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Hi, everyone.
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This is Carmen and Christina and this is Estodia's Unknown,
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a podcast where we talk about Latin American history. Sometimes
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it's horrible and deals with Tybee topics like this is
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a corruption and genocide, but more than that, it's also
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about resistance, power and community. And we are recording again
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because Carmen did something hit the space bar. I pressed
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the space bar, Yeah, deleted her entire recording. Yeah, so
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this is not new information to her now, Yeah, but
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she's going to pretend.
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I'll do my best.
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Yeah.
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So today it was such a good start too, not
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just kidding. No, it was a mess anyway, So it's true.
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It was a mess.
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Okay, it was a mess.
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So maybe it's better that we're starting over because you
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could hear my children, so you might hear them, but
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you might hear them less right now. So yeah, today
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I will be telling you about the worst plane crash
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in California history. It happened in nineteen forty eight in
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Los Gatos. Thirty two people died, but twenty eight of
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those people went unnamed for decades, and we'll find out why.
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I am talking about the nineteen forty eight Los Gatos
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crash and this was all inspired by an Instagram posts
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that Kreminson me it was by Kultura movement. They shared
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pictures of a monument that will be placed September of
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this year, twenty twenty four. And it also coincides with
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the celebration of a book, They Call You Back, by
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Tim Hernandez, and this book is about those twenty eight
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unnamed victims of the crash. Tim Hernandez spent fourteen years
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of his life finding the names of all the Mexican
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victims of the plane crash, as well as finding their families,
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and so he released one book before this, called all They.
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Will Call You Oh.
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He wrote that in twenty seventeen, and that book is
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the journey of finding the first the families, the first
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seven that he found. Oh wow, the seven families. And
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is this is They Will Call You Back like a
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continuation or does it include like the earlier I think
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it kind of includes both, but also a bunch of
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new information. Oh okay, yeah, I would say more like
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a continuation. It's also such an emotional and spiritual book.
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I almost want to email them and be like, will
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you come and talk about your paranormal experiences? Because really
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he talks about in the book, and again, this is
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something everyone should read because it's just it's so good.
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He just has such a way of talking about his
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own life, what led him to even wanting to investigate
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this and why it's like a calling to him, but
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also tying it to police brutality which affects affected him
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and his family member of also generational trauma. He talks
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about the Walmart shooting of an Abasso in twenty nineteen.
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It's like all the things we I don't want to
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say we love talking about because they are like heavy,
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heavy things, but honestly, yeah, yeah, things that we feel
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called to share, passionate. Yes, And he talks about how
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he feels like they ask him in the book like
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his methodology of like how he found all this, and
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he was like, I think it makes no sense. How
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do I tell them about the methodology of ghosts?
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Because he Wow, it.
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Says they called me they I could feel them, I
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could see them.
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Wow.
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So that's why he needed that, Yeah, yeah, and yeah,
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so that's what the book is about. His journey for
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the other fourteen family members that he found of the
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victims of the plane crash, and the book, I mean
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it's a little pricey because I think it's one of
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those like special release books that are only like you
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want university press. So it was like thirty something dollars,
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oh wow, the ebook. But it sounds like it's worth it. It
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is completely worth it, and I think the paperback hardcover
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was a similar price. Anyway, I just wanted it immediately.
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I didn't want to wait for shipping. Yeah, so that's
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why I got it on the e book. But before
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I get into you know, the plane crash, more into
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the book, I want to talk about the Barracelo program,
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the twenty eight Mexicans that went unnamed. They were part
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of the Bracero program. So in case anyone doesn't know
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the Barcelo program, it was established by an executive order
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the Mexican Farm Labor Program. This was basically an agreement
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between the United States and Mexico which allowed Mexican men
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to work legally in the US under short term labor contracts,
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usually sent to farms or railroad work. So really it
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was like California, Texas, and then like the what do
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they call it, like the Panhandle, like Oklahoma.
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I don't know what they call it.
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So Oklahoma, the farm areas of Washington. So like Yakama, Oh,
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I keep saying Oklahoma because it's like the only other
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kings that I don't know farm labor.
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Let's move on.
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Yeah, fine, okay. So that's where the people on the
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Basseto program were sent to. And this was done because
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during World War Two there was labor shortages in the
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US due to World War Two. That's where all the
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men were and there was no one to work do
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the hard labor.
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In the US.
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And also there were mass deportations of the people that
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were doing farm labor in the US during the Great Depression,
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which also included the mass deportation of Mexican Americans. And
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that's one reason why they needed the Brasseto program right
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to replace the people. Yeah, manpower from both World War
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Two and those mass deportations that happened during the Great Depression.
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And the Bracelo program ended in nineteen sixty four. During
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its run, more than four million Brassettos were brought to
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work on farms and railroads, including our great grandfather Mivelo.
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Yes.
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I asked her mom if she knows where he was
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sent to in the United States, and she doesn't know,
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So yeah, hard to say, but oh, okay, I could
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have wanted at some point she still California. But maybe
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I imagine that then you.
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Probably imagined it.
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Oh wait, hold on, she just sent something else. Oh no,
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masma querloke los traian and Cameona la Pisca Aldon. So yeah,
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she just remembers that he went on a bus and
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that he was farming. Is that word farming? Pegging cotton? Oh,
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peggin cotton.
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Oh okay, so Mississippi.
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There was a lot of cotton farmers. But I don't
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know where the brasseros were sent Oklahoma, Texas.
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Maybe I definitely want to look further into it.
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Yeah.
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All we do know is that he told her mom
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when she said she was going to leave Mexico and
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head north to the United States, he told her why
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it's so ugly there.
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He was like, oh no, honey, it's so hideous.
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Yeah, that's all we know about his time as a brascilo.
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We'll find out more more to come on that.
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And there was an agreement between the United States and
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Mexico that there was a set of protocols that would
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protect brasseros from discrimination and poor wages in the US
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and the US of course didn't like at all.
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Maintain that promise per huge.
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Yeah, not a surprise because Brasseros were subjective to discrimination.
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They were charged extra for room and board, their pay
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was deducted, and they were exposed to deadly chemicals. That's
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how they were cleaned because they were considered dirty, which
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we did talk about that a little bit in the
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Bath Riots episode. Yeah, and maybe one of the eugenics ones.
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I'm not sure, probably like briefly.
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Yeah. So now onto the plane crash.
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On a cold winter morning, January twenty eighth, nineteen forty eight,
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a DC three planes departed from Oakland, California, heading to
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El Centro, California. The plane was carrying thirty two people
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and as it flew over Los Gato's Canyon, the plane crashed.
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The plane was only supposed to carry twenty six passengers,
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and probably because they were trying to pack it with
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Mexicans to deport, they overstuffed it and there was thirty
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two passengers on board. This included the pilot, co pilot,
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flight attendant, and the guard for the deportees, and it
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was so crowded that three passengers were seated.
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On top of the luggage. There was no seats for them.
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One hour and forty five minutes after the plane took off,
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it was seen over the hills of Coolinga flying at
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an altitude of five thousand feet. That's when around ten
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thirty am, workers at the Fresno County Industrial Road Camp,
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which also happened to be prisoners working at the railroads,
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they saw the plane. I don't know if the word
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the right word is irony or not, but there's something
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about prisoners being exploited for their labor witnessing this plane
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crash of brassetos who were also exploited for their labor
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and then deported when they, you know, are no longer needed. Yeah,
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just yeah, there's something there. Yeah, I'm glad you pointed
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it out. So as they're looking, they can see a
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trail of white smoke coming from the plane, and there's
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you know, they're all like, well, what's going on because
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that's not a normal. So they're staring, and then they
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see the port wing ripped off. There's a giant hole
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in the plane. They see as passengers fall out of
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this giant hole. Terrible, then the plane and it all
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happened so fast. The plane then caught fire and spiraled down,
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crashing into the Los Gatos Creek as a crash. It
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exploded into a bot of fire and they immediately they
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were following the plane and they ran to them to
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see if there was anyone they could rescue. But no,
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everyone down on impact because again big explosion.
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Yeah.
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Later on it was discovered that there was a fuel
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leak in the plane's port engine fuel pump. This started
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a small fire and then the slip stream fanned the flames.
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In more plane terms, I don't know, but.
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It made the fire bigger.
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Yeah, I understood that fire, big bad, No bueno No whenno.
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It grew into a large fire.
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Yeah.
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And so it turns out that it was also discovered
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that the plane was seven hours late to Oakland because
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it was like not passing or not receiving a safety inspection.
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If it ever got that safety inspection, or if it
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was like rushed, who knows. Maybe, So it's possible that
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it never was never inspected. Something it's never that was
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never made clear. What was shared or you know, was
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that it was seven hours late and it was delayed
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because of a safety inspection, because of some safety issue.
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And then it also turns out and this is in
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the book, there was three more planes that same day
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in Oakland waiting to be packed with more Mexicans to deport.
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And there's another brassero. He was supposed to be on
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that plane, and he remembers he was not allowed to
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board the plane because it was already packed, and he
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ended up going on a different plane, and so he
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watched the plane leave and because then he was still
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stuck there for more hours waiting for their plane to
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be filled and all that. But I mean, I'm assuming
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that that is why there were so many people. They
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just had so many people to deport, so many Mexicans
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to deport. And then another thing that I found was
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like an old newspaper that was like the copied into
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like an old website that's not up anymore, so like
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it was on the way back machine. So I found this,
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but it was like in a newspaper that came out
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from The Times nineteen forty something after the crash, so
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maybe weeks after, I don't know, around the inspection is
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when this thing came out. But basically they were like
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trying to blame the Mexicans that died on the plane
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crash by saying like, well, usually they're taken by bus
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and they chose to get on the plane instead to
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get to Mexico faster. So really like who can be
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blamed for this?
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Wow, that's ridvol.
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The summary of that and the seriously.
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So yeah, the initial reports, like newspaper reports of the
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flight crash, the plane crash, only named four victims by name,
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the pilot, co pilot, flight attendant, and the I n
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S Guard. And again I think I don't remember if
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I said it, but is the predecessor to ice so
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that the guards over watching all the other people being deported,
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So they were Frank Atkinson, Marion Ewing. I think that
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is how you say that in wiong Bobby Atkinson, wife
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of Frank Atkinson, she was the flight attendant, and then
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Frank Chapin, he's the guard. They were the only ones
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named anywhere. The other twenty eight victims, the Mexican Nationals,
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went unnamed for decades after the crash, and I mean,
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you know there's only one reason for that. They just
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they didn't matter to anyone other than there was local
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newspapers that did share some of them, but they were
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in Spanish, so this was still very local, still widely
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unknown and these twenty eight Mexicans that were being deported,