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| Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies |
This post is a review of anthropologist and physician Seth Holmes' Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies, published in 2013 by the University of California Press. This book is where Holmes recounts his experiences in his fieldwork in Mexico, and the hardships he and his friends had encountered while crossing the border, their experiences at the Border Patrol jail, and the trials and difficulties of migrant workers in the United States. Holmes' exposé sheds light on the suffering that Mexican migrants endure in order to make a living. The hard work of Mexican migrants in fields and farms is crucial to our food system and Holmes attempts to persuade his audience that these migrants deserve better, in terms of healthcare, living conditions, wages, and respect, among other things. Holmes connects the structural violence that is ingrained in the US migrant labor system to the social processes by which this gets normalized. This audience is not exclusive to anthropologists and students, those in agriculture, nor doctors and medical students. This book is for anyone and everyone who enjoys fresh fruits and vegetables and is interested in the lives and welfare of those who helped provide them such produce. As Holmes says, "It is my hope that those who read these pages will be moved in mutual humanity, such that representations of and policies toward migrant laborers become more humane, just, and responsive to migrant laborers as people themselves" (Holmes 29). |
| Seth Holmes |
I honestly quite loved this book. I just kept reading chapter after chapter and could not set it down. Holmes does a great job of telling the stories of the migrant workers. His recounts of the incidents were so detailed. The book's theme is the suffering of Mexican migrant workers in the US labor force and his thesis is the unplanned, interrelated hierarchies of ethnicity, labor, and suffering in U.S. agriculture, particularly the ethnicity-citizenship hierarchy produces correlated suffering and illness "among undocumented, indigenous Mexican pickers" (Holmes 31). I really liked Holmes' approach on this matter. His research quality is extraordinary. I mean, he really lived and worked with the migrant workers. His time spent during his fieldwork gave him first-hand experience of the hardships that migrant workers endure.
Holmes does an exceptional job at his fieldwork and writing this book. The reader can get a sense that Holmes truly does want to make a change, and is urging his audience to do the same. I enjoyed reading his stories, yet it also saddened me to learn of the suffering that indigenous migrant workers endure just to survive. What angers me as well are the structural forces that forced them to migrate in the first place. Holmes states, "Globally, and perhaps most important, the formation of broad coalitions of people is necessary in order to envision an work for a more equitable international economy such that people would not be forced to leave their homes to migrate in the first place" (Holmes 197-198). This book definitely changed my perspective on migrant workers. Honestly, I was truly ignorant and perhaps apathetic about the suffering that migrant workers go through. This book really opened my eyes, and I highly recommend it to everyone. Buy the book here on Amazon.
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