Attendees stop to take a close look at the new memorial that new bears the names of all of the victims of a 1948 plane crash near Coalinga following a rededication of the monument at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Fresno, Calif., Monday, Sept. 2, 2013.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of a deportation flight that crashed in California’s Central Valley in 1948. The accident killed all on board, including 28 migrant workers, many of them part of the Bracero program and who were being returned to Mexico.
The crash was devastating enough, killing workers who’d entered the U.S. to provide for themselves and their families. But NPR said that while early reporting identified the white crew members and immigration officer, the deceased migrants were identified only as “deportees.” And while the bodies of the white victims were flown home to be laid to rest, migrants were buried in a mass grave.
In fact, until 2013, a marker at their gravesite in Fresno, California, identified them only as "28 Mexican citizens who died in an airplane accident." The Los Angeles Times reported in 2013 that the cemetery register listed each victim only as "Mexican National."
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