How ICE insulted 28 Mexican immigrants who died in a 1948 plane crash

It’s one of the saddest hit songs to grace American music: “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos).”

The 1948 Woody Guthrie composition documented a plane crash that killed all 32 people on board in Los Gatos Canyon near the Central Valley town of Coalinga on Jan. 28 of that year. Twenty-eight of the victims were Mexicans being forced back home — some entered the country without papers, some were guest workers whose stints were over — accompanied by the immigration agent charged with making sure they got there, much like the deportation flights of today.

The Associated Press reported that newspapers published across the country the following day — including The Times — listed the names of the Southern California crew on board and the migra man, Frank E. Chaffin of Berkeley.

The Mexicans? The story deemed them “deportees.” They were buried in a mass grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Fresno under a bronze marker that read: “28 Mexican citizens who died in an airplane accident.” The American government never even bothered to tell their family members. Many wondered what happened to their loved ones for decades.

Guthrie heard the AP report over the radio and was so angered by how the press and government dismissed the deceased that he penned “Deportee.” With mournful chords and vivid lyrics, the working class troubadour attacked an American society that that simultaneously let crops rot “in their creosote dumps” and treated the migrants who picked them “like rustlers, like outlaws, like thieves.”

It’s been covered by some of this country’s greatest musicians — I’m talking Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson (my favorite version is by folk-rock heroes The Byrds).

Even with “Deportee,” this story had fallen out of public consciousness over the decades. Until January, when ICE dredged it up to once again insult the memory of the lost Mexican immigrants.

On Jan. 28, the social media accounts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement commemorated Chaffin’s death and only his. The caption alongside a grainy black and white photo of him read: “The plane he was on to deport 28 illegal Mexican aliens caught fire and crashed killing all onboard.”

ICE’s unnecessarily inflammatory language not only was ahistorical, but also it didn’t even match up with its own official account. The agency’s Wall of Honor, which commemorates the lives of employees who died in the line of duty, described the migrants who died alongside Chaffin as “Mexican nationals.”

Such warping of the past isn’t accidental but rather part of a long con by the Trump administration to justify its agenda. In an administration that knows no lows, dismissing the Mexican victims of the Los Gatos Canyon disaster as “illegal Mexican aliens” was particularly egregious.

I called up Mike Rodriguez, an ethnic studies teacher in Santa Ana who found out in 2015 that his paternal aunt, María Rodríguez Santana, was on that doomed plane.

“First thing I thought was, ‘Well that’s the United States,’” Rodriguez said of ICE’s social media post. “They’re doing the same thing that the government tried to do in 1948 by erasing them.”

He added that la migra didn’t even bother to list the names of the American crew that died, either. “It’s disrespectful, it’s dehumanizing, it’s ICE,” he said.

But Rodriguez takes solace in knowing he and others are doing their part to make sure people know the full story. He regularly speaks about the tragedy and visited both the site of the crash and Holy Cross Cemetery, where a plaque with all of the victims’ names was erected in 2013.

Tim Z. Hernandez, a University of Texas El Paso professor who has spent much of his career trying to track down descendants, interviewed Rodriguez and his uncle for a forthcoming documentary and also featured their story in the 2024 book”They Call You Back: A Lost History, A Search, A Memoir.” The two appeared at an event last year at the Untold Story bookstore in Anaheim, where Rodriguez sung “Deportee” while his son played guitar. He added extra lyrics to honor his Tía María and Hernandez.

“Thankfully, we have truth tellers like Woody Guthrie and Tim,” Rodriguez said. “And I remember what Woody sang — ‘All you fascists bound to lose.’ And that’s the way this is administration is, trying to strip away our constitutional rights. But their day will come.”

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• Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein purchased a $15,000 ticket for Hollywood publicist Peggy Siegal to attend a 2013 Motion Picture and Television Fund gala, according to bank statements and emails between Epstein’s team and the MPTF reviewed by The Times.
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• Representatives for the MPTF and Siegal did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

• As the investigation into the abduction of Nancy Guthrie entered its third week, officials said they cleared direct members of her family as possible suspects.
• With no sign of the 84-year-old, there are growing concerns about her welfare and questions about how long the investigation will drag on.
• Authorities are examining DNA evidence found on a glove discovered several miles away from Guthrie’s home. The glove matched those worn by a masked person seen outside the home.

• Duvall, a Hollywood veteran known for his roles in “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now,” died at 95 on Sundayk.
• When Duvall was floundering around in college, his father, a career Navy man who retired with the rank of rear admiral, told him to shape up — and start acting.
• “They figured I did skits around the house. They figured I had a calling, or whatever,” Duvall once told an interviewer.

• Jesse Jackson, one of the nation’s most powerful voices for Black Americans, died at 84.
• The first wave of nearly a week of rain hit Southern California. Snow is expected for Mammoth and Tahoe.
• More than 3,200 Los Angeles Unified School District employees could receive layoff notices under a proposal being considered by the Board of Education.
• Nearly half of L.A. County’s pavement may be unnecessary, a new map finds.
• Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new memoir reveals how he navigated between a financially struggling mother and a father who befriended the wealthy Getty family.
• Michael Silverblatt, the “genius” host of KCRW literary show “Bookworm,” died at 73.

Today’s great photo is from L.A. Times staff photographer Myung J. Chun of a midcentury modern home in Palm Springs.

Jim Rainey, staff reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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