This is the difference between today's Mexicans and yesterday's Okies, between the Joads and the Vegas (although Tom Joad was also on the run from the law).

ECONOMIST: They came to America illegally, for the best of reasons

The Okies worked on farms in the Central Valley, then became arch-conservative, red-state farmers themselves in a state that has otherwise gone Democratic blue in recent years.

ECONOMIST: California is now divided more east-west than north-south

For Okies, this is what home is about.

CNN: We love and fear the Oklahoma skies

In many ways, things hadn't changed much in the fifty years since that description had been written, and with the Okies and Arkies now faring so terribly, social critics were pointing their fingers at California's agricultural elite.

NPR: 'Grapes Of Wrath' And The Politics of Book Burning

The Okies were poor, disdained and hungry.

ECONOMIST: They came to America illegally, for the best of reasons