Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies
eBook - PDF

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies

  1. 264 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies

About this book

An intimate examination of the everyday lives and suffering of Mexican migrants and indigenous people in our contemporary food system. An anthropologist and MD in the mold of Paul Farmer and Didier Fassin, Seth Holmes shows how market forces, anti-immigrant sentiment, and racism undermine health and healthcare. Holmes's material is visceral and powerful. He trekked with his companions illegally through the desert into Arizona and was jailed with them before they were deported. He lived with indigenous families in the mountains of Oaxaca and in farm labor camps in the U.S., planted and harvested corn, picked strawberries, and accompanied sick workers to clinics and hospitals. This "embodied anthropology" deepens our theoretical understanding of how health equity is undermined by a normalization of migrant suffering, the natural endpoint of systemic dehumanization, exploitation, and oppression that clouds any sense of empathy for "invisible workers." Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies is far more than an ethnography or supplementary labor studies text; Holmes tells the stories of food production workers from as close to the ground as possible, revealing often theoretically-discussed social inequalities as irreparable bodily damage done. This book substantiates the suffering of those facing the danger of crossing the border, threatened with deportation, or otherwise caught up in the structural violence of a system promising work but endangering or ignoring the human rights and health of its workers. All of the book award money and royalties from the sales of this book have been donated to farm worker unions, farm worker organizations and farm worker projects in consultation with farm workers who appear in the book.

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Yes, you can access Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies by Seth M. Holmes in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Cultural & Social Anthropology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
1
the 
road 
from 
san 
miguel
1
It 
is 
early 
April 
and 
our 
group 
is 
leaving 
the 
Triqui 
village 
of 
San 
Miguel 
in 
the 
mountains 
of 
Oaxaca, 
Mexico,
2
each 
of 
us 
wearing 
dark-colored, 
long-
sleeved 
clothes 
and 
carrying 
a 
small, 
dark-colored 
backpack 
with 
one 
change 
of 
clothes, 
a 
plastic 
bag 
with 
coyote 
fur 
and 
pine 
sap 
made 
by 
a 
Triqui 
healer 
for 
protection 
and 
called 
a 
suerte
[luck], 
along 
with 
many 
totopos
[smoked, 
handmade 
tortillas] 
and 
dried 
beans 
to 
eat. 
I 
was 
instructed 
by 
Macario 
to 
bring 
these 
things. 
Each 
of 
us 
carries 
between 
$
1
,
000
and 
$
2
,
000
to 
pay 
for 
the 
bus 
ride 
to 
the 
border, 
for 
food 
at 
the 
border, 
for 
rides 
on 
either 
side 
of 
the 
bor-
der, 
and 
some 
for 
the 
coyote
[border-crossing 
guide].
Our 
journey 
begins 
with 
a 
two-hour 
trip 
in 
a 
Volkswagen 
van 
from 
San 
Miguel 
to 
the 
nearby 
mestizo
3
town 
of 
Tlaxiaco. 
After 
buying 
our 
bus 
tickets, 
we 
walk 
around 
the 
town’s 
market, 
buying 
food 
to 
share 
with 
each 
other 
on 
the 
bus. 
Joaquin 
chooses 
mangoes, 
Macario 
oranges 
and 
peanuts, 
and 
I 
miniature 
O
N
E
Introduction
“worth 
risking 
your 
life?”

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication Page
  5. Table of Contents
  6. List of Illustrations
  7. Foreword
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. 1. Introduction: “Worth Risking your Life?”
  10. 2. “We are Field Workers”: Embodied Anthropology of Migration
  11. 3. Segregation on the Farm: Ethnic Hierarchies at Work
  12. 4. “How the Poor Suffer”: Embodying the Violence Continuum
  13. 5. “Doctors don’t Know Anything”: The Clinical Gaze in Migrant Health
  14. 6. “Because they’re Lower to the Ground”: Naturalizing Social Suffering
  15. 7. Conclusion: Change, Pragmatic Solidarity, and Beyond
  16. Appendix: On Ethnographic Writing and Contextual Knowledge
  17. Notes
  18. References
  19. Index