Summary Of Seth Holmes Fresh Fruit Broken Bodies

“Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies”, Seth Holmes mainly focused on the migrant farmworkers in the United states. Holmes is a medical doctor and an anthropologist that researched the lives of the farmworkers and society itself. Holmes wanted to show the ethnography of sufferings and transformed into living the way that the migrant farmworkers did. He believes that it is important for him to experience the sufferings of his companions and try to teach the world what they do not know. “I use the word suffering to indicate not only physical sickness but also mental, existential, and interpersonal anguish” 89. In America, these people known as immigrants are visible and also not given any resources. Many people do not see or know the sufferings that they

The first thing that Holmes talks about is crossing the border with his companions and the way they suffered throughout the whole trip. He was very descriptive and really hit every point to make the reader imagine and understand the situation. It has always been said that the border to cross to America is very dangerous and risky. But is it worth the risk? That was a question that was asked frequently before Holmes crossed the border with his companions. Moving from place toplace was a very big decision for these migrants, they had to suffer their way into a new life, a new way of living with no job to start with and with injured bodies. About 500 people died at the border itself and many get injured, die from a heatstroke or dehydration. These deaths would be known as direct violence. Holmes showcases the sufferings of crossing the border, for example he describes how they all had to walk, run, duck, hide, cover under black trash bags to not get caught for two days. They would not sleep day and night in the fear of getting caught and being sent over to their country. For Holmes, experiencing and witnessing what people go through is what will connect the ethnographic suffering and migration. Seth also showcases this type of suffrage by including pictures. There are many other ways that show the suffrage of these migrant workers, when many think of migrants our thoughts

Holmes provided a description of the conditions they had to live in, they were put into shacks that look like chicken coops with broken windows and holes in walls that water would leak through. Some would be bunched up in one little shack and the way they would live impaired their bodies both mentally and physically. From picking the fruits their bodies would ache, it was their positioning as they work. The bending down all of the time, to their hands becoming tired and it was not for a couple of minutes,but for very long hours. For example, Albeino suffered a lot with his knee injury and the doctors and bosses did not seem to care. Albeino’s recovery was not easy or fast. He had to visit many doctors and continued to work with the excruciating pain. His knee injury connects to structural violence and the mental and physical suffrage. These migrant workers do not have health insurance and cannot show up to a clinic or hospital for care especially if they did not speak english. All of the workers are at risk with their healths, these crops that they would pick were sprayed with pesticides that a lot of them did not know about. On page 172, Holmes talks about the signs that say poison on them from the sprayed pesticides and how everything was in english. The farmworkers would eat in between their pickings without washing their hands and they were at risk for