Joan Baez appears in state capitol to remember Los Gatos Canyon plane crash victims

Folk singer Joan Baez joined California legislators at the capitol on Monday to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1948 Los Gatos Canyon plane crash that killed 32 people, including 28 Mexican nationals whose names went unreported.

Baez recorded a version of Woody Guthrie’s song “Deportee,” inspired by the incident, which was California’s deadliest plane crash at the time.

The Mexican passengers, who were being flown from Oakland to El Centro for deportation, died along with three crew members and an immigration official. The Mexicans were buried in a mass grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in west central Fresno with no headstone or marking.

Tim Z. Hernández, a Dinuba native, was curious about Guthrie’s song while doing research for an earlier book. It led to a five-year search for the names of the Mexican victims and later their families. Last year, he released the book “All They Will Call You” in which some of the victims’ stories are told.

This story was originally published January 29, 2018 at 6:40 PM with the headline "Joan Baez appears in state capitol to remember Los Gatos Canyon plane crash victims."