Full Description
They Leave Their Kidneys in the Fields takes the reader on an ethnographic tour of the melon and corn harvesting fields of California's Central Valley to understand why farmworkers suffer heatstroke and chronic illness at rates higher than workers in any other industry. Through captivating accounts of the daily lives of a core group of farmworkers over nearly a decade, Sarah Bronwen Horton documents in startling detail how a tightly interwoven web of public policies and private interests creates exceptional and needless suffering.
Contents
Acknowledgments Introduction
1. Burning Up: Heat Illness in California's Fields
2. Entering Farm Work: Migration and Men's Work Identities
3. Ghost Workers: The Labor Consequences of Identity Loan
4. Presión Alta: The Physiological Toll of Farm Work
5. Álvaro's Casket: Heat Illness and Chronic Disease at Work
6. Desabilitado: Kidney Disease and the Disability- Assistance Hole
Conclusion: Strategies for Change
Appendix A. On Engaged Anthropology and Ethnographic Writing
Appendix B. Methods
Appendix C. Core Research Participants
Notes
References
Index
