During World War II, Japanese living on the West Coast of the United States were forced to live in internment camps, so great was the fear that they would commit acts of sabotage. Yet Japanese living in Hawai`i were not relocated, primarily because the economy of the Islands would have been mortally wounded; Japanese then accounted for some 37 percent of the Island population. A Day Without a Mexican embarks on a premise of what might have been a worst-case scenario for Hawai`i, namely, that Mexicans would suddenly disappear from California, including undocumented aliens, thus leaving the remaining 66 percent of non-Mexicans without basic services. Much of the film focuses on how the media covers the catastrophe, notably the only Mexican not to disappear, TV news anchor Lila Rodriguez (played by Yareli Arizmendi). When the film begins, Mexicans are as usual providing television news, cooking meals in homes of the affluent, State Senator Abercrombie (played by John Getz) has nasty things to say about "Latinos," Mexicans are trying to sneak past the Border Patrol, schools are operating, and other assorted activities of daily life in California are ongoing. The following day, the television newscasters are missing, affluent parents have to cook their own breakfasts, Abercrombie becomes governor in the absence of the Mexican Governor and Mexican Lieutenant Governor, schools are closed, the freeways are empty, the Border Patrol has nothing to do, and there are even more consequences. As the day proceeds, fresh fruits and vegetables are absent from supermarkets, so residents fight over the previous day's supply, which they presumably must hoard. Soon, Abercrombie and others change their minds about the desirability of Mexicans, documented or otherwise. From time to time, factoids appear on the screen, such as that 20 percent of schoolteachers are Mexican and that 90 percent of agricultural workers are Mexican. That not all Latinos or Hispanics in California are Mexicans is mentioned more than once, but that point appears to be a subliminal reference to the less well educated Salvadorans, the second most numerous Hispanic group in California. Although the film, directed by Sergio Arau, is intended to be a satire, based on a 1988 documentary of the same title, the jokewriter has hardly developed a laugh-a-minute script. The propaganda elements of the mokumentary compete with the comedy, and the point of the story should be obvious to those who see the movie. The bigots who grumble about Hispanics, unfortunately, will not view the film, and Professor Samuel Huntington, author of the recent book The Hispanic Challenge (which attacks Mexicans for being unassimilable), will doubtless remain unconvinced. The day after, when Mexicans return and are better appreciated, is similarly underplayed. MH
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