yet he persisted in his efforts to find the names of the deportees. That he received no grants or financial assistance during the first 4 yrs of research says a lot about his determination, and something as well about the agencies who did not support his work until year 5. Was the subject not deemed important enough, even now, were they “just deportees”?
I live in California and look forward to visiting the cemetery to pay my respects-when this pandemic is over.
I just finished the book, and feel at a loss for words. Highly, most highly recommended. I wish I could award more than 5 stars.

[Tonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was inspired by the song Deportees/Plane Wreck At Los Gatos, which started as a poem written by Woody Guthrie. The author did extensive research to find out about the people who were killed.

I really liked the field notes at the end when he explains how he found correct names and family members. It took a long time and a lot of dedication. Acknowledgments were also interesting when he credited those who financially supported his research.

The little bit of history of US / Mexico policy was interesting. In the 1940's during WWII we wanted Mexican farm workers to come to the US, but not so much after the war ended. "One second, boxcars flew northbound [legally], hauling a fresh supply of workers into California, while another rocketed southbound, deporting them back to the motherland."

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing story about a plane crash 70 years ago. Would have helped to know a little Spanish. Tim Hernandez does a yeoman’s job putting pieces together to find the names of the all but forgotten passengers. Interesting to me because I grew up just south of where the plane crashed. Although I have no recollection of the event, but recognize the names of places. A good reminder of the Importance of field workers in the fertile fields of California. Woody Guthrie wrote a poem about these forgotten young folks, which in some unique way prompted the writing of this book. Names of migrant workers are important also.

[Ashley Gebb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was our University's Book in Common for the Year. Given the discussions on migration in our nation write now and as a native of California, I think any light we can shed on the lives behind those who pick our produce and our longstanding way of treating them is important. Hernandez painstakingly researched this book (be sure to read his notes at end) and managed to recreate the lives and pay tribute to people who had been long forgotten by all but their closest family members. He's also just a vivid and eloquent writer. Loved the bits of Spanish sprinkled in that made it feel truly authentic.

[David Joyner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Important story about the 32 people — 28 of them migrant Mexican laborers — killed in a plane crash in Los Gatos Canyon, near Coalinga, Calif., on Jan 28, 1948. Follows the stories of a handful of people on board, based on materials and remembrances of family members and survivors. My issue is that the book blurs the lines between journalism and fiction, filling in narrative and story where holes exist in reportage, and is not always straightforward about what material is verifiable and what isn’t.

[Courtney Kistler · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW. This was so well researched & well written. Unfortunately, with the sheer magnitude of all the horrific things happen, it’s easy to hear about disasters & not take the time to really feel the weight of what happened. This book tackles that problem.

I grew to love & care for every sweet person involved in this horrific accident. Tim’s writing is so immersive & so real. You feel like you really knew people. What a special book!

[J.J. Amaworo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hernandez tells this unbearably sad story with a poet's lyricism, a novelist's eye for detail, and a journalist's nose for the truth. A wonderful piece of work - a book that honors the dead and the living, and reminds us of the fragility of life and the durability of memory.

Full review here: https://jjawilson.wordpress.com/2017/...

[Fer Galan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Juan Esparza Lorea from Vida Del Valle now Fresno Bee opinion columnist we have this book. I really enjoyed Tim Hernandez writing and vivid descriptions of Los Gatos Canyon plane crash. As well as the story of all of the passengers. My favorite part of the book was Hernandez detailed explanation of the Deportee song by Woody Guthrie and Martin Hoffman.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a person who cares to write literary reviews, especially for stories that come from the author’s heart and then touches my heart. All I can say is that this is a heartfelt book and I have immense gratitude for the author’s skills, dedication, and perseverance.

[Nate Jordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hernandez once again brings to light another corner of history, bringing to life the characters and environments they move through. Both entertaining and enlightening. For a preview, see Woody Guthrie's "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)."