A Day Without A Mexican?Imagine It ~ May 14, 2004.

Your child's nanny, a housekeeper, a police officer, your city council member, the security guard at your bank, your gardener, or your mechanic. Now imagine A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN. Who would teach your children because ~ who knew? ~ 20% of the schoolteachers in California are Latino/a. Gone, too, would be fire department personnel, medical staff, postal workers, chefs, waiters, bank tellers, business owners, people we all depend on.

Exactly what would your life be like on A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN? (I can tell you right now, Chad's life would be awful and empty without a Mexican, namely, me! Por supuesto! Ahh, but I digress.). A friend sent me this article about this concept:

Such is the premise of the bold new movie A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN ~ the outrageously funny, cautionary tale of the state of California, which one-day discovers that one third of its population has disappeared. As time goes by, the state begins to deteriorate; what was once the fifth largest economy in the world tumbles, leaving economic, political and social despair. The realization that what has disappeared is the very thing that keeps the "California Dream" running - cooks, gardeners, policemen, nannies, teachers, doctors, farm and construction workers, entertainers, athletes, as well as the largest growing market of consumers - has turned Latinos and their return into the number one priority of the state. How do you make the invisible visible? You take it away...

A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN (in theaters on May 14, 2004; check your local listings or this Confirmed Theater List) is the directorial debut of accomplished artist and musician Sergio Arau, son of acclaimed Mexican director Alfonso Arau ("Like Water for Chocolate") and is based on the short film: "A Day Without a Mexican: a mockumentary" by Yareli Arizmendi and Sergio Arau. A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN stars Yareli Arizmendi, John Getz, Maureen Flannigan, Muse Watson, Caroline Aaron, Melinda Allen, Fernando Arau and Eduardo Palomo. The feature was shot entirely on location in California, primarily in San Diego.

GENESIS:
"It's important to me that everything I create has a political and social message and that it's always cloaked in humor," states director Sergio Arau. He describes A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN as a "mockumentary feature." "Whether it's a political cartoon or a piece of art, humor is always the best way to address a tough issue."

Arau's approach to filmmaking is shared by his actress, writer and producer wife Yareli Arizmendi, who is best known for her role as "Rosaura" in "Like Water for Chocolate." In 1998, Arizmendi and Arau developed the provocative concept for a short film: "What if one morning California wakes up to find that one-third of its population has disappeared?" Struck with this idea, they decided to make their first short "A Day Without a Mexican: a mockumentary." The 28-minute comedic film told the story of the day that Latinos disappear from the state of California. Commissioned by the Mexican Fine Arts Museum of Chicago, the film was very well received on the domestic and international festival circuits, winning several awards including the Audience Award in Argentina and the Best Short Award at the San Juan Cinefest in Puerto Rico. The film was also invited to screen at festivals in New York, Chicago, Taos, Los Angeles, Havana and Mexico.

It also attracted the attention of various international distributors. As a result, in 2003, three leading distributors: Videocine (Mexico), Altavista (Mexico) and Plural (Spain) offered to develop and fund the feature length version based on the award-winning short. The feature was directed by Arau with Arizmendi again participating as principal actress. She also wrote with Sergio Guerrero and Arau. Eckehardt Von Damm and Isaac Artenstein produced.

"It was quite magical in a way," recalls Arizmendi. " The distributors had seen the short and the reactions of international audiences and were so confident in us that we had the green light on the feature before they had seen the script."

Arizmendi recalled the origin of the idea for the short film and its title - A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN. "It was 1994 and Pete Wilson was running for re-election in California and was pushing Proposition 187 as 'the' solution to the state's problems. Sergio and I were in New York and there were banners all around New York City stating "A Day Without Art" - it was the day when all art institutions were shut down to commemorate those who died of AIDS and remind us what a void it would be to be 'Artless.'"

"Sergio and I were discussing Wilson's policies when I turned to him and said 'What California needs is a day without a Mexican!' We couldn't stop talking about the idea and all the implications - humorous and otherwise."

Arau adds: "A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN was definitely the most provocative title choice and the decision to leave in the word 'Mexican' was very deliberate. We did this for historical reasons because the word 'Mexican' has become a pejorative word in our language, and I want to change that. Any Latino on the West Coast is presumed to be a 'Mexican' and we use comedy to toy with these perceptions and stereotypes in the film."

Arau and Arizmendi are both very politically aware and committed to social change. They began their artistic collaborations with the stage production "Penny Envy/La Envidia del Penny" a political satire dealing with the Free Trade Agreement. Arizmendi with a B.A. in Political Science and an M.F.A. in Theatre from UCSD has worked with Luis Valdez and Teatro Campesino, toured with Teatro de la Esperanza to Nicaragua and participated with the Border Art Workshop in countless events and exhibits. She also developed the Watcha! Stage Café, a social satire cabaret, at the Centro Cultural De La Raza in San Diego. In 1974, before attending film school, Arau founded the still popular newspaper "Uno Mas Uno" in Mexico City. In 1979 he re-established "La Garrapata," the satirical and controversial humorous magazine, first established in 1968. In 1980, he founded another top newspaper, "La Jornada." Arau has also won multiple awards for his satirical political cartoons. Having initially studied film before his art and music careers took off, Arau found switching mediums to be a natural process. "The creative process is exactly the same. The big difference is that you have to convince many more people to get them to see what you see. My experience as a political cartoonist forced me to synthesize big concepts in one image; to be precise, cut the excess."

Arizmendi explained why they felt that A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN was an important film to make: "Sergio and I don't separate the private and the political. We feel that each person can make a difference. We also think that immigration will be the theme of the 21st century and that we could really lead the way on this in California." Arizmendi has always been fascinated with the concept of cultural identity. Her one-woman show - "Nostalgia Maldita: 1-900-MEXICO," which PBS featured on their "Heritage Series," is an ironic look at living a bi-national, bi-cultural reality. Born in Mexico, she has lived in the United States for over 20 years. "I came here at age 14 from Mexico with a very strong cultural identity but I grew to learn what it is to be considered Latino here. I studied in Kansas and loved it but there was tremendous ignorance there. I remember my boyfriend at the time saying that he wanted to introduce me to his Mother, who remarked: " If she's not very dark, I suppose it's ok.' That was a very startling thing to be confronted with."

It's these experiences that have helped shape Arizmendi's character Lila Rodriguez. "Lila is very dear to me and feels very real to me as a woman,"states Arizmendi. "Lila embodies a woman that works hard to establish herself- in the work place and in her community, even if it means to stray far from her cultural roots. After the disappearance her cultural identity becomes a central theme for this character. 'Where do we hold our identity?' For Lila it's in her heart." Arau explains further: "That's what we wanted to tap into with the film, not just a general statement about one culture but a more universal theme. We also wanted to give the story a human face. This is an American story - any immigrant group could and does have a Lila."

Arizimendi compares the creative process of shooting the short film to working on the full-length feature: "On the short, the two of us had to do everything which also allows you a certain creative freedom especially with the comedy aspect. We improvised as we went along using friends as actors and they improvised too. With the feature, it was very different ~ the script was totally locked before production ~ it took two years to finish writing it." When it came to casting the feature Arau and Arizmendi tried to find a place for all the actors and crew who had worked with them on the short film. Arau adds "The biggest challenge of going from a short film to a full-length feature is maintaining the audience's interest for 90 minutes! They'll forgive you in a short, but in a full-length they'll walk out. The difficulty with a concept as strong as A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN is that the minute a person hears it, they've got their own film going in their head. The challenge was to meet their expectations and still surprising them."

As an accomplished and award-winning musician, Arau was naturally very involved in the music for the film. "Prior to actually shooting scenes, I could already hear the music, the rhythm it should move at. I composed various songs for the film and invited other musicians to collaborate. I had a pretty defined concept for the soundtrack. I wanted it to sound totally different from what had been used so far in 'Latino' films. Of course I wanted it to reflect the bicultural reality, but not in an easy, expected or stereotypical way." The song sung by Roberto in the garage "Sin Decir Adios" (Without Saying Goodbye) was central to the film and became even dearer to both Sergio and Yareli. Eduardo Palomo, a dear personal friend and the actor who plays Roberto passed away a few months after completing the film.

As writer and actress, Arizmendi also had two distinct roles in the project. "I definitely see myself first and foremost as 'an actress who writes,' states Arizmendi. "As an actress I'm invited to interpret other's work, I feel I have to be very responsible with other people's words. With my own writing I write about things that I think need to be said and no one else is addressing."

On collaborating with her husband Arizmendi admits: "We are lucky that as professionals our personalities and views are very similar and most importantly that we share a similar sense of humor. However, our life experiences are actually quite different. I have been in the U.S. for the last 23 years and Sergio has only been here since 1992 ~ it's still fairly new to him."

One of the themes that the film explores is the idea of an "invisible people" and Arizmendi explains this concept: "Sergio has had experience of this first-hand. Coming from Mexico where he was a big star to the U.S. where as a Latino, he became instantly 'invisible.'" Arau elaborates on this: "My personal experience of moving to the U.S. and not speaking the language, and thus becoming a minority for the first time at 41 is in the film 100%. Crossing the border seemed to delete all my past professional achievements. I experienced discrimination first-hand. The minute most people here heard an accent, a Mexican accent that is, they figured it was too much work and probably not a good investment of their time to get to know me. So instead of spending time and money in therapy, I invested a lot of my time and somebody else's money on filmmaking!"

Arizmendi concludes: "Ultimately, this film comes from a very positive place - it asks the questions 'where are we going to go from here?'

The overriding message is 'let's be respectful of one another.' Everybody in the world has their own history, story, worries, desires and dreams ~ with this film we are stressing the similarities as opposed to the differences and doing it with laugher - which is, after all, the most universal language."

Comments

[Marisol]

I think this film is going to be great.Mexican's/Hispanic's are so sterotyped it becomes a joke to see how ignorant people really are.The comments lots of people make..."Oh,one of my bestfriends are Hispanic" Give me a break...stop trying so hard to be our friend!..lol
Brilliant idea to have made this movie...A BIG UPS TO THE DIRECTOR...thanks for bringing ingnorance of our culture to others and to show everyone how great our culture really is!!

[Carmen Pilar]

I can't wait to see this film! Thank you for putting our feelings into images that will communicate a people's struggle for a better life. Please make sure that people in L.A are aware of this film being in theatres. There have been times when great movies such as this one don't get much publicity y se nos pansan. I don't want to miss this movie, please make sure to spread the word. Felicidades!

[Bev]

Y ahora que!! Gracias, voy a tratar todo lo posible por verla. WOW you know there is so much especially for the latinos in college who are buying into the middle class, and not seeing the embedded racism... Our movement is slowly but surely happening!!! Peace, amor y JOY

[Karen Reynolds]

This sounds so interesting. I am a Gringo in Olympia, Washington who wants to learn more about Mexican and other Latino cultures. This movie sounds like one that would be a good teaching tool; I want to suggest it to the instructor of my "Race and Ethnicity" class at the community college.

[Lucy]

Every Mexican and Latino that I know have talked about this concept and to now finally have the opportunity to see it in film is so exciting. Buena Suerte, Lucy/Westminster

[donatella club ufficiale eduardo palomo]

ESTE ARTICULO ES MUY LINDO, FELICITACIONES A SERGIO E YARELI , ESPERO EL FILM EN ITALIA. EL FILM DEBEA ESTAR MUY LINDO Y DESPUES ES EL ULTIMO FILM DEL GRAN ACTOR EDUARDO PALOMO EN LA PARTE DE UN MUSICISTA MEXICANO CASADO CON UNA GRINGA EL CUAL DESAPARECE.
DESPUES EL FILM HABLA DE VERDAD, JO HA SIDO EN LOS ANGELES Y HE VEO QUE LOS MEXICANOS HACHEN LOS TRABAJOS MAS FUERTE Y DE FATIGA QUE ES CIERTO NO HACHEN LOS AMERICANOS.
DONATELLA CLUB E SITO UFFICIALE EDUARDO PALOMO

http://www.eduardopalomoclub.it/

[IVAR]

CANT WAIT TO SEE IT :-)YOU HAVE MY SUPPORT! WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN INVOLVED. IVAR, CHICAGO

[Dragonflypurity]

wow. what an awesome concept for a movie. Now I am on a mission to find it. :) Thanks for filling me in !

[Chad]

When I imagine a day without Mexicans it brings me to tears. What would I do without Mari? I'm all verklempt.