Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies Character Analysis

Seth Holmes

Seth Holmes is the author of Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies. A physician and anthropologist, Holmes studied Triqui migrant farmworkers in order to understand the relationship among immigration, healthcare, public policy, social hierarchy, and preventable… read analysis of Seth Holmes

Samuel

Samuel is one of Holmes’s closest Triqui friends at the Tanaka Brothers Farm. Holmes stays with Samuel and his extended family in his hometown of San Miguel, as well as in California’s Central Valley… read analysis of Samuel

Abelino

Abelino is one of Holmes’s three main case studies at the Tanaka Brothers Farm. He’s a Triqui man who starts suffering severe knee pain after several years working as a strawberry picker. This pain… read analysis of Abelino

Crescencio

One of Holmes’s three case studies at the Tanaka Brothers Farm, Crescencio suffers from severe headaches that begin whenever his supervisors yell insults like “stupid Oaxacan” at him. This is a clear illustration of… read analysis of Crescencio

Bernardo

Bernardo is an older Triqui man who started migrating to the United States for work in the 1980s and was granted U.S. residency under an amnesty program. Ever since, he divides his time between his… read analysis of Bernardo

Samantha

Samantha is a white administrative assistant at the Tanaka Brothers Farm who helps translate and interpret between English and Spanish. Even though she can communicate with them, she still thinks Mexican workers are “‘dirty’ and… read analysis of Samantha

Shelly

Shelly is a white manager at the Tanaka Brothers Farm who is married to one of its owners, Rob Tanaka. One of the farm’s more egregiously racist workers, Shelly supervises the white teenagers who… read analysis of Shelly

J.R.

J.R. is an old white man in California’s Central Valley who voices numerous racist beliefs about Latinx people. For instance, he says that Mexican migrant workers are “filthy” but thinks farm owners shouldn’t provide them… read analysis of J.R.

The Triqui Migrants’ Coyote

An anonymous coyote helps Holmes and his Triqui companions cross the U.S.-Mexico border. He lets Holmes cross for free because of his noble intentions, while charging much poorer migrants thousands of dollars to help them… read analysis of The Triqui Migrants’ Coyote

Scott

Scott is a crop manager who struggles to manage field workers at the Tanaka Brothers Farm. Like most white workers at the farm, he both recognizes structural violence and naturalizes it through symbolic violence… read analysis of Scott

John Tanaka

John Tanaka is the co-owner of the Tanaka Brothers Farm, along with his brother Rob Tanaka. Although he is well-meaning and charitable in some ways, John Tanaka exploits his workers to stay competitive in… read analysis of John Tanaka

Minor Characters

Rob Tanaka

Rob Tanaka is Shelly’s husband, John Tanaka’s brother, and the co-owner of the Tanaka Brothers Farm. He manages all the fruit production and tells Holmes about how difficult it is to stay competitive with industrial farms while treating workers in a “fair and consistent” way.

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies Characters