Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States: 27 (California Series in Public Anthropology) - Softcover

Holmes, Seth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520275144 ISBN 13: 9780520275140

Publisher: California University Press, 2013

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. Holmes'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 "embodied anthropology" 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. All of the book award money and royalties from the sales of this book have been donated to farm worker unions, farm worker organizations and farm worker projects in consultation with farm workers who appear in the book.

About this title

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."--New York Journal of Books

"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."--Antipode

"Holmes brings an unusual expertise to his writing about migrant Mexican farmworkers. . . . [He] goes far beyond mere observation."--Austin American Statesman

"The insights gleaned by [Holmes's] participation-observation are priceless."--National Catholic Reporter

"Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in food and the food system. . . . To say that the book provides a vivid look at farm labor is an understatement."--Somatosphere

"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."--Serious Eats

"A provocative, important new book. . . . Part heart-pounding adventure tale, part deep ethnograhic study, part urgent plea for reform. . . . Holmes brings an enlightening complexity to the issue of migrant workers."--San Francisco Bay Guardian

"Its lessons are invaluable for communities as well as academic audiences."--American Journal of Human Biology

"An extraordinarily moving ethnographic piece."--Labour/Le Travail

"A timely, eloquent, and analytically rigourous examination . . . an excellent resource."--Centre for Medical Humanities

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 & 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).

About this edition

• Publisher: California University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0520275144
• ISBN 13: 9780520275140
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264