A Day Without a Mexican

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A Day Without a Mexican
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Sergio Arau
Produced by	Isaac Artenstein
Written by	Sergio Arau Yareli Arizmendi Sergio Guerrero
Starring	Yareli Arizmendi, John Getz, Maureen Flannigan
Music by	Juan Colomer, Molotov
Cinematography	Alan Caudillo
Editing by	Daniel Fort, Shaula Vega (uncredited)
Distributed by	Altavista Films, Televisa Cine
Release date(s)	May 14, 2004
Running time	100 min.
Country	United States, Mexico, Spain
Language	English, Spanish
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

This article is about the 2004 film. For the nationwide boycott in 2006, see Great American Boycott.

A Day Without a Mexican (Spanish: Un Día sin mexicanos, which translates to A Day without Mexicans) is a 2004 film directed by Sergio Arau.

A Day Without a Mexican, opened on May 14, 2004 in limited release throughout Southern California and on September 17 in theaters in Chicago, Texas, Florida and New York City, is a fantasy in which all Latinos in the U.S. state of California suddenly disappear.

1 Plot
2 Claims in the film
- 2.1 On-screen statements
- 2.2 In-film claims
3 Criticisms of the title
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film takes a satirical look at the range of effects on the (non-Latino, mostly White) Californians who remain. This film does not dwell on the mechanics of how Latinos disappear. The disappearance coincides with a "pink fog" which surrounds California. Nothing crosses the pink fog border, and it is said to be responsible for the lack of telephone and internet communications outside the state.

[edit] Claims in the film

[edit] On-screen statements

The film has a series of statements which are written in white text on the screen throughout the film. Sources for these statements are not provided anywhere in the film. These statements, in order of appearance, include:

Guatemalans and Hondurans are not Mexicans
There are 40 countries south of the border
20% of California K-12 teachers are Hispanic.
8 of the L.A. Dodgers are Latino (they are of African origin)
Senator Shaw (a character in the movie) is a "closet Latino"
Every Hispanic on the West Coast is presumed to be Mexican
Agriculture is California's #1 industry, not Hollywood (This is correct; see Economy of California)
60% of construction-workers in California are Hispanics. (Actually, 34% of construction workers in California are Hispanics.[1])
Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Nevada used to be part of Mexico. (This is correct, see Mexican-American War)
The wall is 12 ft high recycled Gulf War landing plates. (Actually, most of the current wall consists of landing plates from an even older war, the Vietnam War. [2])

[edit] In-film claims

During one of the film's many montages, the following conversation is heard in Spanish, and depicted in English subtitles:

―Ay Piolin, did you know the most popular name in California is Joe?

―No way Telorino, the most popular name for babies being born in California is not Joe, or John, or Jack… its [sic] José. Yes sir, José!

According to the Social Security Administration, the top 5 male names in California in 2004 (source) were:

Daniel (4,095)
Anthony (3,739)
Andrew (3,425)
Jose (3,312)
Jacob (3,290)

One of the characters says that, "90% of the crops in the State were picked by Mexican, undocumented workers, crossing the border…" See illegal alien and migrant worker. Accurate statistics about the percentage of employers who hire migrant workers are hard to find because of the number of falsified documents used by those not authorized to work in the United States.

One of the characters says, "They were saying, 'Latinos take $3 billion in social services and don't pay any taxes.' Turns out it's a big lie. There was $100 billion, we figured out, was what the Latinos were contributing to the economy of the State of California…" Presumably the filmmakers meant illegal aliens and not Latinos, since most Latinos do pay taxes. Actually, immigrant expenditures for both legal and illegal foreign-born Mexican migrants at the state and local level total $11.8 billion, and revenues total $11.6 billion, for a shortfall of about $200 million in costs for immigration, both legal and illegal. The actual purchasing power of foreign-born Mexicans is $51 billion. [3]

During a scene where the border patrol is sitting around without work, one officer is playing cards. Subtitles show up as he turns over the cards saying "deck of the missing." The pictures are of missing Californian Latinos, and the last one the officer flips over is Cheech Marin, a Californian Chicano and half of the "Cheech and Chong" duo.

[edit] Criticisms of the title

In the United States, "Hispanic" generally refers to people whose background is from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America, or the original settlers of the traditionally Spanish- and Mexican-held Southwestern United States.

In the United States, Latino generally refers to people living in the United States who are of Latin American background, regardless of the language they speak.

The film's title implies that it will be a film about the disappearance of Mexicans, but it is actually about the disappearance of Latinos. The film states that, "every Hispanic on the West coast is presumed to be Mexican".

The film seems to use the terms Latino, Hispanic, Mexican, and illegal alien interchangeably. See also: Chicano and Mexican-American.

Civil rights leader Erick Gonzalez was the original person to question the title.