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 during the winter. His experience is relatively typical of the Triqui migrants who work on farms in the United States. Through his friendship with Samuel, Holmes learns about the undocumented people’s struggle to find housing in the United States, the racist discrimination they face from local white residents there, and the violence and poverty that force Triqui people to leave Oaxaca in the first place.
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Samuel Character Timeline in Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies
The timeline below shows where the character Samuel appears in Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Introduction: “Worth Risking Your Life?”
...family of 18 people in a three-bedroom apartment. He passed the spring with his friend Samuel’s extended family in San Miguel, where he received plenty of threats and suspicion, and then...
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Chapter 2: “We Are Field Workers”: Embodied Anthropology of Migration
Samuel, one of the Triqui workers, explains that he and other migrants sacrifice their families, bodies,...
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...to many people. For instance, when he goes to the laundromat with his Triqui friend Samuel, another migrant assumes that he’s Samuel’s boss. Samuel and many of the other migrants explain...
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...while looking down on Indigenous workers. Whereas Burger King workers wouldn't correct an error with Samuel’s order, they immediately do so when Holmes asks. While medical staff ignore Triqui workers’ questions...
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Chapter 3: Segregation on the Farm: Ethnic Hierarchies at Work
Similarly, Samuel tells Holmes that he only really gets paid $20 a day, which comes out to...
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...a spy or criminal, and they point out that he works very slowly. Others admire him—Samuel even jokes that Holmes could become the mayor of San Miguel. But Samuel also knows...
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California. Holmes remembers driving from Washington to California’s Central Valley with Samuel and his family. For a week, they sleep in their cars and struggle to find...
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Chapter 6: “Because They’re Lower to the Ground”: Naturalizing Social Suffering
...remembers that he used to do the same when he was homeless in California with Samuel’s family. He points out that poor people tend to live and work in dirtier conditions...
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