Movie Asks: What if Every Latino Vanished from State?

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Movie Asks: What if Every Latino Vanished from State?

May 21, 2004

Emily Bazar -- Bee Staff Writer

Picture waking up one morning to discover that all of California's Latinos - about a third of the state's population - had suddenly disappeared.

Restaurateurs would have to wash their own dishes, Major League Baseball teams would lose some of their best players and the lieutenant governor would be missing in action.

Those scenarios play out in director Sergio Arau's new film, "A Day Without a Mexican," which opens today in Sacramento.

Arau calls the film a "mockumentary" and employs an outlandish plot to make a serious point: Without the more than 12 million Latinos who live and work in California - originally a part of Mexico - the economy would crumble.

The movie is Arau's first feature-length film. The West Hollywood resident has worked in music and video and is the son of Mexican director Alfonso Arau, best known in the United States for the movie "Like Water for Chocolate."

Sergio Arau, 52, traces the roots of his movie back to 1994 and Proposition 187, the initiative that would have banned public services for illegal immigrants. Though its provisions later were gutted by the courts, it spawned a generalized anti-immigrant sentiment that focused on Mexicans and other Latinos.

Yareli Arizmendi, Arau's wife, co-wrote the screenplay and stars in the film. She hopes state lawmakers will listen to the movie's message, and that moviegoers will recognize the contributions Latinos make to society.

"This is a dialogue opener, to change the terms of the debate," Arizmendi, 40, said. "People fail to stop and think how many people of Latin descent or Latinos you meet in your regular day. It's not like you have to go to the Cinco de Mayo parade. It's day-to-day."

The point was driven home to state Assemblyman Abel Maldonado as he ran his mind over a recent morning's activities.

Arriving at the Capitol on Tuesday, Maldonado watched as he passed the men tending to the park and wielding leaf blowers. They were Latino.

The Santa Maria Republican then went to the Hilton to receive an award. The food servers laying out the buffet were Latino. "If you want to take it another step," he added, "who harvested all the food that was on the buffet table?"

Maldonado is of Mexican descent. Born and raised in Santa Maria on the central coast, he and his family grow broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and celery on 2,000 acres. During peak harvest times, the farm employs about 250 workers - mostly Latino.

The lawmaker said he likes the concept behind the movie and notes that he, himself, would disappear should "a day without a Mexican" ever come to pass.

"Latinos, Hispanics, Mexicans, we come here looking for an opportunity. We don't come here looking for handouts," said Maldonado, who is expected to win a seat in the state Senate in November. "What we don't have in wealth, we make it up with our values."

In the movie, there's no explanation for why Latinos disappear. They just do, as a thick fog surrounds the state's borders, cutting off communication with the outside world.

Without Latinos, the state descends into chaos.

It's a thinly veiled political statement cloaked in humor and hyperbole.

While the film may spur discussion and debate, it likely will have little effect in the political arena, said Eric Smoodin, professor of American and film studies at the University of California, Davis.

"It wouldn't surprise me if you could find some films that helped to establish or inspire a public discourse about things," said Smoodin, referring to movies such as "Erin Brockovich" and "Silkwood."

"But I think you'd be hard-pressed to find an instance when a film, even indirectly, led to some government action."

In addition to Sacramento, the film opens today in parts of the Central Valley and Texas.

It debuted last week in Southern California, promoted by an eyebrow-raising ad campaign that included billboards exclaiming "On May 14th there will be no Mexicans in California."

Glenn Garland, partner and creative director for Eleven-Eleven Advertising in Santa Monica, said billboards are expected to go up in Northern California in the next two weeks. The movie's radio and newspaper advertising started in Sacramento on Thursday.

An ad that is expected to hit Spanish language press will say "Un Día Sin Mexicanos 'La Movie': Los Gringos van a llorar" or "A Day Without a Mexican 'The Movie': Gringos will cry."

The film is opening in Sacramento even before it opens in the Bay Area, a strategy based on a view beyond box office receipts.

[FITZ]

Notice -- there is nothing even close to a Republican or a Conservative in Mexico --- not running for office, and not voting. All their political parties are some kind of socialists or communists and they have free elections there. We know how they are likely to vote by looking at how they have been voting. You just don't magically become a Republican by swimming the Rio Grande --- or what it's being called now --- the Rio Bravo.

[GOPJ]

Cheap labor stops innovation. California would have sophisticated machines picking grapes if it weren't for cheap labor.

[Ed Straker]

The only time I've heard the term 'wetback' used was by a Hispanic friend, born in Texas, referring to illegals from Mexico. He also used the F word in front of it. No one hates illegals more than U.S. born Hispanics, and I don't blame them.

[Polybius]

I'm Italian and I'm sick of Hispanics being called Latin....

Actually, being "Italian" would not necessarily have made your ancestors any more "Latin" than my ancestors from Hispania.

"Latin" only refers to the inhabitants of Latium.

The Latins (Romans) then went on to conquer the rest of Italia that consisted of the Sabines, the Oscans, the Volscians, the Umbrians, the Etruscans, the Ligurians, the Faliscans, the Messapics, the Venetics, the Raetics, the Celts of Cis-Alpine Gaul and the Greeks of Magna Graecia.

Most of Italia and Hispania was populated by "Latins by conquest" except for the actual Latin conquerors that settled in the conquered regions.

Mexicans later became "Latin by conquest by the Latins by conquest".

The fact remains that the Mexican mestizo speaks a language that was passed on (with evolution) directly from the Roman Legionnaire to the Hispaniensi to the Castillian Conquistadors to the Mexican Indians and is therefore a language that traces it's roots directly back to ancient Latium.

The Italian American who only speaks English has broken that linguistic link.

Bronze Teruncius of Capua, Campania, Italia, circa 216-211 BC, with Oscan legend.

[antaresequity]

I would have to go to Taco Bell for a burrito [sic], instead La Haustica on Lincoln.

[ampat]

Exactly. The title should read "What if every illegal latino vanished from the state (including gangs)".

[Betis70]

>>I'm Italian and I'm sick of Hispanics being called Latin,

Maybe your Roman ancestors shouldn't have done such a good job kicking Iberian butt. ;-)

I had a Romanian girlfriend for a while in grad school, and she was confused by the whole 'Latino' term as well.

What I find funny is when Mexicans or Peruvians (or most anyone from Latin America) get all bent out of shape because I call myself an American, since "America" can refer to the whole north and south. And yet they see no problem taking the term 'Latino' and effectively ignoring Italians, French, Romanians, and Portugese. For some reason I think they include Brazilians with the term.

[Betis70]

The Romans gave my favorite soccer team their name (and part of my screen name).

Baetica.

[Chi-Town Lady]

I'm game!

I say that they give it a try and see what happens. I see a lot less violence, more money in the budget for LEGAL residents, less congestion, and ENGLISH spoken everywhere!

[Chi-Town Lady]

"What if all the whites vanished?"

Who'd pay all the bills?