July 2020
Another shameful tale of our treatment of our workers who pick our fruit and vegetables.
Agriculture is big business in Windsor-Essex, with more than 175 farms, greenhouses and wineries contracting some 8,000 official migrant workers to help raise and harvest the crops every year.
Ontario has started onsite testing as a way to tackle the COVID-19 outbreaks on farms and in greenhouses in Windsor-Essex County. But the government's measures overlook approximately 2,000 undocumented migrant workers in the area, and fears of deportation prevent them from coming forward.
After the incident, newspaper and radio reports didn't name any of the Mexican victims... they were merely referred to as Deportees. On the other hand, The Fresno Bee, a daily newspaper serving Fresno reported all the names of the deceased that were known to them... more
Although the song is not an Irish Folk song in the true sense, it has been embraced by many Irish performers and as Paddy Reilly says, "There is an exception to every rule".
Oranges packed in their creosote bins
They're flying them back to the Mexico border
To take all their money to get back again
So farewell to my friends, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maris
You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be deportees.
The sky-plane caught fire over Los Gatos canyon
The fireball lit up and it shook the hills round
Oh who were those friends that were scattered like dry leaves?
The radio said they were just deportees.
So farewell to my friends, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maris
You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be deportees.
Is this the best way to till our good orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To lie on the ground and to rot 'neath the topsoil
And never know no name except deportees?
So farewell to my friends, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maris
You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be deportees.
Some of us are illegal, and some were not wanted,
Our work contract's finished and wev'e got to move on
It's six hundred miles to the Mexican border,
They chase us like rustlers, like outlaws, like thieves.
So farewell to my friends, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maris
You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be deportees.
Click here to read about the disgusting living and working conditions we subject these workers who do the jobs we can't be bothered doing.
Things don't change and Canadians shouldn't be patting ourselves on the back that we treat people better than in the States and other countries.
This is the Irish version I grew up hearing before I realized the Mexican connection.
A protest song describing the Jan 28th, 1948 plane crash near Los Gatos Canyon 20 miles west of Coalinga in Fresno County, California, USA. Woody Guthrie wrote the lyrics in protest to the racial mistreatment of the passengers before and after the accident where 32 people died... 28 of them were migrant farm workers that were being deported from California back to Mexico.
After the incident, newspaper and radio reports didn't name any of the Mexican victims... they were merely referred to as Deportees. On the other hand, The Fresno Bee, a daily newspaper serving Fresno reported all the names of the deceased that were known to them... more
Although the song is not an Irish Folk song in the true sense, it has been embraced by many Irish performers and as Paddy Reilly says, "There is an exception to every rule".
DEPORTEES
The crops are all in, the peaches are gatheredOranges packed in their creosote bins
They're flying them back to the Mexico border
To take all their money to get back again
So farewell to my friends, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maris
You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be deportees.
The sky-plane caught fire over Los Gatos canyon
The fireball lit up and it shook the hills round
Oh who were those friends that were scattered like dry leaves?
The radio said they were just deportees.
So farewell to my friends, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maris
You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be deportees.
Is this the best way to till our good orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To lie on the ground and to rot 'neath the topsoil
And never know no name except deportees?
So farewell to my friends, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maris
You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be deportees.
Some of us are illegal, and some were not wanted,
Our work contract's finished and wev'e got to move on
It's six hundred miles to the Mexican border,
They chase us like rustlers, like outlaws, like thieves.
So farewell to my friends, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maris
You won't have a name when you fly the big aeroplane
All they will call you will be deportees.
This is the original as performed by Woody Guthrie.
70 years after the plane crash the song is still relevant as Joan Baez sings it in 2018.
In spite of raids, the same happens here, although thankfully no outbreaks of COVID among workers. Abattoirs are bad though. If you watch our border security tv shows, you might thing we have it all under control. Not so at all.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately similar conditions for cheap labour prevail all over the world.
ReplyDeleteI bawled my eyes out when I first heard this many moons ago now. It's like blacks, indigenous, no corrective measures instituted. We need to pay more for our fruits and veggies, and our clothes, we live in this bubble of unrealistic prices on the backs of these unfortunates. We can no longer look away.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
You're right, we all love the $ stores but there's a higher price to pay.
DeleteI've always loved this song, for years I thought it was about the Irish that were exploited.
...a GREAT tune! Somehow we need to value farmworks who toil to keep us fead!!! Thanks Jackie for this post on a socially important issue.
ReplyDeleteYes, Tom, especially since none of us want to do their jobs. It's the same for our gardeners, house cleaners and especially the workers in our hospitals working to keep us safe.
DeleteGreat post, making us aware of the racism and mistreatment that exists throughout the world.Everyone has the right to fair treatment, wages, Healthcare and to be treated like a real human being.
ReplyDelete