Posted on 05/24/2004 4:52:39 PM PDT by chance33_98
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at hispanicbusiness.com ...
Wait--he wants me to vanish? What the heck? My grandparents were born in this country. Whoop dee ding dong that their parents were from Mexico. They ran away from that cesspool long ago, and good riddance.
Oh, sorry. He meant ILLEGAL Latinos, mostly illegal Mexicans. Well then damn, the education problems would probably be solved, workers comp would go down, my car and healthcare insurance rates would plummet. Unemployed poor white, black and hispanic people would have a chance at a job.
Sounds like a good idea. Where do I sign up to make this reality?
I forgot to add the crime rate would go down and the Latino Gangbangers would disappear.
bttt
Roll forward to 2000. My son WANTED to work at Burger King or McDonald's or just about any fast food restaurant to earn money for the same reasons I earned money at his age. No way. The Mexicans CONTROLLED the kitchen and hiring decisions. The only way he broke through their stranglehold on the restaurant jobs was to prove he could speak Spanish as good as any latino on the staff.
My son gets the last laugh. He is now a licensed real estate agent in San Diego. He works for a naturalized citizen from Mexico City. He conducts his real estate transactions in Spanish from beginning to end. He graduated with a 4.33 GPA and enough AP credits to be a college sophomore on his high school graduation day. San Diego State Business School has admitted him to an international business degree program with specialization in Mexico. He already runs the real estate office except for the required signatures from his boss with the broker's license. He will be seeking his own broker's license in 18 months and will have a solid background in how to run a real estate business.
My son is also a LCPL in the USMC Reserves. He just earned the "Marine of the Quarter" award. That puts him in the running for promotion to CPL this quarter. He might yet get another tour in Iraq. Landing in Kuwait City on his 20th birthday was his "sun and sand" vacation gift from the USMC.
The Mexicans with the stranglehold on the fast food employment are still steadfastly working in the kitchen. They have neither the skills nor the ambition to do any better than that.
What if all the whites vanished?
Amazing omission, don't you think?
Great job on raising a great son.
...Let me see if I understand this....the writer thinks that suddenly finding California has a greater percentage of self starters that want to be able to function in the language,culture and business environment of the country in which they live;to lower the tax/admin burden by not immediately seeking a handout/preference as a FIRST resort,who think of themselves as AMERICANS,not Balkanized,ethno-tribalists,and are actually GREATFUL to be here versus sullen,hostile and resentful....the writer thinks that this is a BAD THING??Hell,even the "dishwashing-scutwork"jobs would eventually pay more due to the fact that subsidized illegals would not be competing with legitimate immigrants(and I include LEGAL Mexicans on the road to becomming Americans!)...if no one does the job for one low wage,eventually you either cast more bread opn the waters or nobody shows up for the job opening.
This writer REALLY overestimates both the value of the parasite/sucklig class AND the level of tolerance he thinks he can tap into forever.In fact,I'd say that the well is running dry.....brushfire season comming soon.
"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."
This "gringo" wonders how a movie that purports to fight racism can use a racist term "gringo" to decribe European Americans is as offensive as "wetback" is when used to label Mexican-Americans?
...and our overpriced and overpopulated prison system would be much easier to contend with.
Uh, can I ask a question? Does anyone else think that mariachi music and polkas sound an awful lot alike?
The left has married the words "illegal alien" with Hispanic and Latino. I refuse to buy it.
Well, there goes your technical base.
I'm not "all good" with street vendors and outdoor plumbing.
Lord help us when it comes to running power plants.
Exactly. People like Streistand, Redford would have to pay American workers a decent wage(which they are always carping others to do) or (GASP) forced to clean their own filthy, disase-tainted toilets.
I want equal time for: What if Every Norwegian Vanished from Minnesota?
All latinos? This film can't seriously think they are proving their point by also removing American latinos from the equation. That's just dopey.
When German immigrants settled in Texas the Mexicans took a liking to the oom pah pah and adopted it.
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