Fresh Fruit Broken Bodies Summary

Seth Holmes ethnography Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies is a startling window into the start reality of the lives of Migrant workers and their role in the agricultural/food industry in this country. It illustrates the hardships that Migrant workers face trying to earn a living. It shows the obstacles and oppression they face, all while trying to survive in a system that is designed explicitly to exploit them. Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies is a study on the ethics and politics of the food industry. Holmes is a physician-anthropologist, so his work really highlights all aspects, including the medical nature, of the problems poor migrant workers face on a day-to-day basis. Holmes completely immerses himself in the culture of the Triqui workers, including

attempting to cross the border with a group of the migrants. It works in favor of the study, as it provides a sense of genuine immersion into their culture.

In Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies, Holmes follows Triqui migrants, who migrate around the coast of the US and Mexico working on fruit farms in order to survive and make a living. The Triqui are an indigenous people of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Some of their customs include the practice of Bride Price (Holmes, The Importance of Migrant Farmworkers). In one of our readings we also learned similar types of marriages are happening among Indian groups as they will go trading supplies and other resources they will marry into with whom they do business with, extending their kin (McCurdy).
In their country their economic income came mainly from the cultivation of crops like corn, beans, chili peppers, and lima beans. The most important crops from the region are bananas and coffee beans. They are thought to have totaled slightly under 26,000 people, and only inhabit a small section of Oaxaca. As of January 1, 2003 the North American Free Trade Agreement began remove regualization on all agricultural change (Holmes), which would obviously mean people can no longer stay there if there’s going to be no jobs now because that was their main source of income before. Leading them to endure in long travels that can often be extremely risky and expensive in order to provide.

One of the main concepts Holmes provides in the study, is the price these Triqui Migrant workers pay to work for the food and farming labor industry.

I think its extremely clear that Holmes understands how different the risks he takes by following the Triqui migrant workers and their families, versus the risks the migrant workers take in their everyday life and their pursuit of survival. He really emphasizes that he believes that the Migrant workers do not “choose” to cross the border to make a living, but that the structural and cultural attributes force them to a point in order to survive and provide for their families as best as then can they have to. For these migrants to cross the border it can cost around $1500 to $2500 for everything which is a ton of money especially when you typically only make around $3000 to $5000 a year (Holmes, The Importance of Migrant Farmworkers). These people will risk their lives crossing the border in order to provide. In their country there isn’t a need for workers like there is in the

US.

Throughout the course we read many essays that dealt with many different topics.

Kinship was a big thing we discussed in class this semester, kinship is family. Without kinship many of these people would have nothing to live for, they take care of there kin. We have our own kinships and most of us would do just about anything for our kin. Just like in other societies kin means just about everything and many of these migrant workers were working for their kin. Language is another major issue that was addressed in the book that we also discussed in class. Many immigrants coming in might know little to no English at all and because of that can stem great inequality, if they can’t speak the language how can they move up in the job or communicate properly if an issue was to occur. At the farm they have programs for people to learn English but with constantly working to support their families where is the time for learning (Holmes, Supervisor )?

In the beginning of chapter two Holmes says something that I found to be extremely powerful, “It was not only my eyes and ears that collected valuable field observations but also the back of my neck as cold rain seeped down the inside of my farm-issued rain gear… racing against the clock to keep my picking job… (Holmes, Embodied Anthropology )” Holmes was only working under these conditions for a fraction of time while most of these migrants spend day after day, year after year doing the same thing only being able to travel home maybe every

once in a while.

The book really helps to paint a very vivid picture of inequality. At one point in the book Holmes goes to Burger King with Samuel and his family and they would typically do on paydays. While they were there they order the typically meal, a whopper and fries but Holmes noticed that they got the wrong fry size with their order and when he suggested going back up to tell them that their order was wrong they replied like they would probably get in trouble for asking and would just be given the same fries. Well Holmes went up and got the order fixed and it tells how Samuel was amazed that they fixed the order. “My body was treated as though it deserved power, whereas theirs have been treated repeatedly as underlings, undeserving respect. (Holmes, Embodied Anthropology )” One essay that we read that can very much relate to this book is Unpacking White Privilege. While this book didn’t exactly talk about white privilege so to say we see ways in which Holmes reacts and how if he was mostly Hispanic like the people he was observing he would’ve probably had a completely different experience or even if he was a woman he would have not experienced the same treatment whether it better or worse it would not be the same as to if he was a Hispanic male. In the beginning of the book Holmes crosses the border with a group of men even knowing the consequence, he ended up getting caught and honestly if he would’ve been any other color that white he probably would have had way more serious consequences. We take our privileges for granted on a regular basis, most times we don’t even see certain things as a privilege because we’ve never faced any problems doing them. In chapter six he goes on to talk about how white residents living in the area referred to anyone of Latin American descent to be a “Mexican” (Holmes, Citizenship, Culture, and Difference). In this book he also discussed what he called “Driving while brown” with any problems that could happen to the car or if they are to draw to much attention to themselves they can get pulled over (Holmes, Embodied Anthropology). Holmes also goes on to say “… everyone around us recognized my body as belonging in a significantly different place in our society’s power structure than did the bodies of my Triqui friend. (Holmes, Embodies Anthropolgy )”

The book was so compelling just by itself, never before have I even thought about where the fruit in grocery stores come from or who was working behind the scenes to make sure we get it. Every summer there’s a strawberry patch close to my house and my family always goes and picks strawberries as a fun little activity, its so crazy to think that people do that as a living and all the not so great work conditions these workers have to work in on a regular basis. I would have never even thought about the pain picking berries all day would cause or the hardships these people go through just to find work. Inequality is all around us and its up to us to acknowledge it and know that it is an ever-growing problem here in the US. Definitely the most important thing I took away from reading this book was that we are all working towards a common goal and not any one person should be treated any less than another.