STRAWBERRIES AND SUFFERING

Social Inequalities, Symbolic Violence, and Health in US-Mexico Migration

Seth M. Holmes, M.D., Ph.D. Internal Medicine and Cultural Anthropology Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar,

Columbia University

Skagit Valley: Tanaka Farm

Central Valley of California

Triqui Zone of Oaxaca, Mexico

U.S. / MEXICO BORDER

Presentation Structure

Ethnicity-citizenship hierarchy

in U.S. agriculture Hierarchy of suffering Naturalization of hierarchies

THE TANAKA FARM

THE ANTHROPOLOGIST

THE HIERARCHY OF SUFFERINGor HEALTH DISPARITIES

Immigrants in the U.S. Agricultural workers Migrant and seasonal farm workers

THE HIERARCHY OF SUFFERINGor “The Doctors Don’t Know Anything”

Skagit County Farmland

COLLECTIVE BAD FAITH

THE CLINICAL GAZE IN MIGRANT HEALTH

NATURALIZATIONand INTERNALIZATION

PRAGMATIC SOLIDARITY

Micro to Macro Continuum– Local clinical encounter– Medical education– Local and regional prejudices– National policies– Global policies

Acknowledgements

Triqui people Tanaka Farm Clinicians Area residents Family and friends Professors and classmates UCSF, UC Berkeley, UPenn, Columbia U, Harvard U NIH, NIGMS, MSTP, UCMexus, UCSF Dean’s Office