By Tim Z. Hernandez
When Woody Guthrie asked the question, “Who are these friends all scattered like dry leaves?” I wonder if he ever thought someone 65 years down the road would attempt to answer it? Or that the someone would be the grandson of migrant farmworkers from the same soil that the plane went down.
I wanted you all to be the first to hear…I have in fact located surviving family members for two of the “deportee” passengers aboard the plane that crashed in Los Gatos Canyon.
It only took the first conversation with Mr. Ramirez to realize that he and I have both been slogging our way through years of research (Mr. Ramirez more than I), intuitively working our way toward one another all this time. He is the grandson and nephew of Guadalupe Ramirez Lara and Ramon Paredes Gonzalez, both men who found themselves aboard that fateful flight on Jan. 28, 1948.
Since our first conversation, he and his family have been gracious and beyond cooperative in allowing me to interview them in person and on camera/audio for my book. To say they are excited about the effort to install the new headstone memorial on Sept. 2 is an understatement. They’ve been waiting for this moment since 1948 and, of course, they’ll be present.
I know many of you have been asking me if I have found any of the families, and while I’d like to save some of the mystery for my book, I will let you know that there will be an opportunity to hear the family’s story firsthand.
I recently took Mr. Ramirez, his wife and niece to the crash sight in Los Gatos Canyon to see the exact location where their relatives died. To add to the special occasion, Larry Haws, the grandson of O.D. “Happy” Gaston, who was among the first on the scene to help, was with us. And in a moment I thought might never happen, I found myself entering the canyon creek bed with the grandson of a first responder on my left and the grandson of two “nameless” victims on my right. Both men linked by a single incident that had begun to shape their lives before they were even born. Mr. Ramirez wore his father’s hat for the special occasion.
The public is invited to the Memorial Headstone installation at Holy Cross Cemetery on Sept. 2, Labor Day, at 10 a.m. Below is the list of names of the 28 passengers who were aboard the flight that day.
The Names
- Miguel Negrete Alvarez
- Tomas Aviña de Gracia
- Francisco Llamas Duran
- Santiago Garcia Elizondo
- Rosalio Padilla Estrada
- Tomas Padilla Marquez
- Bernabe Lopez Garcia
- Salvador Hernandez Sandoval
- Severo Medina Lara
- Elias Macias Trujillo
- Jose Macias Rodriguez
- Luis Medina Lopez
- Manuel Merino Calderon
- Luis Cuevas Miranda
- Martin Razo Navarro
- Ignacio Perez Navarro
- Roman Ochoa Ochoa
- Ramon Paredes Gonzalez
- Guadalupe Ramirez Lara
- Apolonio Ramirez Placencia
- Alberto Carlos Raygoza
- Guadalupe Rodriguez
- Maria Rodriguez Santana
- Juan Ruiz Valenzuela
- Wenceslao Flores Ruiz
- Jose Valdivia Sanchez
- Jesus Meza Santos
- Baldomero Marcas Torres
