"Fresh fruits, broken bodies", the ethnographic account of Mexican migrant Farmworkers in the United States by our Seth Holmes, was published only a couple of months ago for UC Press, and has since received considerable media attention, including a recent interview with Eliza Barclay of NPR, which can be read here.
Here we publish a short excerpt from an article signed by the author himself that appeared on Salon in July.
"Who dreams this American dream and who does not? [..]
Over the past several years, I have lived in labor camps with, picked berries with, and interviewed many indigenous Mexican migrants in the United States and Mexico.[...] The indigenous Mexican migrant farmworkers I know want to be Mexican citizens, living primarily in their hometowns in the southern Mexican states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Guerrero. They want Mexico to be their home. [...] Sadly, the Border Patrol policies (such as “prevention through deterrence”) that encourage migrants to cross in increasingly dangerous areas have increased risk and death on the border. And ironically, the increasing border enforcement is encouraging those who have crossed in the past to stay longer and longer in the United States, instead of doing what they would have chosen to do: return home after the harvest season each year".
The full piece can be read here. Seth's book can be ordered here.
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