Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States

“My Triqui companions often explain their everyday lives in terms of sufrimiento (suffering). But one of the sites of sufrimiento most frequently described by Triqui migrants is crossing the border from Mexico into the United States.”

The US-Mexico border is central to the lives of Triqui migrants and to Holmes’s book. The increased militarization of the border has made it more dangerous and expensive for migrants to cross. Consequently, migrant farmworkers stay in the US for longer periods than they used to (generally for a few years instead of a single harvesting period). Efforts to keep migrants out, then, have resulted in keeping them in the country for longer periods.

“I think of the mountains to our right and how the desert might be beautiful under different circumstances. I hear a dog bark and think of the towns to our left and how the people living there are likely asleep and comfortable. Macario tells me we are in Arizona now. I see no difference.”

This passage exemplifies embodied anthropology, as Holmes provides a first-person account of the sights and sounds of his journey across the US-Mexico border. In other field notes, he emphasizes different bodily responses—notably, the pain in his head, shoulders, back, and knees caused by picking berries.

“The reality of survival for my Triqui companions shows that it would be riskier to stay in San Miguel without work, money, food, or education. In this original context, crossing the border is not a choice to engage in a risk behavior but rather a process necessary to survive, to make life less risky.”

This quote challenges the notion that migrating for work is voluntary rather than necessary. Holmes’s ethnographic research shows that poverty forces Triqui people to migrate. They don’t voluntarily engage in dangerous behavior, a claim often made to justify their mistreatment. Instead, they view migration as less risky than remaining in their hometown of San Miguel.