- (Note - Interesting how the film ignores the billions
of dollars that illegals cost California every year, such as $1 billion
a year in medical care to illegals; $2.2 billion to educate illegal alien
children; and $7 billion a year in unpaid taxes because of underground
transactions by illegals. Not to mention the incurable diseases such as
AIDS, hepatitis and Chagas that are gifted to USA citizens by illegal aliens.
Oh, and let's not forget that 25 percent of all inmates in California prisons
are illegals from Mexico. And then there's that $30 billion sent out of
the US every year by illegals instead of being used to help support our
ailing economy... -ed.)
-
- LOS ANGELES (AP) -- California
is home to 12 million Hispanics, about one-third of the state's population.
What if they all disappeared?
-
- In Sergio Arau's new comedy A Day Without a Mexican,
the answer is chaos. Cafes lose waiters, vegetables rot in the fields,
schools are left without teachers and elected officials, including the
lieutenant-governor, vanish.
-
- "The idea of the film was to make the invisible
visible," said Arau, a native of Mexico and the son of actor-director
Alfonso Arau. "It's like a car. If you take away a tire, you will
notice."
-
- The movie, which debuts Friday in Southern California,
is scheduled for wide release over the summer. It's being distributed by
Spanish-language media conglomerate Televisa.
-
- The $2-million US, documentary-style film pokes fun at
almost everyone in its effort to highlight the roles of Hispanics in U.S.
society.
-
- "So many films about immigration are very serious
or tragic," said Sergio Arau, the film's director and co-writer. "But
humour is the best way to talk about serious themes because people relax
and are more open."
-
- Arau's wife, Yareli Arizmendi, who appeared in his father's
film Like Water for Chocolate, stars as TV reporter Lila Rodriguez, California's
last Hispanic, whose search for the missing becomes the latest in reality
TV.
-
- As she searches, low-riders bounce driverless along the
street and the Los Angeles Dodgers must cancel games because they don't
have enough players, although the National Basketball Association remains
unaffected. UFO fanatics insist the Mexican sombrero is a replica of the
spaceship that whisked the missing back to their planet.
-
- The film has particular meaning in America's most populous
state.
-
- Whites in California make up about 45 per cent of the
population and Hispanics 34 per cent.
-
- According to 2000 census figures, Hispanics represent
nearly a quarter of the state's kindergarten teachers, 20 per cent of the
state's police officers and 88 per cent of its agricultural workers.
-
- Yet the economic and social contributions from Hispanics
are often ignored, Arau said. He said that's especially true for immigrant
workers, whose cheap labour provides inexpensive goods and services.
-
- Arau and Arizmendi, who co-wrote the script, came up
with the idea in 1994, when former governor Pete Wilson was running for
re-election on a platform that included a referendum barring illegal immigrants
from receiving many social services. Proposition 187 was approved but was
challenged in court and never took effect.
-
- Last month, a similar anti-immigrant initiative failed
even to qualify for the November ballot. And although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
helped repeal a law that would have given driver's licences to illegal
immigrants, he said he would approve a similar law if it provides for more
security checks.
-
- Still, illegal immigration remains a flashpoint.
-
- U.S. Representative Dan Rohrabacher recently proposed
a bill requiring doctors to report patients' immigration status to federal
authorities; and U.S. President George W. Bush has angered many members
of Congress, including several in his own party, over his proposal for
a guest-worker program that would allow many who illegally have entered
the country to receive temporary work visas, but limit the number who could
apply for permanent residency.
-
- The film's advertisements have caused a stir, too. Billboards
based on the title were pulled down after passers-by, unaware of the film's
subject, complained that they were offensive.
-
- Arizmendi said many of the sentiments about Mexican immigrants
that fuelled support for Proposition 187 remain.
-
- "Prop. 187 may no longer exist, but there's still
these feelings of immigrants using and abusing services they don't deserve,"
she said.
-
- Immigration issues are more complex than a film such
as A Day Without a Mexican can explore, said Louis DeSipio, an associate
professor of political science and Latino studies at the University of
California, Irvine.
-
- For example, California attracts a disproportionate share
of immigrants but doesn't receive enough federal money to offset associated
costs for education, health care, law enforcement and other services.
-
- The film's greatest fault may be in attempting to tackle
too many issues in one story, but Arau and Arizmendi said their goal is
very simple.
-
- "People ask us, 'What do you want people to do when
they walk out of the theatre?' " Arizmendi said. "All we want
is that people go to dinner... and just keep your eyes open. See the complexity
of the different people who are out there."
-
- © The Canadian Press 2004 http://www.canada.com/entertainment/movies/story
.html?id=89b9f03e-6584-403f-a84f-8946ee65c73f
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