C
I got my discharge from Fort Irwin
F                        C
took a place on the San Diego county line
F                C
felt funny bein' a civilian again
G
it'd been some time
C
my wife had died a year ago
F                     C
I was still tryin' to find my way back whole
F            C
I went to work for the INS on the line
G                     C
with the California Border Patrol

F
Bobby Ramirez was a ten year veteran
C
and we became friends
F                      C
his family was from Guanajuato
G
so the job it was different for him
C
he said' "They risk death in the deserts and mountains"
F                       C
pay all they got to the smugglers rings,
F                        C
we send 'em home and they come right back again
G                   C
Carl, hunger is a powerful thing."

F                           C
Well I was good at doin' what I was told
F                    C
kept my uniform pressed and clean
F                    C
at night I chased their shadows
G
through the arroyos and ravines

C
Drug runners, farmers with their families,
F                            C
young women with little children by their sides
F                  C
come night we'd wait out in the canyons
G                        C
and try to keep 'em from crossin' the line

Well the first time that I saw her
F                C
she was in the holdin' pen
F                     C
Our eyes met and she looked away
G
then she looked back again
C
her hair was black as coal
F                      C
her eyes reminded me of what I'd lost
F
she had a young child cryin' in her arms
C               G                          C
and I asked, "Senora, is there anything I can do"

Am7
There's a bar in Tijuana
F
where me and Bobby drink alongside
C              G                 C
the same people we'd sent back the day before
Am7                          F
we met there she said her name was Louisa
C                       G
she was from Sonora and had just come north
Am7                        F
we danced and I held her in my arms
G       C
and I knew what I would do

F                  C
She said she had some family in Madera county
G                          C
if she, her child and her younger brother could just get through


At night they come across the levy
F                    C
in the searchlights dusty glow
F               C
we'd rush 'em in our Broncos
G
and force 'em back down into the river below
C
she climbed into my truck
F                        C
she leaned towards me and we kissed
F                                C
as we drove her brothers shirt slipped open
G                       C
and I saw the tape across his chest

Am7                F
We were just about on the highway
C                   G           C
when Bobby's jeep come up in the dust on my right
Am7                   F
I pulled over and let my engine run
C             G
and stepped out into his lights
Am7
I felt myself movin'
F                          G     C
felt my gun restin' 'neath my hand
F               C
we stood there starin' at each other
G                     C
as off through the arroyo she ran

Bobby Ramirez he never said nothin'
F                         C
6 months later I left the line
F                     C
I drifted to the central valley
G
and took what work I could find
C
at night I searched the local bars
F
and the migrant towns
C
Lookin' for my Louisa
G          C
with the black hair fallin' down