Resurrecting The Unknown
Stories
Object:
Contents
"Resurrecting the Unknown" by Frank Ramierz
"Waiting and Hoping" by John Fitzgerald
* * * * * * *
Resurrecting the Unknown
by Frank Ramirez
Ezekiel 37:1-14
He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."
-- Ezekiel 37:3
Woody Guthrie (1921-1967) is best remembered for songs like "This Land Is Your Land," but he wrote literally thousands of lyrics during his prolific career as a songwriter, singer, and author. One of his most famous poems, "Plane Wreck At Los Gatos," was set to music by Martin Hoffman and has been recorded by many famous and familiar names such as Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Judy Collins, Johnny Cash, Sweet Honey in the Rock, the Byrds, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul, and Mary -- the list is endless.
It is almost always recorded under its more familiar name: "Deportee."
Some of the stanzas are about the hard life experienced by Mexican immigrants working in the fields and orchards of the United States. But as with many of Guthrie's songs, the inspiration was topical. It is about something that really happened: the crash of a flight chartered by the U.S. Immigration Services on January 28, 1948.
There were 28 Mexican citizens on board the flight that originated from Oakland. Some of them had been in the United States legally, as part of the Bracero, or Guest Worker program. Some were illegal immigrants. All were being returned to Mexico. There were also three crew members and an immigration officer on board.
But the plane never arrived at its destination. It exploded over the mountains in Fresno County, California. Horrified witnesses saw people and luggage flung wildly from the fireball in the sky.
There were no survivors. As Guthrie wrote:
The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, "They are just deportees."
The newspapers reported only the names of the four US citizens. The other 28 fatalities were referred to only as "deportees." That's what caught Guthrie's eye and inspired the song.
The 28 Mexican nationals were buried at the edge of a local Roman Catholic cemetery named Holy Cross. Nameless, they were interred with only a plaque reading "28 MEXICAN CITIZENS WHO DIED IN AN AIRPLANE ACCIDENT NEAR COALINGA, CALIFORNIA, ON JANUARY 28, 1948. R.I.P."
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees."
Tim Z. Hernandez, a writer who has published novels and poetry, was haunted by the song and the story. He'd grown up harvesting crops with his family. While researching a book he came across the story. He decided to find out what he could about the deportees.
His search led him to Carlos Rascon, who had become director of cemeteries for that local diocese of Fresno. Rascon, like Hernandez, was also uncomfortable with the fact that there were 28 bodies in a mass grave with no names. The cemetery register simply listed each of the bodies as "Mexican National," but he then found that the local church had a record of the names, though they were incomplete, often either missing middle initials or misspelled, making it unclear who exactly they referred to.
The search continued. The two worked together to find death certificates. They contacted family members (some of whom knew their loved ones had died in America, but did not know where or how). Most important, they researched stories about the deceased that made them real people. Ten thousand dollars was raised for a memorial plaque that would name all those buried in the cemetery. And on Labor Day 2013, it was unveiled in a moving ceremony.
Los Angeles Times reporter Diana Marcum wrote about the search by Hernandez, Rascon, and others. She also reported on the ceremony, part of which included the reading aloud of each name. Unexpectedly and unplanned the crowd in attendance repeated each name as it was read.
In today's scripture the prophet Ezekiel was shown a valley of bones belonging to the nameless victims of a horrible slaughter. At least in part these were symbolic of the eradication of memory and nations that was a part of ancient warfare and modern genocide. Ezekiel is asked by the Lord, "Can these bones live?" And the words of hope he gives to a dispersed, scattered nation, is that yes, they can.
The plaque, the remembrances, and the planned book by Tim Z. Hernandez about the "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos" are other ways in which those lost are raised and restored in remembrance.
This story is based on reporting by Diana Marcum, in the Los Angeles Times, specifically stories that appeared July 9, 2013 and September 2, 2013. For more information, go to: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deportees-guthrie-20130710-dto,0...
Here are the names of the 28 Mexican Nationals who died in the explosion of the airplane:
Miguel Negrete Álvarez. Tomás Aviña de Gracia. Francisco Llamas Durán. Santiago García Elizondo. Rosalio Padilla Estrada. Tomás Padilla Márquez. Bernabé López Garcia. Salvador Sandoval Hernández. Severo Medina Lára. Elías Trujillo Macias. José Rodriguez Macias. Luis López Medina. Manuel Calderón Merino. Luis Cuevas Miranda. Martin Razo Navarro. Ignacio Pérez Navarro. Román Ochoa Ochoa. Ramón Paredes Gonzalez. Guadalupe Ramírez Lára. Apolonio Ramírez Placencia. Alberto Carlos Raygoza. Guadalupe Hernández Rodríguez. Maria Santana Rodríguez. Juan Valenzuela Ruiz. Wenceslao Flores Ruiz. José Valdívia Sánchez. Jesús Meza Santos. Baldomero Marcas Torres.
For the lyrics to the song "Deportee" go to www.woodyguthrie.org.
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids, and Breakdown on Bethlehem Street.
Waiting and Hoping
by John Fitzgerald
Psalm 130
There is an old story about the man who prayed, "Lord, give me patience -- in a hurry." It does seem that we are in such a rush these days about everything and yet desire to remain calm without any stress. How to maintain balance between these two contrasting themes is a problem.
Part of the challenge is our expectation that all wishes will be granted at a moment's notice. We have available at our fingertips: instant money, instant food, instant entertainment, and instant medication. What need is there to wait when whims and fancies can be fulfilled without delay?
In America of a distant generation there were more deliberate actions taken. I have always thought it not an accident that babies born in our country's pioneer era were given names such as: Prudence, Patience, Temperance, and Serenity. Our forefathers deemed to give their children names for qualities that suggested an earned stability and substance. No passing cultural thrill would engulf the life of someone named Tranquility.
We are currently engaged in a form of self-discipline that slows the pace of life down and returns us to a sensibility witnessed by pioneers. Lent is a season of denying cultural pleasures while returning to gospel teachings. At this point in the Lenten journey, my hope is God has planted in your heart some form of yearning for a closer walk with Jesus. Easter is now just two weeks away. Easter can be a powerful spiritual event if we allow a turning away from this world and instead are seeking the reality of a risen Lord.
The scripture lesson for this morning is an aid in gaining a helpful new habit for Lent. Psalm 130 encourages us to adopt an attitude of waiting. Waiting is of course something we are unaccustomed to doing. Our culture teaches there is no value in waiting when any pleasantry can be delivered with one click at the computer. But notice what the psalmist tells us, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning."
This does not read like someone who expects instant gratification. This is the voice of a person who has prayed for a long time about a certain manner but their prayers have not yet been answered. It sounds like anyone of us when we pray about problems in the family, conflict at work, or physical difficulties. Most of these problems have a long history and our expectation is they will not be solved in an instant. So we pray, and continue to pray, and we hope.
The psalmist goes on to share that our hope will not be disappointed: "O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins." The unfailing love of a God who knows us by name will not let us go. Our personal areas of discomfort be it at home, work, or a health challenge shall receive redemption worked by the steadfast love of him who has saved us.
The hope we have does not mean everything shall be resolved according to our dreams and desires. There will always be items that perplex us and test the ability to persevere. Saint Paul prayed three times for a certain difficulty to be removed from his life. Instead, God gave him the grace to live with this problem (see 2 Corinthians 12).
Sometimes it is a matter of praying for strength to live day by day. The Holy Spirit does give us guidance to handle each situation and see our way through. Faith informs that the burdens of this world are not final. One day we shall join the saints and reside in God's kingdom where there are no tears and no sorrows.
There are also predicaments from which we gain release. With God all things are possible. New relationships, a different financial picture, and blessed relief from health problems come into our life. There are endless ways the Lord attends to our afflictions and solves them in a fashion we never could have imagined.
Waiting and hoping go hand in hand. We wait in patience with unsolved mysteries and dilemmas that greet us on a daily basis. We hope that Christ Jesus shall grant a day of triumph. Faith instructs that Jesus does care and our waiting is not in vain.
Easter is a celebration of the hope we have in Christ. Jesus will not leave us unattended in our suffering. There will come the day of salvation. Jesus has conquered death and defeated evil. Christ raised up in us is the promise for which we have waited.
John Fitzgerald lives in Leesburg, Ohio, with his wife Carolyn and has served as pastor at the Leesburg Friends Meeting for the past 27 years. Cornfield Cathedral (Fairway Press, 2013) is the second book authored by Pastor Fitzgerald. John has earned a Master's of Ministry Degree from the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.
*****************************************
StoryShare, April 6, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"Resurrecting the Unknown" by Frank Ramierz
"Waiting and Hoping" by John Fitzgerald
* * * * * * *
Resurrecting the Unknown
by Frank Ramirez
Ezekiel 37:1-14
He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."
-- Ezekiel 37:3
Woody Guthrie (1921-1967) is best remembered for songs like "This Land Is Your Land," but he wrote literally thousands of lyrics during his prolific career as a songwriter, singer, and author. One of his most famous poems, "Plane Wreck At Los Gatos," was set to music by Martin Hoffman and has been recorded by many famous and familiar names such as Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Judy Collins, Johnny Cash, Sweet Honey in the Rock, the Byrds, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul, and Mary -- the list is endless.
It is almost always recorded under its more familiar name: "Deportee."
Some of the stanzas are about the hard life experienced by Mexican immigrants working in the fields and orchards of the United States. But as with many of Guthrie's songs, the inspiration was topical. It is about something that really happened: the crash of a flight chartered by the U.S. Immigration Services on January 28, 1948.
There were 28 Mexican citizens on board the flight that originated from Oakland. Some of them had been in the United States legally, as part of the Bracero, or Guest Worker program. Some were illegal immigrants. All were being returned to Mexico. There were also three crew members and an immigration officer on board.
But the plane never arrived at its destination. It exploded over the mountains in Fresno County, California. Horrified witnesses saw people and luggage flung wildly from the fireball in the sky.
There were no survivors. As Guthrie wrote:
The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, "They are just deportees."
The newspapers reported only the names of the four US citizens. The other 28 fatalities were referred to only as "deportees." That's what caught Guthrie's eye and inspired the song.
The 28 Mexican nationals were buried at the edge of a local Roman Catholic cemetery named Holy Cross. Nameless, they were interred with only a plaque reading "28 MEXICAN CITIZENS WHO DIED IN AN AIRPLANE ACCIDENT NEAR COALINGA, CALIFORNIA, ON JANUARY 28, 1948. R.I.P."
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees."
Tim Z. Hernandez, a writer who has published novels and poetry, was haunted by the song and the story. He'd grown up harvesting crops with his family. While researching a book he came across the story. He decided to find out what he could about the deportees.
His search led him to Carlos Rascon, who had become director of cemeteries for that local diocese of Fresno. Rascon, like Hernandez, was also uncomfortable with the fact that there were 28 bodies in a mass grave with no names. The cemetery register simply listed each of the bodies as "Mexican National," but he then found that the local church had a record of the names, though they were incomplete, often either missing middle initials or misspelled, making it unclear who exactly they referred to.
The search continued. The two worked together to find death certificates. They contacted family members (some of whom knew their loved ones had died in America, but did not know where or how). Most important, they researched stories about the deceased that made them real people. Ten thousand dollars was raised for a memorial plaque that would name all those buried in the cemetery. And on Labor Day 2013, it was unveiled in a moving ceremony.
Los Angeles Times reporter Diana Marcum wrote about the search by Hernandez, Rascon, and others. She also reported on the ceremony, part of which included the reading aloud of each name. Unexpectedly and unplanned the crowd in attendance repeated each name as it was read.
In today's scripture the prophet Ezekiel was shown a valley of bones belonging to the nameless victims of a horrible slaughter. At least in part these were symbolic of the eradication of memory and nations that was a part of ancient warfare and modern genocide. Ezekiel is asked by the Lord, "Can these bones live?" And the words of hope he gives to a dispersed, scattered nation, is that yes, they can.
The plaque, the remembrances, and the planned book by Tim Z. Hernandez about the "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos" are other ways in which those lost are raised and restored in remembrance.
This story is based on reporting by Diana Marcum, in the Los Angeles Times, specifically stories that appeared July 9, 2013 and September 2, 2013. For more information, go to: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deportees-guthrie-20130710-dto,0...
Here are the names of the 28 Mexican Nationals who died in the explosion of the airplane:
Miguel Negrete Álvarez. Tomás Aviña de Gracia. Francisco Llamas Durán. Santiago García Elizondo. Rosalio Padilla Estrada. Tomás Padilla Márquez. Bernabé López Garcia. Salvador Sandoval Hernández. Severo Medina Lára. Elías Trujillo Macias. José Rodriguez Macias. Luis López Medina. Manuel Calderón Merino. Luis Cuevas Miranda. Martin Razo Navarro. Ignacio Pérez Navarro. Román Ochoa Ochoa. Ramón Paredes Gonzalez. Guadalupe Ramírez Lára. Apolonio Ramírez Placencia. Alberto Carlos Raygoza. Guadalupe Hernández Rodríguez. Maria Santana Rodríguez. Juan Valenzuela Ruiz. Wenceslao Flores Ruiz. José Valdívia Sánchez. Jesús Meza Santos. Baldomero Marcas Torres.
For the lyrics to the song "Deportee" go to www.woodyguthrie.org.
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids, and Breakdown on Bethlehem Street.
Waiting and Hoping
by John Fitzgerald
Psalm 130
There is an old story about the man who prayed, "Lord, give me patience -- in a hurry." It does seem that we are in such a rush these days about everything and yet desire to remain calm without any stress. How to maintain balance between these two contrasting themes is a problem.
Part of the challenge is our expectation that all wishes will be granted at a moment's notice. We have available at our fingertips: instant money, instant food, instant entertainment, and instant medication. What need is there to wait when whims and fancies can be fulfilled without delay?
In America of a distant generation there were more deliberate actions taken. I have always thought it not an accident that babies born in our country's pioneer era were given names such as: Prudence, Patience, Temperance, and Serenity. Our forefathers deemed to give their children names for qualities that suggested an earned stability and substance. No passing cultural thrill would engulf the life of someone named Tranquility.
We are currently engaged in a form of self-discipline that slows the pace of life down and returns us to a sensibility witnessed by pioneers. Lent is a season of denying cultural pleasures while returning to gospel teachings. At this point in the Lenten journey, my hope is God has planted in your heart some form of yearning for a closer walk with Jesus. Easter is now just two weeks away. Easter can be a powerful spiritual event if we allow a turning away from this world and instead are seeking the reality of a risen Lord.
The scripture lesson for this morning is an aid in gaining a helpful new habit for Lent. Psalm 130 encourages us to adopt an attitude of waiting. Waiting is of course something we are unaccustomed to doing. Our culture teaches there is no value in waiting when any pleasantry can be delivered with one click at the computer. But notice what the psalmist tells us, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning."
This does not read like someone who expects instant gratification. This is the voice of a person who has prayed for a long time about a certain manner but their prayers have not yet been answered. It sounds like anyone of us when we pray about problems in the family, conflict at work, or physical difficulties. Most of these problems have a long history and our expectation is they will not be solved in an instant. So we pray, and continue to pray, and we hope.
The psalmist goes on to share that our hope will not be disappointed: "O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins." The unfailing love of a God who knows us by name will not let us go. Our personal areas of discomfort be it at home, work, or a health challenge shall receive redemption worked by the steadfast love of him who has saved us.
The hope we have does not mean everything shall be resolved according to our dreams and desires. There will always be items that perplex us and test the ability to persevere. Saint Paul prayed three times for a certain difficulty to be removed from his life. Instead, God gave him the grace to live with this problem (see 2 Corinthians 12).
Sometimes it is a matter of praying for strength to live day by day. The Holy Spirit does give us guidance to handle each situation and see our way through. Faith informs that the burdens of this world are not final. One day we shall join the saints and reside in God's kingdom where there are no tears and no sorrows.
There are also predicaments from which we gain release. With God all things are possible. New relationships, a different financial picture, and blessed relief from health problems come into our life. There are endless ways the Lord attends to our afflictions and solves them in a fashion we never could have imagined.
Waiting and hoping go hand in hand. We wait in patience with unsolved mysteries and dilemmas that greet us on a daily basis. We hope that Christ Jesus shall grant a day of triumph. Faith instructs that Jesus does care and our waiting is not in vain.
Easter is a celebration of the hope we have in Christ. Jesus will not leave us unattended in our suffering. There will come the day of salvation. Jesus has conquered death and defeated evil. Christ raised up in us is the promise for which we have waited.
John Fitzgerald lives in Leesburg, Ohio, with his wife Carolyn and has served as pastor at the Leesburg Friends Meeting for the past 27 years. Cornfield Cathedral (Fairway Press, 2013) is the second book authored by Pastor Fitzgerald. John has earned a Master's of Ministry Degree from the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.
*****************************************
StoryShare, April 6, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
