Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies

I read Seth M. Holmes’ Fresh Fruit; Broken Bodies, on a beach. There is still sand between the pages and that feeling of grit on an otherwise smooth surface sums the book up well. It is an uncomfortable read, a reminder of the suffering, struggle and resistance of migrant farmworkers in every step of their journey from southern Oaxaca to farm labour camps in the United States.

Mexico/US Border. Anna Vogt.

Over 95% of agricultural workers in the United States were born in Mexico and 52% are unauthorized to work in the US. As Holmes illustrates, it is of vital importance to keep in mind that international economic policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are largely responsible for these migrations, as Mexican farm owners and workers are forced to migrate for  the wages earned by working in truly body breaking conditions.

In his ethnography, Holmes journeys with Triqui indigenous companions from southern Mexico, crossing the US/Mexico border through the desert together, and then working with them on a farm in Washington State. In each step of the journey, he reflects on the embodied experience of a migrant worker, trying to convey the sense of everyday life and the “linkages among suffering, social inequalities related to structural violence, and the normalizing symbolic violence of stereotypes and prejudices.”

Anna Vogt.

Throughout the book, therefore, Holmes carefully describes both physical suffering, including the extreme conditions involved in crossing the desert border and engaging in repetitive farm work day after day, and the normalization of racism in the public health system and within farm hierarchies. As he reflects on the tendonitis developed by a friend, he states:

“The social and political genesis of Abelino’s knee pain could not have been clearer. His pain was caused unequivocally by the fact that he, as an undocumented Triqui man, had been excluded by both international market inequalities and local discriminatory practices from all but one narrow and particularly traumatic labor position. This occupation required him to bend over seven days a week, picking strawberries as fast as he possible could.”

Holmes ends by reflecting on what solidarity could look like on various different levels. He writes about the practical need to include migrant workers in English classes held on farms, as well as improving pesticide safety information. Holmes also recognizes the need for solidarity that moves far beyond simply the pragmatic, calling for improved public health and education policies, along with a fair wage system, and ultimately, for a more equitable international economy that treats all people as equal.

Anna Vogt

This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to better understand the structural forces behind migration as well as gain a deeper perspective on the lived experience of migration and farm labour. It is also an invitation to respond. As Holmes challenges his readers:

“It is likely that the last hands to hold the blueberries, strawberries, peaches, asparagus, or lettuce before you pick them up in your local grocery store belong to Latin American migrant labourers. How might we respect this intimate passing of food between hands?”

Anna Vogt is the Regional Context Analyst and Advocacy Support worker.