52 pages • 1 hour read
Tim Z. HernandezA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
On September 21, 2013, folk singer Pete Seeger’s grandson Kitama drives Hernandez to Beacon, New York, from the city. Hernandez had been told that, although Woody Guthrie wrote the words to the song “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee),” he had never sung it. Instead, Pete Seeger was the one who sang and performed the song. This was how Hernandez learned of the plane crash.
At Pete Seeger’s table, Seeger talks about how the song became part of his repertoire. Woody Guthrie wrote the words and Marty Hoffman wrote the tune. As told to the author by friend of Mary, Dick Barker, in April 1958, Seeger came to Denver and one of their friends picked Seeger up and drove them all to Fort Collins for a concert. Afterward, Marty plays his tune for Pete Seeger and later, when Seeger recorded it, Seeger made sure Marty got credit.
Hernandez plays the only known recording of Marty singing “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)” for Pete Seeger. He seems moved and remembers that something “happened” to Marty.
Lucy Moore, former Apache County coroner, recounts how she came to the scene of Marty’s suicide.
One night, Marty is living in a simple, spare house in Rough Rock.
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