W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: 53
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 09:16 AM

I don't know

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 12:21 PM

I've always figured that I'd rather live in a country that people are fighting to get into rather than out of.

BJ

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 07:02 PM

Woody Guthrie would have been concerned about the plight of the "boat people". He was by no means a "doctrinaire" person. His idea of politics was subjective and personal and he always identified with those who were less well-off. He actually was "Christian" in his belief system to the extent that he wrote "Jesus Christ" as he saw him, a working-class hero. He identified with segregated black soldiers in the army and when he was in the merchant marines, and Mexican farm workers or Chicano folks in East L.A. He was definitely a leftist-radical but not a Marxist theorist. The meaning of the song is personal. He believed that hard luck folks deserve compassion and a decent shake in life. I think that it was this conviction that motivated his songwriting. He didn't have much tolerance for wealthy indifference. He walked away from show business because it wasn't about money or prestige for him. I believe that he had no particular political axe to grind. He wasn't a soap box orator. These songs were written as a personal statement and not to foster any political concepts other than his own personal convictions.

I have to say this because there is a suggestion by some on the Republican side to think of Woody as a propagandist. I think this is wrong. Woody believed what he wrote.

The meaning is clear. Immigrant Mexican Farm Workers are human beings and should be treated with respect and dignity, something that is being forgotten today as the construction of border walls against them are being contemplated by some who want to scapegoat them. This makes his song more relevant and powerful now.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 07:18 PM

Amen, brother.

I know this is thread drift, so please feel free to move to a new thread, but I'm wondering if anyone here knows anything about music around the current immigrant situation in our country currently, from the Latino (especially Mexican) point of view?

Dani

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: Mudjack
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 04:17 PM

I see the thread dates back to 2000, Thanks for giving it new life. I had forgotten the details and importance of the song.
It rings truth and honesty about the migrants plight of both today and yesteryears.
Mudjack

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 03:03 PM

It's nice to see this wonderful old thread refreshed . . .

. . . but not so nice that it took a "spam" viagra ad to do it!

I've been away from Mudcat for a while ~ never saw this kind of crap on the threads before; is this becomeing a common phenomenon?

---

We've had the problem for quite some time, PoppaGator, maybe a year or so. I think somebody developed a way to automatically Spam our particular type of Internet forum. I think I'm going to have to close this thread. Please post on one of the other threads crosslinked above.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: W. Guthrie's Deportees: meaning?
From: Ref
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 05:24 PM

Abe L., thanks for the new verse. that one's going in my song book!