Risking Their Lives for Berries

FRESH FRUIT, BROKEN BODIES by Seth Holmes, 2013

Fig. 1. Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies Book Cover,  
Seth Holmes, 2013.

          Today's post is a Book Review of the text entitled Fresh Fruits, Broken Bodies by Seth Holmes published in April 2013. The author's objective is to give a perspective of the way an important sector of the country lives, which are farmworkers. They come from other countries, mainly Mexico and Latin America. According to the author, “they are forced to migrate for themselves and their families to survive” (Holmes 17). In the same way, it expresses the inequalities, injustices, and difficulties that these workers must go through. The audience for which this book is directed can be considered young people and adults, who may have more awareness and empathy with the stories told. It is a book that is very well constructed, properly divided into chapters, and that is also written by a physician and anthropologist, making him the ideal person to be part of research and gathering information.

Fig.2. Seth Holmes and Triqui children, Oct. 2013,  
Tracie McMillan.

          Holmes did an excellent job during his fieldwork and took a chance to experience such difficult experiences as crossing the border walking through the desert and all that that entails. Not only did he manage to gain the trust of many people during his various activities to collect information, but he was able to transmit that information to a book so that it would be much more useful and available to everyone. Seth recounts their journey from the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, spending days walking and trying to cross border patrol checkpoints, until they are captured. He also tells us about how farmworkers live, the insults, segregation, and racism they suffer, and how people reach a point where they normalize it and see the shortcomings and difficulties in their lives as natural. Many people did not have the opportunity to receive an education and only speak their native languages, so communicating is also a big problem. It is stated that "clinicians with poor Spanish-language skills do not have time to get a translator and instead conduct the appointment in English, or with an untrained interpreter, the child I observed translate during her mother's gynecological exam" (Holmes 130). It causes helplessness by empathizing with people who experience such difficulties and makes you think about what is not right around people who work in the fields. They also deserve adequate health care and a dignified way of life.

          An article by USA Today entitled Worked to death: Latino farmworkers have long been denied basic rights. COVID-19 showed how deadly racism could be, tells about the inequalities that exist for people in the fields, and even more during these harsh times of pandemic. Many families have lost their loved ones for not having basic health care. According to this article, “that lack of representation often shuts them out of access to unemployment pay, worker’s compensation, and health insurance” (USAToday 2020). This shows us that Holmes' anecdotes in the fields were not an isolated case that occurred more than a decade ago, but that it is something that happens today. Here is a 4-minute video entitled Farmworkers face coronavirus risk, keep us fed, which also talks about this lack of protection for farmworkers:

          In conclusion, I think this is an excellent book that demonstrates with anecdotes and self-gathered information that the life of field workers is often more difficult than we think. The foods that we easily obtain in the supermarket are thanks to the work of these people. Therefore, the least we could do in gratitude is to support them, to fight for decent health care, a healthy and adequate work environment, and that their families can live in peace without risking their health. I had the notion that working in the fields is very hard, even after risking his life upon arrival in this country. I knew it because a lot of my family is also an immigrant, however, this book made me know in more detail all the injustices that they live day by day and despite the effort, they cannot be calm because they never have their lives or jobs secure. I highly recommend this book so that more and more of us are aware of how certain groups of people on whom we depend in some way live. So let's be empathetic and value everyone's work.

Works Cited:

Holmes, Seth. Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies. The Regents of the University of California, 2013.

Jervis, Rick et al. "Worked to death: Latino farmworkers have long been denied basic rights. COVID-19 

        showed how deadly racism could be." USAToday, 24 Oct. 2020, https://www.usatoday.com/in-

        depth/news/nation/2020/10/21/covid-how-virus-racism-devastated-latino-farmworkers-

        california/5978494002/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2020.