Key: C major
Verse 1
B
E
B
I got my discharge
from Fort Irwin
E
B
Took a place on the San Diego county line
E
B
Felt funny bein' a civilian again
F#
It'd been some time
B
My wife had died a year ago
E
I was still tryin' to find
B
my way back whole
E
Went to work for the INS on
B
the line
E
F#
B
With the California Border Patrol
Verse 2
B
Bobby Ramirez was a ten-
E
year veteran
We became friends
B
E
B
His family was from Guanajuato
F#
So the job it was different for him
B
He said' "They risk death in the
deserts and mountains"
E
Pay all they got to the smugglers rings,
B
E
We send 'em home and they
B
come right back again
F#
Carl, hunger is a powerful thing."
B
Verse 3
E
Well I was good at doin'
B
what I was told
E
B
Kept my uniform pressed and clean
E
B
At night I chased their shadows
F#
Through the arroyos and ravines
Verse 4
B
Drug runners,
farmers with their families,
E
Young women with little
B
children by their sides
E
Come night we'd wait
B
out in the canyons
F#
D#m
And try to keep 'em from
F#
B
crossin' the line
Verse 5
B
Well the first time that I saw her
E
B
She was in the holdin' pen
E
B
Our eyes met and she looked away
F#
Then she looked back again
B
Her hair was black as coal
E
Her eyes reminded me
B
of what I'd lost
E
B
She had a young child cryin' in her arms
And I asked, "Senora,
F#
B
is there anything I can do"
Verse 6
E
B
There's a bar in Tijuana
E
Where me and Bobby
drink alongside
B
The same people we'd
F#
sent back the day before
B
E
G#m
We met there she said
E
her name was Louisa
B
She was from sonora and had just
F#
come north
G#m
E
We danced and I held her in my arms
B
E
B
And I knew what I would do
E
She said she had some family
B
in Madera county
If she, her child and her young
F#
er brother could just get through
B
Verse 7
At night they come across
the levy
E
B
In the searchlights dusty glow
E
B
We'd rush 'em in our Broncos
And force 'em back down
F#
into the river below
B
She climbed into my truck
E
B
She leaned towards me and we kissed
E
As we drove her brothers
B
shirt slipped open
F#
And I saw the tape across his chest
B
Verse 8
G#m
E
We were just about on the highway
When Bobby's jeep come
B
F#
B
up in the dust on my right
G#m
I pulled over and let my
E
engine run
B
F#
G#m
And stepped out into his lights
I felt myself movin'
E
B
F#
Felt my gun restin'
B
'neath my hand
E
B
We stood there starin' at each other
F#
B
As off through the arroyo she ran
Verse 9
B
Bobby Ramirez he never said nothin'
E
B
Six months later I left the line
E
B
I drifted to the central valley
F#
And took what work I could find
B
At night I searched the local
E
bars
B
And the migrant towns
E
Lookin' for my Louisa
B
F#
B
With the black hair fallin'
Outro 1
down
B
E
B
E
B
B
F#
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TunerE A D G B E
ChordsB E F# D#m G#m
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