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 ...
Columbus never set foot in North America, by the way. I'm American, neither German nor English....but I suppose you're asking my ethnic origin. It's Anglo-Saxo-Viking-Pictish-Briton if you must know, and I'm neither proud nor ashamed of it. Besides, it has no place in a discussion over legal vs. illegal immigration.
I have no problem with Italians or with Americans who claim to be "Italian". You're the one who's got a problem, calling on ancient history when we're talking about today, here and now. You wouldn't bring up ancient history if you only merely had a problem with someone's immigration status.
Thankfully I don't live around people so ignorant as to call me a wetback illegal. Why don't you get angry at people who hurl ethnic slurs? Suppose someone confused you for a Arab? Or maybe black? I never put words in your mouth either so I have no idea what you're talking about.
LOL! Splendid allusion.
So what? California is full of teenagers, underemployed minorities, and retired seniors who can do a good deal of this work. As for a lot of it, people can learn to mow their own lawns and change their own kids' diapers. Might be good for them.
Yeah, but how would they vote if a conservative ran for President? How would they vote if we had a President that didn't want to pander to criminals?
"You are neither cold nor hot, and I shall therefore spew..."
You never stand for anything, so in the end you will have stood for nothing. Live free or die in America, I says. BTW, I don't need a history lesson from wiseacres like you, I had plenty getting a minor in college. So I guess Columbus DIDN'T discover America then huh? doh, it's all our turf. Except for that glorious little Hispanic Island paradise called Cuba, right? And Venezuela, they're just like the US right? And all the rest including Mexico, puh-leeze. You are as obtuse as you are obstinate. Remind me not to waste bandwidth on you again.
Probably the Arizona Border Patrol held their annual hunt in California, or Pat Buchanan found an ancient lamp on the beach and rubbed it.
I'm very sorry, that was meant for that wimp.
fair enough
LOL! It does doesn't it!
Does the film contain any scenes of near-empty prisons?
Columbus Day IS one of my favorites. I work only because CC wasn't a lazy man *lol*. I don't think people really have a clue about what Columbus actions meant for this age but I'll leave that to people to find out themselves. In every day life I can really care less also BUT if someone starts talking crap around me, I'll let them have it. Right now I'm more concerned about making money hehehe.
I don't know, I know 1/2 of all white people vote communist- for f-n' shame; European-blood should know better.
Hello, I'm a Hispanic Freeper also. There are a few jerks around here, don't worry about them, just state the facts about Hispanic Americans 85% are legal; 33-50% are Repulican; Catholics are natural castituants of Republicans- Communist suck a$$ as do jack asses... the standard stuff. I had a Hispanic ping list but I get too caught up in my own world. I'll see if I can dig it up.
Nice to meet you. One day I'll be a rich Hispanic like my father who hire white folk.
"White folk?" If, as you state, that 85% of Hispanic Americans are legal; then I assume that most of them have been here for at least a generation or two. By which point, they should have stopped referring to themselves as "hispanic-Americans." My ancestors, from varying countries, NEVER referred to themselves as anything but "Americans" and were proud to do so.
Perhaps you would find more friends if you didn't refer to yourself by using some sort of liberal victim-class terminology. Of course, it's obvious by your use of "white folk" that you see yourself as superior in some way. Otherwise, you would have said "I can hire other Americans."
I'll assume they're talking about the population of "latinos" that recently came from Mexico --- well --- they suddenly disappeared out of Mexico and you don't see anyone in Mexico complaining --- least of all Vicente Fox who screamed "we're going for more! we're going for more!" when he heard Bush discussing his amnesty plan.
The sentiment was already spawned.. hence the proposition.
I can't believe "hispanics" of American ancestry, or those "hispanic" professional types that live in California and others wouldn't find this movie extremely offensive. For one equating all people with Spanish last names with illegals, and implying we only need people with Spanish last names to wash dishes, mow our lawns, pick our grapes. After all there are Spanish sur-named doctors, engineers, etc --- in fact if you took away the immigrant factor, many of the "hispanics" aren't from immigrant families at all, many have lived in the USA for generations -- before the USA came so far west --- and not only that --- without the immigrants, their statistics for poverty and crime would not be worse than whites or others.
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