Synopses & Reviews
"
In Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies, Seth Holmes offers up an important and captivating new ethnography, linking the structural violence inherent in the migrant labor system in the United States to the social processes by which it becomes normalized. Drawing on five years of fieldwork among the Triqui people from Oaxaca, Mexico, Holmes investigates local understandings of suffering and illness, casting into relief stereotypes and prejudices that he ties to the transnational labor that puts cheap food on American tables. Throughout this compelling volume, Holmes considers ways of engaging migrant farm workers and allies that might help disrupt exploitation that reaches across national boundaries and can too often be hidden away. This book is a gripping read not only for cultural and medical anthropologists, immigration and ethnic studies students, students of labor and agriculture, physicians and public health professionals, but also anyone interested in the lives and well-being of the people providing them cheap, fresh fruit."and#151;Paul Farmer, Co-founder of Partners In Health and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
and#147;Dramatically portrays the harsh physical and emotional conditions under which farm workers labor. As they complete their brutal work, they suffer long-term disabilities in their senior years. This can be avoided with reasonable and decent working conditions. Let us remember them as we eat our daily meals.and#8221;and#151;Dolores Huerta
"This book takes concepts from the world of scholarship to enrich the understanding of people's lives; and the vivid detail, and empathetic portrait of the reality of people's lives enrich scholarship. The book leaves the reader in no doubt that economic arrangements, social hierarchies, discrimination, poor living and working conditions have profound effects on the health of marginalized people. It is all done with the touch of a gifted writer. The reader lives the detail and is much moved."and#151;Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Director, UCL Institute of Health Equity
"Provides a unique understanding of the political economy of migrant labor and of its human cost."and#151;Didier Fassin is Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and the author of Humanitarian Reason.
"Here in the U.S., we both utterly rely on immigrants from the South to feed us, and erect walls and employ militias to keep them out. In this groundbreaking new book, Holmes goes underground to explore what this bizarre duality means for the people who live it. A brilliant combination of academic rigor and journalistic daring."and#151;Tom Philpott, Food and Agriculture Correspondent, Mother Jones Magazine
and#147;Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies is a powerful exposand#233; of the social and political realities that mark the bodies and limit the life prospects of Mexican migrant farmworkers in the worldand#8217;s richest economy. An absorbing read and a resolute call for just labor relations and health equity as key to a common and sustainable human development.and#8221;and#151; Joand#227;o Biehl, author of Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment
and#147;Holmes' book is a lyrical ethnographic rendition of Robert Chailloux's "Still Life with Strawberries," revealing the back stage, back-breaking work of indigenous Mexican pickers trapped in patron-client relationship to Japanese-American farm owners who are themselves trapped in price wars with global competitors to produce the beautiful abundance that we take for granted."and#151;Nancy Scheper-Hughes, author of Death without Weeping
and#147;A tour du force ethnography. Holmes gives us the rare combination of medical, anthropological, and humanitarian gazes into the lives of Oaxacan migrant farmworkers in the United States. Their agricultural field work and his anthropological fieldwork intersect to produce a book full of insights into the pathos, inequalities, frustrations, and dreams punctuating the farmworkersand#8217; daily lives. Through Holmes' vivid prose, and the words of the workers themselves, we feel with the workers as they strain their bodies picking fruit and pruning vines, we sense their fear as they cross the U.S.-Mexico border, we understand their frustrations as they are chased and detained by immigration authorities, and cheer at their perseverance when faced with bureaucrats and medical personnel who treat them as if they are to blame for their own impoverished condition. A must read for anyone interested in the often invisible lives and suffering of those whose labor provides for our very sustenance.and#8221;and#151;Leo R. Chavez, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine
and#147;In his first book, anthropologist and doctor Seth M. Holmes gives us an intimate look into the lives of migrant farmworkers. Through his exhaustive research, Holmes reveals the struggles of the millions who work in our fields, every year, to put food on our tables. In deliberations about immigration and farm policy, these are the stories that should be at the center. Holmes' helps us put them there.and#8221;
Anna Lappand#233;, author Diet for a Hot Planet and founder, Real Food Media Project
and#147;Like the reporting of Edward R. Murrow and the labors of Cesar Chavez, Seth Holmesand#8217; work on these modern-day migrants reminds us of the human beings who produce the greatest bounty of food the world has ever seen. They take jobs other American workers wonand#8217;t take for pay other American workers wonand#8217;t accept and under conditions other American workers wonand#8217;t tolerate. Yet except for the minority of farm workers protected by United Farm Workersand#8217; contracts, these workers too often donand#8217;t earn enough to adequately feed themselves. Seth Holmesand#8217; writing fuels the UFWand#8217;s ongoing organizing among farm workers and admonishes the American people that our work remains unfinished.and#8221;and#151;Arturo S. Rodriguez, President, United Farm Workers of America
and#160;
Review
"By giving voice to silenced Mexican migrant laborers, Dr. Holmes exposes the links among suffering, the inequalities related to the structural violence of global trade which compel migration, and the symbolic violence of stereotypes and prejudices that normalize racism."
Review
"The reader is left with a deep understanding of how injustice in the United States is produced and the strength of the individuals that persevere through it."
Review
"Holmes brings an unusual expertise to his writing about migrant Mexican farmworkers. . . .and#160;[He] goes far beyond mere observation."
Review
"The insights gleaned by [Holmes's] participation-observation are priceless."
Review
"Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in food and the food system. . . .and#160;To say that the book provides a vivid look at farm labor is an understatement."
Review
"A compelling and frightening account of the lives of [Mexican migrant] workers. . . . [Holmes's] tales of crossing the border, doing backbreaking work in the fields, and exploring relationships with these dislocated and largely invisible workers is well worth a read."
Review
"A provocative, important new book. . . . Part heart-pounding adventure tale, part deep ethnograhic study, part urgent plea for reform. . . . Holmesand#160;brings an enlightening complexity to the issue of migrant workers."
Synopsis
As American women have entered the labor force in greater numbers, the traditional work of wives and mothersand#151;cleaning houses and caring for childrenand#151;has gradually moved into the global marketplace. Paid domestic work has largely become the domain of disenfranchised immigrant women of color. Unlike the working poor who toil in factories and fields, these women see, touch, and breathe the material and emotional world of their employers' homes. They scrub grout, coax reluctant children to eat their vegetables, launder and fold clothes, dust, vacuum, and witness intimate family dynamics. In this enlightening and timely work, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo highlights the voices, experiences, and views of Mexican and Central American women who care for other people's children and homes, as well as the outlooks of the women who employ them in Los Angeles.
All royalties from this book will be donated to the Domestic Workersand#8217; Association, a division of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).
Synopsis
"Hondagneu-Sotelo challenges the reader to rethink the organization of caring work, the roles of race and immigrant status in the structure of domestic work, the importance of regulations, and the need for legal and personal recognition of the rights and human dignity of each worker. This book is an important contribution to our understanding of work and family among immigrant Latina women and also among the families that employ them."and#151;Bonnie Thornton Dill, author of
Across the Boundaries of Race and Class: An exploration of work and family among Black female Domestic Servants"Through brilliantly nuanced portraits of housekeepers and their employers, Hondagneu-Sotelo tells a neglected story of growing importance, spotlighting the relation of mistress to maid."and#151;Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of The Time Bind
"Domand#233;stica is a pathbreaking study. It opens our eyes to the hidden world of transnational care-work and calls on us to shape domestic and international policies that will bring basic principles of human rights and social justice into that world. Everyone who is concerned about care and equality should read it."and#151;Lucie White, Professor, Harvard Law School
"Beautifully written, sensitive to all the nuances of the situation, and committed to the protection of our most vulnerable immigrants, Domand#233;stica has an important, poignant story to tell; one that will appeal to anyone interested in immigration and the way it is transforming America."and#151;Roger Waldinger, author of Still the Promised City?
"This engaging book bristles with fresh insights into the working lives of immigrant house cleaners and nannies, living on the margins in the nation's capital of conspicuous consumption. Hondagneu-Sotelo beautifully exposes domestic workers' yearnings for respect and dignity."and#151;Ruth Milkman, author of Farewell to the Factory
"I do not know of any other study that captures with such depth of detail and insight the relationship between domestic workers and their employers. This book will be indispensable to those trying to further our understanding of the relationship between class, gender and migration."and#151;Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, Princeton University
Synopsis
Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies provides an intimate examination of the everyday lives and suffering of Mexican migrants in our contemporary food system. An anthropologist and MD in the mold of Paul Farmer and Didier Fassin, Holmes shows how market forces, anti-immigrant sentiment, and racism undermine health and health care. Holmesand#8217;s material is visceral and powerful. He trekked with his companions illegally through the desert into Arizona and was jailed with them before they were deported. He lived with indigenous families in the mountains of Oaxaca and in farm labor camps in the U.S., planted and harvested corn, picked strawberries, and accompanied sick workers to clinics and hospitals. This and#147;embodied anthropologyand#8221; deepens our theoretical understanding of the ways in which social inequalities and suffering come to be perceived as normal and natural in society and in health care.
Synopsis
In this enlightening and timely work, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo highlights the voices, experiences, and views of Mexican and Central American women who care for other people's children and homes, as well as the outlooks of the women who employ them in Los Angeles. The new preface looks at the current issues facing immigrant domestic workers in a global context.
Synopsis
"
Domand#233;stica is a pathbreaking study. It opens our eyes to the hidden world of transnational care-work and calls on us to shape domestic and international policies that will bring basic principles of human rights and social justice into that world. Everyone who is concerned about care and equality should read it."and#151;Lucie White, Professor, Harvard Law School
"Hondagneu-Sotelo challenges the reader to rethink the organization of caring work, the roles of race and immigrant status in the structure of domestic work, the importance of regulations, and the need for legal and personal recognition of the rights and human dignity of each worker."and#151;Bonnie Thornton Dill, author of Across the Boundaries of Race and Class
Synopsis
What does globalization look like in the rural South? Scratching Out a Living takes readers deep into Mississippiandrsquo;s chicken processing communities and workplaces, where large numbers of Latin American migrants began arriving in the mid-1990s to labor alongside an established African American workforce in some of the most dangerous and lowest paid jobs in the country. Based on six years of collaboration with a local workersandrsquo; center, activist anthropologist Angela Stuesse explores how Black, white, and new Latino residents have experienced and understood these transformations. Illuminating connections between the areaandrsquo;s long history of racial inequality, the poultry industryandrsquo;s growth, immigrantsandrsquo; contested place in contemporary social relations, and workersandrsquo; prospects for political mobilization, Scratching Out a Living calls for organizing strategies that bring diverse working communities together in mutual construction of a more just future.
Synopsis
How has Latino immigration transformed the South? In what ways is the presence of these newcomers complicating efforts to organize for workplace justice?
Scratching Out a Living takes readers deep into Mississippiandrsquo;s chicken processing plants and communities, where large numbers of Latin American migrants were recruited in the mid-1990s to labor alongside an established African American workforce in some of the most dangerous and lowest-paid jobs in the country. As Americaandrsquo;s voracious appetite for chicken has grown, so has the industryandrsquo;s reliance on immigrant workers, whose structural position makes them particularly vulnerable to exploitation.
Based on the authorandrsquo;s six years of collaboration with a local workersandrsquo; center, this book explores how Black, white, and new Latino Mississippians have lived and understood these transformations. Activist anthropologist Angela Stuesse argues that peopleandrsquo;s racial identifications and relationships to the poultry industry prove vital to their interpretations of the changes they are experiencing. Illuminating connections between the areaandrsquo;s long history of racial inequality, the industryandrsquo;s growth and drive to lower labor costs, immigrantsandrsquo; contested place in contemporary social relations, and workersandrsquo; prospects for political mobilization, Scratching Out a Living paints a compelling ethnographic portrait of neoliberal globalization and calls for organizing strategies that bring diverse working communities together in mutual construction of a more just future.
About the Author
Seth M. Holmes is an anthropologist and physician. He received his PhD in Medical Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco, and his M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco. He is Martin Sisters Endowed Chair Assistant Professor of Public Health and Medical Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Philippe Bourgois is Richard Perry University Professor of Anthropology and Family and Community Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and author, among other books of In Search of Respect (Cambridge, 2000) and Righteous Dopefiend (UC Press, 2010).
Table of Contents
Foreword, by Philippe Bourgois
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: andldquo;Worth Risking Your Life?andrdquo;
2. andldquo;We Are Field Workersandrdquo;: Embodied Anthropology of Migration
3. Segregation on the Farm: Ethnic Hierarchies at Work
4. andldquo;How the Poor Sufferandrdquo;: Embodying the Violence Continuum
5. andldquo;Doctors Donandrsquo;t Know Anythingandrdquo;: The Clinical Gaze in Migrant Health
6. andldquo;Because Theyandrsquo;re Lower to the Groundandrdquo;: Naturalizing Social Suffering
7. Conclusion: Change, Pragmatic Solidarity, and Beyond
Appendix: On Methods and Contextual Knowledge
Notes
References
Index