Remembering 28 bracero workers killed 70 years ago brings honor – and relevance – today.

Seventy years ago Jan. 28, a place called Los Gatos Canyon near Coalinga was the site of the worst plane crash in California history. A twin engine DC-3 chartered by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service crashed, killing all 32 occupants. Four of the dead were the pilot, co-pilot, flight attendant and an INS agent. The other 28 victims were farm workers being deported to Mexico after the terms of their bracero contracts had expired.

The 28 were buried in a mass grave at Fresno’s Holy Cross Cemetery and identified only as “Mexican nationals.”

Fresno poet and author Tim Z. Hernandez wrote a compelling book, All They Will Call You. The title borrows from a song by Woody Guthrie called “Deportee, Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon,” inspired by a New York Times article on the crash that referred to the farm workers only as “deportees.”

The song was popularized by the likes of Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, and it inspired Hernandez to find the names of the dead and share some of their stories. “Goodbye to my Juan / Goodbye Rosalita / Adios mis amigos Jesus y Maria,” Guthrie wrote. “You won’t have a name / As you ride that big airplane / And all they will call you will be deportee.”

Hernandez spent more than five years visiting small pueblos in Mexico where he was able to find some family members who had lost loved ones in the crash. It is believed many family members never received official notification of the loss of their loved ones. The only memorial is the gravesite in Fresno that now bears their names.

On Jan. 29, we honored the memories of all 32 crash victims on the floor of the California State Senate, where we were joined by singer, activist and pacifist Joan Baez. The California Latino Legislative Caucus sponsored this long-awaited recognition, which included providing each member of the Legislature with a copy of All They Will Call You. The names of all the victims were read on the Senate floor.

Without Guthrie’s reaction to news stories that referred to the dead workers as just “deportees,” the names of those bracero workers – some of whom were detained in Watsonville and San Juan Bautista – might never have been known. Hernandez has not only resurrected the stories of these immigrant workers, but he also provided relatives of the dead with documentation of their lost loved ones’ fates and a lasting tribute.

“Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards? / Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?” Guthrie sang. “To fall like dried leaves here to rot on the topsoil / To be called by no name except deportee.”

While we mark the anniversary of the 1948 plane wreck, Guthrie’s lyrics are still relevant today. By honoring those who toil in our fields, we begin to recognize the human threads that connect us all and the often invisible suffering that produces our bountiful harvests.

STATE SEN. BILL MONNING serves as the Senate majority leader and represents District 17, which includes parts of Monterey and Santa Clara counties and all of Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo counties.