Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States

This review is one that I wrote for my anthropology class, but I thought it could be helpful for potential readers as well: Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies by Seth Holmes is one of the few books that I have read that I consider so forceful, so meaningful, and so necessary to the readership of our time, that I can find few words to adequately describe both my experience reading this text and the content in its pages. I suppose I will begin with my myself and my experience of the text, and then move in to what the text contains any why I believe it is important. If I frame my review this way, I believe the importance of this book becomes clearer. To start, I myself am a white male born as an American citizen. Aside from those privileges, I grew up in a middle-class world in a resort town in Skagit county, on the western edge of the valley where much of the ethnographic fieldwork of Seth Holmes was located. While racial lines of oppression are clear between the reservation lands of the Native tribes, the newer, more transient forms of oppression (migrant farm work) slipped by me unnoticed. For someone with my experience driving by these wholesome looking homesteads, gazing with pleasant admiration at the beautiful romance of the misty, rolling fields, observing the migrant workers and their skillful labor of the earth, this book has put a necessary frame onto the experience that I have of Skagit Valley. Still to this day when I drive up north to visit family back home, I always take the "scenic route." That route involves passing right through the major farmland of the valley, so the sight of seasonal, migrant labor is and has always been unavoidable to me. My own aunts and uncles own apple and cherry orchards on the East side of the mountains, and I have grown up not just observing migrant workers, but even laboring alongside them at times. The stories of the white teenage workers in Holmes' book ring true to my own account of privilege. Beyond my work with and observation of, I have never investigated the issues of migration or racism that migrant laborers are subject to. Despite lacking larger investigation, I have never asked them their story or observed them (even in my admirations) beyond their labor. In fact, it has been my deep appreciation of production (part of my affluent, work hard and you will earn rewards ethic) that has disguised the need for their stories to be heard. I see them and how hard they work, so my normalized conclusion is that they will benefit, if not now but someday, for the sake of their efforts alone. Because of that, reading this book has struck a chord so low and rolling in my body, that I wept for hours when I first picked it up and turned its pages. I am a student studying theology and philosophy, and I have taken a great interest in community organizing, ethics, human rights, consumerism, globalization, and other topics related and unrelated to Holmes' work. It is my experience, being stuck in books dense in theory and thought, which are full of well-performed arguments, that my edge has dulled, not sharpened. I sometimes forget what I care about, where the fight takes place, or even who is really involved, when I am so busy reading about it all in theory. While I have spent time with local activists in the Puget Sound and also activists working on a larger scale both in Chicago and Atlanta, it wasn’t until reading this book that my experience became so earthy, so grounded, that I felt I had the clarity to really understand and articulate my position. Really, this book has cultivated a new sense of meaning for my budding mission. So, this is where my review transitions. After reading such a masterful book like this, I would recommend it to anyone. Holmes gracefully writes of both his experience and combined theories, concluding with clear, concrete, palatable actions for his readership to take. This book is neither so academic so that its scope is too small, nor so simple that it does a disservice to the reality of migrant labor in today’s complicated context. I believe that this book is relevant to a broad readership that could range from anyone committed to an investigative approach on the issues of migration and production in America today, down to anyone who purchases fruit in the market and wonders about more than its freshness and price. Seth Holmes begins his book with an acknowledgement, which to me is perhaps the highest honor that this book ultimately accomplishes. Sure, the book is also an inspiration to readers, a nod to academics, or a source of income perhaps with adequate publication. But to me, this book accomplishes acknowledging the unacknowledged. "Most importantly, I want to thank the Triqui people... and their trust," are Seth Holmes' words in the opening paragraph of his introduction. In the following chapters Holmes explains much of his unique approach, dancing on the line between his anthropological and medical disciplines. His approach is refreshing because it is so intentional and succinct. He guides his readers through narratively framed stories of his experience, openly engaging his own body's involvement in many encounters, interactions, and situations. His intuition and sensitivity of his surroundings, his honesty and awareness of his own perspective, creates a picture of his fieldwork that becomes the iconic example of ethnographic fieldwork, done the way it should be. I am satisfied knowing that many undergraduate anthropology classes in America have already picked up this text for its required reading. After he has a section on his fieldwork, often framed as a story-experience, he uses theory and research to interpret what it all means. Steadily and methodically through his book, he frames the experience of his Triqui friends in terms of their motivation for migrating, their internalized sense of identity as a people, and the rich description of their life and work before during and after their time on the farms they seasonally labor for. Holmes clearly and without hesitation identifies to his readership the role of the farm and the farm's place within a global, competitive market. He honestly portrays the difficulties of a family-owned farm, seeking to treat its workers with equity while simultaneously competing against the small fruit import market from China and California. Holmes continues by naming the racist metastructure that contributes to the social position of the Triqui people, all of who are indigenous Mexicans. He engages the linguistic difficulties faced by his companions, by naming the privilege of English and Spanish over their indigenous language and dialect. He discusses everything from literally their position on the farm and at home in Mexico geographically, to literally their position in height (working on the ground) as measures of marginalization and oppression. Holmes furthers his investigation by bringing in his medical background and discipline, displaying the embodied experience of the Triqui people in transit, as deeply damaging to their livelihood and health. By the grace of true genius, Holmes interprets and explains the massively complicated issues that arise in light of this work. He talks about the normalization, internalization, and naturalization of symbolic violence and how this relates to the structural violence that regulates the continuum of the whole picture. Holmes makes it clear to his readers, without lengthy explanation in theory, but thorough explanation by example, what violence looks like now, how it all continues to perpetuate itself, and what can be done to stop it. Holmes doesn't just talk about what "bad faith" is, or how ignorance is perpetuated, he shows his readers and then demonstrates clearly what can be done. Holmes takes the work of many esteemed scholars, (Bourdieu, Bourgois, Geertz, Scheper-Hughes, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Primo Levi, Sartre, Paul Farmer, Levinas, and many many others) subjects such as structural and systemic violence, transnationalism, globalization, consumerism, economism, and phenomenology (to name a just a few), all with the politics, ethics, and economics of the holistic picture - and distills this into a package that is not only palatable and digestable to a budding or even novice reader, but manages to give incredible dignity and personhood to his subjects: the Triqui people. Holmes is uncompromising in his mission, yet wholly satisfying to both the reader with an intense theoretical background and the average produce-eating consumer who is concerned with knowing the truth of the situation. Holmes communicates to his readers what must be done: by fighting the words and language which are damaging to the personhood of the marginalized (tearing down the symbolic violence), by simply asking the oppressed themselves what they need (giving them dignity as subjects and "pragmatic solidarity"), and through medical reform (reevaluating entities and their health to include political, social, historical, and economic context - not just their bio-medical/behavioral status), change is possible. While I really could not end this review on a note strong enough to make particular my love of this book, I know that the effect its pages have had and will have on my beliefs, actions, and relationships will ultimately communicate just how important Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies is; no ethnography has ever had such a forceful effect on my being and personhood before.

I used this for my online Anthropology class final project. It came recommended by my professor, a doctor of Caribbean Anthropology. I listened to it on Audible and had to get a copy to share with others.

I finished this book last week and I still don't know what to do with it. The perspective was important and the information has left me with a need to make some changes, but I am not sure what those changes are.I will first admit that this is a biased review. I am a great admirer of Seth and I was pretty sure that I was going to like the book before I read it, and it truly did not disappoint. The story of crossing the border and living for these seasons with these voiceless people is a dramatic story that needs to be heard across this country. There is a lot more to the fruit that we buy at the store than meets the eye. Seth has given us a part of that story.There are times when the book began to feel more like a phD thesis than a book, and places where my lack of anthropological framework were obvious. As well the book raises a lot more questions than it answers, which is my bar for an important book.My book group appreciated the book. Even though many of them were physicians they were able to listen to the careful critiques of our system without defensiveness. Yet once again, none of us felt like we had any answers to the challenges of the book.This book tells a story that no one is telling about a population that is largely invisible and silent in our culture. It needs to be told and retold again and again that we might hear it clearly. If you are willing to sit with challenging issues, than this book will be a good and meaty read for you. If you are uncomfortable being challenged about the injustice in our nation, click off the page and don't go anywhere near this book. Now what to do with the information I now have?

Loved the book and how the writer explains everything about the workers and is fighting for there voices to be heard

Before reading this book, I can't even think of what my opinion of immigration was. I think I believed in the fact that as long as you attained citizenship through legal measures, then you're welcome to this country. Then after reading In Search Of Respect, it evolved to not everyone is given the same opportunities to things including immigration. But then I read this book and it turned out towaaaay more than I imagined it to be. This book literally touches on every argument against Mexicans immigrating into this country and it did so effortlessly. There wasn't a time where I wasn't taking pictures about the interesting facts I found of this book and sharing it with friends who were against "illegal mexicans" and their nasty opinions of these people who do so much for us. Not only that, I really like the discussion of immigration and the relationship with health care. One of the most frustrating anecdotes to me was that of the man with a head ache and the other man with knee pains. When I read those stories, I really wanted to get up and change the world for the better. I questioned, why are people like this? But what was really the best part about this reading experience is that I questioned myself and how I act towards this group of people. My respect has grown and I am doing my best to change the way I address Mexicans and other Latinos.There hasn't been anyone who I haven't recommended this book to. I wish I could force them all to read it. Dr. Holmes, Thank you so much for sharing these narratives and reminding me once again the importance of anthropology.(I also like that the print is big enough!)

had to buy this book for class but it was a great read. I learned so much from it and helped me become more aware of the hardships of others

The book is so well written and interesting!

book came and is in great condition! I need it for school, and am happy that the book came in perfectly!

This book was truly enlightening! Holmes have transparently expressed the extreme conditions of the Triqui migrants illegally working in the US.

A very refreshing, humane, critical and amazing critic of the treatment and lives of migrant workers. A must read ethnography if you are interested in the topic of migration