The Farmworkers' Story

Cover of the book

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies is a book by author Seth Holmes, that sheds light on the everyday struggles of migrant farmworkers in the United States.  In the foreword of the book we are told that the delicious fruit that we "worthily devour is produced cheaply by literally breaking the backs, knees, hips, and other overstressed body parts of Latino farmworkers" (Holmes xi).  Holmes wants to give us readers an image of the grueling work that farmworkers have to go through every day through his book.  I think he did a great job showing how terrible the farmers' working conditions are and I thought the book was very compelling and eye-opening.

In the first chapter of the book, Holmes writes, "During the first year of my fieldwork, over five hundred people died in the Tucson sector of the border alone.  Most died of heat stroke and dehydration, some from direct violence" (Holmes 8). Holmes is very descriptive about the dangers that migrant workers face.  The book is very accurate and relevant to these workers because Holmes witnessed these events firsthand.  If someone's curious about the constant hardships immigrant workers go through, I'd definitely recommend this book because it was very informative
and also kept me interested.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book.  Holmes goes into depth about
how overworked and oppressed migrant workers are.  For example,
he wrote, "I picked berries once or twice a week and experienced
several forms of pain for days afterward.  I often felt sick to my
stomach the night before picking, due to stress about picking the
minimum weight" (Holmes 88).  This is only a fraction of the
tragic stories that go on throughout the book.  I'd recommend this
to anyone looking to gain more information on migrant workers,
or just looking for an engaging story in general.

An image of migrant workers

Works Cited

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

Sullivan, Denise. “Challenges Faced by Migrant Workers.” Chron.com, 9 Nov. 2016, work.chron.com/challenges-faced-migrant-workers-31195.html.