During this past spring break, I spent my time in Michigan and had the opportunity to join Dylan Miner’s class tour of La Otra Frontera. Our first stop was the Detroit Institute of Arts to view Diego Rivera’s murals. Followed by a drive through the Detroit–Windsor Tunnel to see the Border Cultures exhibit at the Art Gallery of Windsor. And finally, a return drive over the Ambassador Bridge to Southwest Detroit (Mexicantown) to see some Chicana/o murals!
Oxnard’s Strawberries, Bowling Green, OH (2014).
I came across Oxnard’s strawberries a couple of weeks ago in Ohio. I was not surprised, but it’s connected to my lectures in my “Race and Labor in the United States” class. I had my students reading, Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States, which focused on the structural violence toward farmworkers, especially indigenous Mexican migrants. Hopefully, my students took away the following points from the book:
“They [migrants] dedicate everything to the fields in the United States, their labor and skills, their energy and time, and their identities and reputations, as well as their minds and bodies.” (30)
“American society gains much from migrant laborers and give little back beyond criminalization, stress, and injury.” (197)
c/s
