52 pages • 1 hour read
Tim Z. HernandezAll They Will Call You
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Tim Z. Hernandez (The Author)
Tim Z. Hernandez is a Latino writer and poet from Dinuba, California, in the Central Valley. His award-winning poetry collection Skin Tax (2004) addresses themes of love, desire, violence, and machismo based on the author’s personal experiences in the California Central Valley. Hernandez is also the author of Mañana Means Heaven (2013), a novel of historical fiction about the life of Bea Franco, the Latina woman who inspired the character Terry in Jack Kerouac’s canonical beat novel On the Road (1957). In All They Will Call You: The Telling of the Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon, Hernandez uses his skills in poetry and historical fiction to tell the stories of the people who died in the 1948 plane crash in Los Gatos Canyon. The text addresses familiar themes for Hernandez: the life of Latino agricultural workers in the Central Valley of California, love and desire, and the importance of storytelling as a form of memorial.
Hernandez learned about the plane crash that resulted in the death of 28 agricultural workers from Pete Seeger’s version of the song “Plane Crash at Los Gatos (Deportee),” written by Woody Guthrie with music by Martin Hoffman. After hearing it, Hernandez felt compelled to learn about the stories of the people behind the song, both those who wrote it and those who the song is about. He describes the song as “the beacon” (193). Hernandez expresses uncertainty about the source of his compulsion, but his writing suggests some possibilities. He seeks to memorialize those who would otherwise be forgotten, people who feel familiar to him as those who worked incredibly hard to support their families in the Central Valley where he grew up. As a writer, he understands the importance of storytelling as a way to create empathy with those who might otherwise seem foreign or easily overlooked.
Hernandez provides glimpses of his work as a researcher and interviewer throughout All They Will Call You: The Telling of the Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon. These moments reveal Hernandez’s insecurity and doubts about the success of the project, as well as Hernandez’s moments of triumph, such as when he finds Guadalupe and Ramón’s surviving family members. Hernandez mentions multiple times his shame about the poor quality of his Spanish. He tells Guadalupe and Ramón’s family that he is “the third generation born in the United States” as an explanation for his poor Spanish language skills (214). His language skills make contacting families who speak only Spanish difficult.
Hernandez also feels disappointed that he has not been able to find and contact the families of all those who died. On the day that the headstone is erected, instead of feeling triumphant or satisfied, Hernandez feels “nervous, almost fearful” (211-12). He regrets that he has “found the families of only four of the reported thirty-two passengers” (212). The moment inspires Hernandez to continue looking for the families of the other passengers so he can tell their stories.
Despite his regrets and insecurities, Hernandez’s writing and field notes show him to be a determined, hard-working researcher and an empathetic interviewer. After the publication of All They Will Call You: The Telling of the Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon, Hernandez continued his research into the 1948 plane crash, the results of which are included in the sequel They Call You Back (2024).
Luis Miranda Cuevas
Luis Miranda Cuevas was an agricultural worker from Jocotepec, Jalisco, Mexico, a small town in central Mexico. He was one of the “deportees” who died in the plane crash in 1948. Hernandez interviews Luis’s former girlfriend, Casimira Navarro López, and his niece, Yréne Miranda Navarro, to learn more about Luis and his life. As told by these “story keepers,” what Hernandez calls those who remember those who died, Luis was a kind, funny, hardworking young man. Bucking the conventions of machismo, or male dominance, he was not afraid to be silly and vulnerable, as shown by the story of when he dressed as a woman in an attempt to spend more time with Casimira, the love of his life. Although he spent a lot of time away from Jocotepec working as an agricultural laborer in California, he never stopped thinking about his girlfriend, Casimira, whose photo he carried with him. His care for her is shown when he calls her from immigration detention. Despite the gravity of his situation, he reiterates his love for her and promises that he will “bring [her] a mariachi” (126), an allusion to the promise he made to have a mariachi band at their wedding.
Luis’s dreams of marriage and providing his beloved with an extravagant wedding—complete with a mariachi band—suggest that he was a romantic. It was these dreams that encouraged Luis, like so many others in his circumstances, to keep coming back to the US in the hopes of earning enough money to give those he loves a good life.
Guadalupe Ramírez Lara and Ramón Paredes González
Guadalupe Ramírez Lara and Ramón Paredes González were agricultural workers from Charco de Pantoja, Guanajuato, a small farming community in central Mexico, who died in the 1948 Los Gatos plane crash. The primary interview that gives insights into their lives comes from Jaime and Guillermo Ramírez, their grandson and nephew, respectively. The Ramírez brothers own and operate a Mexican buffet in Fresno. They are excited and proud to share stories about their family members.
Charco de Pantoja is located in what the locals call El País de las Siete Luminarias, the land of seven lights. It is an ejido, a communal state-supported farm in Mexico created after the Mexican Revolution and the partitioning of the haciendas, large, privately owned farms similar to plantations. As portrayed in the interviews, Guadalupe and Ramón worked hard to support and maintain the ejido. One of the biggest challenges for the Charco community is the lack of water. When other nearby ejidos begin siphoning off irrigation water, the men are forced to go to the US to make money as agricultural workers so the village can dig a deep well for their crops.
Guadalupe was a “tall, stoic caballero” (19), or cowboy, who was known as a brave fighter who defended his village. His wife’s name is Micaela. He had a loyal dog named Lobo who remained devoted to his master up until his death. Guadalupe was a smart and skilled farmer. Despite his gruff exterior, he was a caring man who took the time to teach others his techniques, as when he showed José González how best to plow straight furrows.
Ramón was a devoted family man and hardworking farmer whose wife is named Elisa. He was also a gambler who enjoyed taking risks more than Guadalupe. He was the one who first encouraged Guadalupe to go the US with him, and it was likely his idea to agree to the flight back to Mexico. Due to his skills with money, he was designated the treasurer for the ejido. While in the US, he faced many difficulties, including illness, exhaustion, and run-ins with immigration services. Despite this, he took time to write home to his wife about his love and concern for her. He had an awareness, however, about the long odds against himself and his family, writing, “God doesn’t allow us to stop being poor. This will be our fortune” (72).
José Sánchez Valdivia
José Sánchez Valdivia was an agricultural worker from La Estancia, Nochistlán, Zacatecas, a rancho in central Mexico. His best friend was José Sánchez González. They spent so much time together they were known as González y [and] Valdivia. Valdivia’s father, Mateo, is a hard-working and down-to-earth farmer. Valdivia, by contrast, was a dreamer. Rather than focusing on his work, Valdivia thought about baseball. He was so passionate about the sport that he worked to create the baseball club in the farm camp where he lived in Stockton. His father disapproved of his baseball dreams, calling them, “[p]ura ilusiones,” pure illusions. As portrayed by Hernandez, Valdivia was most disappointed that getting detained by immigration authorities meant that he would miss the start of the baseball season.
In a sign of his thoughtfulness, Valdivia volunteered to go on the airplane instead of his cousin, Amado, because Adamo was afraid of flying. In providing these details, along with the details about Valdivia’s passion for baseball, Hernandez humanizes Valdivia.
Frankie and Bobbie Atkinson
Frankie and Bobbie Atkinson were an American couple from Rochester, New York, who lived in Long Beach, California. Hernandez tells their stories with the help of information from Frankie’s sisters, Helen and Mary Lou, as well as their niece, Connie Mart. Frankie enlisted in the US military after World War II to defend his country and follow his dreams of becoming a pilot. Frankie worked as a cargo pilot running supplies across the treacherous Himalaya mountains until the end of the war. Toward the end of his service, Bobbie, an old school friend of Frankie’s, wrote him a postcard and they started corresponding by mail. After Frankie’s active service was over, he got a job working for Airline Transport Carriers, Inc. in Long Beach as a pilot. Bobbie joined him there and they were married soon afterward. Frankie was the pilot of the plane when it crashed. Bobbie was filling in as stewardess on the flight after the scheduled stewardess called out.
Bobbie Atkinson had a difficult childhood. Her mother, Elizabeth Kesselring, was an immigrant from Poland who arrived in the US at 11 years old. Elizabeth’s father died soon after and Elizabeth was forced to fend for herself. Elizabeth’s resulting severity and isolation created challenges for her only daughter, Bobbie. By all accounts, however, Bobbie and Frankie had a close and loving relationship.
Unlike the Latino passengers on the plane, Frankie and Bobbie’s families were notified of their deaths, given what was left of their remains, and were able to arrange personal funerals for their loved ones. The Latino passengers were buried in an unmarked mass grave, and to this day many of their families have never been contacted.
