Violence in Our Foods

Violence in Our Foods

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States by Seth M. Holmes is about migrant farmworkers in the United States, particularly those from Latin America on the west coast. Holmes crossed the border with indigenous farmworkers, worked alongside them in the fields, and interviewed farmworkers of every level (admin, crew bosses, pickers, etc). Holmes realizes "that an ethnography of suffering and migration would be incomplete without witnessing firsthand" how these migrants work (Holmes 40). This immersive study is intended to inform American consumers of where their food comes from and the people that provide them with their produce. Holmes does a wonderful job of integrating his findings with studies and a broader perspective, helping us understand how these migrants have come to be in the position they are.

Seth Holmes and his Triqui companions in the border desert.
Photo courtesy of Seth M. Holmes.

In this book, Holmes immerses himself in the lives of indigenous immigrants. He admits that he is not an objective researcher, and it was nearly impossible to be one. He “became more involved in the social requirements of friendship than [he] had imagined beforehand” (Holmes 76). He lived alongside Oaxacans for many, many months. He crossed the border and was arrested with them. He went to their birthday parties and baptisms. He worked alongside them and advocated for them in banks, with doctors, at work, and even in everyday scenarios where he had more power as a white U.S. citizen. His companionship with the Oaxacan workers makes their points of view that much more compelling though, because once they do, we learn about their suffering through a closer lens. 

Many Oaxacan migrants described their lives through suffering. This suffering is the result of everyday violence. Holmes defines everyday violence as "the normalized micro-interactional expressions of violence on domestic, delinquent, and institutional levels that produce a common sense of violence and humiliation" (Holmes 139). There are different kinds of violence that reinforce the hierarchies on the farms by members of every level. These different kinds of violence are violence of segregated labor, verbal/symbolic violence, and political violence. 

A white teenage checker with Mexican pickers.
Photo by Seth M. Holmes.

    In Tanaka Farms, where Holmes conducted his study, the jobs are implicitly segregated by race and citizenship status. Whites and Japanese tend to be in administration, working as executives, office ladies, or crew bosses. Mexicans tend to pick apples, which is physically taxing but pays better than strawberry picking. The Triqui are forced to be strawberry and blueberry pickers- some of the most physically taxing and lowest paying jobs on the farm.

In the farms, being "able to study Spanish and English" is important "in order to have social and occupational mobility" (Holmes 112). However, Triqui aren’t allowed in English classes on the farm nor can they afford classes outside of work. They won’t receive higher paying jobs because of this, and the fact that they live in the camps. They can't move out of the camps because of their low wages. This segregation of labor forces the Triqui into a cycle of poverty and suffering. 

Marcelina picking strawberries.
Photo by Seth M. Holmes.

The pickers work under crew bosses, who are nearly all white. These crew bosses use racist and derogatory words to reprimand the pickers, calling them stupid and dirty and lazy. These words can manifest in physical ailments, such as the headache that Crescencio suffered from for years. The Triqui are called dirty, which is a result of their work in the fields as well as the dirt fields surrounding their homes. They are called lazy for not learning English, but are barred from the classes.

    Political violence requires looking at the broader context of migration and the politics surrounding the border as well as their reasons for leaving. The North American Free Trade Agreement forced Oaxaca into a depression and they had to migrate to America to find work. Oaxacans recognize this issue and have created political advocacy groups to ask for the renegotiation of NAFTA. However, other political groups- including the Mexican government- oppose MULT, leading to violence against the Triqui people. This has led to violence in lower income areas, especially in Mexico, as well as increased undocumented immigrants to the U.S. looking for either work or refuge. “Several… people in the mountains of Oaxaca… warned [Holmes] to be careful because the Triqui Zone… was violent and dangerous,” but Holmes argues that this violence can be understood “as a kind of… reflection of the violent displacement they have experienced numerous times” (Holmes 163).  

Map of Indigenous Mexico

Holmes’ study truly opened my eyes to the treatment of migrant workers on farms. Understanding the violence migrant workers go through shows a need for reform in politics, in farms, and in our understanding of migration itself. Migrants don’t only experience violence in their workplace, but also physical injury. The head physician at the Skagit Valley migrant clinic told Holmes that he “see[s] an awful lot of people just wearing out” due to the arduous labor they put themselves through (Holmes 186). He says that he sees people “in their early forties [with] the arthritis of a seventy-year-old” (Holmes 186). These workers have to work long hours making roughly $3000 to $5000 a year while their body deteriorates. They have no preventative medicine or resources, and conditions are worse if they are undocumented. 

Holmes ends his book with a call for pragmatic solidarity, one I will echo. As consumers we should be careful in which companies we support, as not all producers of fruit are ethical. As voters we need to look for candidates that want to help migrant workers. And as people, we need to be careful of our vocabulary. Using words like illegal alien “trigger[s] anti-immigrant fear” as well as “extreme difference [and] unbridgeable alterity” (Holmes 258). Words like undocumented or migrants are much more neutral and describe the workers who help provide us our food in a more humanizing way. 

This video explores our use of "illegal" in relation to immigrants, but from a European perspective. It demonstrates that the issue of such language transcends the United States. 

Works Cited

Holmes, Seth M. Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies Migrant Farmworkers in the United States. Univ. of California Press, 2014.

Holmes, Seth M., and Tom Philpott. “Author Seth Holmes, Second from Left (Standing), Preparing to Sneak across the US/Mexico Border with Triqui Migrant Farm Workers. .” Mother Jones, WordPress VIP, 31 Oct. 2013, https://www.motherjones.com/food/2013/10/rough-passage-what-its-cross-border-harvest-your-food/. Accessed 26 Apr. 2022.

“Living Undocumented in Europe.” YouTube, Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, 13 Apr. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFLjd84iwGQ. Accessed 26 Apr. 2022.

Spears, Tara A. “Map of Indigenous Populations of Mexico.” Sol Mexico News, Word Press, https://www.solmexiconews.com/the-colorful-heritage-of-mexico/. Accessed 19 Apr. 2022.