by the El Reportero staff
Just days after the death of country music legend Dolly Parton at age 80, a lesser-known chapter of her extraordinary career is drawing renewed attention: her recording of a song honoring 28 Mexican farmworkers killed in a California plane crash nearly eight decades ago.
Parton died Aug. 25 in Nashville after a brief battle with cancer, according to her representatives. Her death prompted tributes around the world celebrating not only the singer of classics such as “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You” and “9 to 5,” but also her compassion for ordinary working people. (latimes.com)
One example came in 1980, when Parton recorded “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” for her album 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs. The song told the story of Mexican workers whose deaths had largely been reduced to their immigration status. (latimes.com)
On Jan. 28, 1948, a chartered DC-3 carrying Mexican agricultural workers crashed in Los Gatos Canyon in western Fresno County. Thirty-two people died, including 28 Mexican passengers, the pilot, co-pilot, a flight attendant and an immigration officer.
News reports identified the American victims by name, while the Mexican passengers were commonly described simply as “deportees.”
That omission disturbed legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie, who wrote a poem protesting the way the workers had been stripped of their identities. Schoolteacher Martin Hoffman later put Guthrie’s words to music, creating a song subsequently performed by numerous folk artists.
Decades later, Parton brought the story to a much broader audience.
Her rendition appeared on the same 1980 album that contained “9 to 5,” one of the defining hits of her career. The album centered heavily on working people, making the story of the Mexican laborers a particularly meaningful inclusion. Parton never publicly explained why she chose to record the song. (latimes.com)
For decades, the 28 victims remained buried together at Holy Cross Cemetery in Fresno without their individual names marking the grave. Writer Tim Z. Hernandez later researched their identities and helped reconnect the tragedy with the families they left behind.
In 2013, a memorial bearing all 28 names was finally dedicated.
Now, following Parton’s death, the recording offers another reminder of her legacy: behind the rhinestones and worldwide fame was an artist willing to sing about people America had once left nameless.
With reports from Crónicas Mexicanas and additional reporting by El Reportero.
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