Summary Of Seth Holmes Fresh Fruit Broken Bodies

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies truly encompasses the lives of migrant farm workers. Rather than simply interviewing and trying to get second hand information Seth Holmes immerses himself in the everyday tasks of migrant works, from crossing the border to doing the backbreaking work alongside his new friends. He wants to experience it from their perspective and not from the view of his culture and truly understand the effects it has on them. Being aware of the oppressions they face make the journey successful. He wants people to understand the inhumane conditions, migrant workers face, that without them our government wouldn’t survive, and we should be treating them as people.
Although he is continually reminded of the dangers of crossing the border

He recognizes his luxury as he goes to a local hot tub to try to help cope with this pain. Holmes refers to this as “the structural violence of social hierarchies becoming embodied in the form of suffering and sickness” (89). The Triqui farmers are the lowest in pecking order and therefore don’t receive any sympathy or special treatment, they are there simply to work hard or be fired. Holmes asked two women how they deal with the pain and they said that they are numb now there or that they hurt all the time. Holmes refers to what the workers are experiencing as suffering is the best way to describe it. Not only are they experiencing physical pain, they are suffering mental and emotional pain as well. Triqui farmers receive unfair treatment at work, which leads to them feeling less when they are doing other things as well. Holmes was invited to Burger King with one of the families when they get their order it’s wrong Holmes, who had lived a relatively privileged life (being white), suggests taking it back up and telling them. The family is taken back by this suggestion, knowing how they would be treated in such a situation. This is yet another example of suffering the migrant workers face, they are made to think that they

Although, they are making the determinants of heath better for those back home to whom they are sending money. They money they send is allowing the children to survive until they are inevitably considered only enough to make the journey for themselves. There are many things the workers experience that are stressors, a man named Crescencio talked about the extreme headaches he experience after being called names and being made fun of by his supervisors. He said that the only thing that would make it feel better was alcohol. This is an example of that has been imposed on migrant workers being called drunks, yet the reason some drink is to cope with the tragedies of the verbal and mental abuse forced upon them by the jobs they are forced to do. Holmes refers it as “a complicated cycle of linkages between suffering and the social and symbolic forces” (99). The ethnocentrism of the people higher in the social ladder on the farms is the reason no migrant workers are never more successful than being only berry