Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies Book Review

The book I will be reviewing in this blog post is titled Fresh Fruit,Broken Bodies Migrant Farmworkers in the United States.The author of this wonderful book is Seth M.Holmes and it was published on April 15,2013.The author's purpose behind this book was to learn more about Mexican migrants and living the experience of a migrant worker for an ethnographic project.After living with migrants and learning a lot of agriculture years later Seth published this book to share his experiences and educate people on the reality of fieldwork."For the first several years after 2000,I actively searched for an interesting and important ethnographic project to undertake.Given the critical social,political,and health issues related to U.S.-Mexico migration,I chose to work in this context.James,director of a nonprofit organization working with migrant laborers in Skagit Valley of Washington State and an acquaintance through mountaineering networks,encouraged me to work with the Triqui people from San Miguel,Oaxaca.(Holmes 3).Fresh Fruit,Broken Bodies's fits into the ethnographic genre and I think its intended audience would be people living in the United states because Farm laborers are not really talked about a lot.

 This is an image of a Triqui Village in Oaxaca,Mexico from December 11,2020 and it was taken from the site: https://www.world-today-news.com/they-ambush-the-triqui-family-in-oaxaca-there-are-five-dead/

 I really enjoyed Seth's book due to it being very well detailed and informal.Throughout the book I learned a lot of new information and I enjoyed reading the book from Seth's perspective."In fall 2002 I visited northwestern Washington State to explore the possibility of field research with migrant farmworkers in the area."(Holmes 45).The author did a very good job in capturing the reader's attention and making sure he/she felt included.Seth's thesis starts with him and a group of Triqui people leaving a villege on the mountains of Oaxaca,Mexico.The book's theme was how social,economic,and healthcare inequalities cause profound yet preventable suffering for undocumented migrant farmworkers in the United States through his research.

In conclusion the book Fresh Fruit,Broken Bodies Migrant Farmworkers in the United States was a very interesting book.Seth did a great job on documenting the everyday lives and suffering of Mexican Migrants during their crossings of the border and while working in fields.This book changed my thoughts on farm labores in sense that now I know a lot more of how working in the fields work.The author did a good job of giving us the readers' an inside look of what goes on behind the scenes.When I used to live in Bakersfield I knew a few people that had worked in the fields but I never really talked to them deeply about it.In highschool it was common that some freshmans would work in the fields in the summer since it was not that hard to fake your age to get hired in the fields and most fast food places don't hire at 14 or 15 years old.The conclusion of the book does a great job of ending the book and my favorite part of it was "American society gains much from migrant labores and gives little back beyond criminalization,stress,and injury.This dishonest relationship must change."(Holmes 197).I agree with the fact that migrant labores are being taken advantage of and things must change since this country relies a lot on Agriculture.I would recommended this book to everyone because it was very well detailed and it goes over an issue that deserves more attention.

https://www.facebook.com/bakersfieldnow/videos/739799186404580/

This picture and video are about a strike that Bakersfield farm workers had on January 11,2019 at The Wonderful Company in Kern county.The reason behind the farm workers strike was because they were unhappy with wages.Source: https://www.facebook.com/bakersfieldnow/videos/739799186404580/

                                                               Works cited

Holmes, S. M. (2014). Fresh fruit, broken bodies migrant farmworkers in the United States. Univ. of California Press.