‘A Day Without A Mexican’ fails to entertain, inspire or inform.

Sergio Arau’s “A Day Without A Mexican,” does a poor job of illustrating the impact of Hispanics on the US economy and way of life. It instead trivializes their influence and minimizes their role in America by focusing in on all of their negative stereotypes and limiting their “reach” to the state of California.

The state of California awakens to a dense fog and a growing sense of confusion when all Hispanics are nowhere to be found. Housekeepers have disappeared; the fence along the California – Mexico border is quite; and trash is piling up on the streets. To illustrate the impact of the “loss” of Hispanics in the state, several storylines are followed.

For example, viewers meet the family of State Senator Abercrombie who is directly affected by the disappearance of their nanny/house keeper. With her gone, the family is in disarray in the morning, unable to cope with making breakfast, doing laundry or getting out the door in an organized manner. The character of the housekeeper is never developed and simply follows the stereotype of the unthinking housekeeper who tends to all of the whims of the Caucasian non-Hispanic American household.

In another storyline, the lead singer of a Mexican rock band has married a US born non-Hispanic female. In keeping with the “machista” stereotype, one is lead to believe that he may be having an affair with an attractive woman in the band. When his wife drives up with groceries, he doesn’t stop to help her with the bags and instead asks her to get him a drink when she goes inside. His actions and attitudes fall directly in line with stereotypical perceptions of Hispanic males as lazy and womanizers.

Mexicans are rarely portrayed as educated professionals. Two opportunities to move away from the stereotypical uneducated blue-collar, non-English speaking illegal Mexican immigrant never fully develop.

One instance is the State Senator’s immediate rise to the role of acting Governor due to the disappearance of the Hispanic Governor and immediate successor. Unfortunately, instead of illustrating the impact of the loss of these Hispanic leaders, viewers never hear anything about these individuals.

The other opportunity is with Lila Rodriguez, a Hispanic reporter. The viewer sees that in order to be a “professional,” Lila had had to drop the “riguez” in her name. She’s given up her ethnic ties in the professional world and is know as Lila Rod. Only when her boss wants a “Latina” in the role does he ask her to use her full name and role her “r’s”. Her character does not develop as a strong-willed professional in charge or her destiny.

This modern satire about how Hispanics are an integral component of the “American” way of life utterly fails to create empathy, understanding or even dialogue with viewers.

With approximately one person in eight of Hispanic ethnicity in the US, it is clear to some that Hispanics will continue to directly influence the “American” way of life. Immigration continues; birthrates are higher than the national average; education levels are improving; home ownership is increasing; business ownership is increasing, and the list goes on. None of these data points are limited geographically to California or even one part of the country.

Sergio Arau, the Mexican director of the film, misses the mark in his attempt a creating a mockumentary of what a day would be like in California with the 14 million Hispanics. He explains that he wants to use the film to investigate where people hold their identity is what he says he 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.”

But, instead of engaging the audience in a humorous and entertaining way, the “ignorant” viewer (a person not of Hispanic origin and with limited interaction/understanding of the culture/community) is not moved and the more “educated” (a person who understands the positive impact of Hispanics and their culture) viewer is left insulted. The reason could possibly be that often satire has a hard time crossing “cultural” divides. As a Mexican, Sergio Arau, who moved to the US at the age of 41 for the first time, may have not understood the “American” culture enough to create a mockumentary that hits at the heart and mind of the US viewer.

Like marketers, movie directors, politicians and others wishing to connect with the US Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences, need to understand all their target – from cultural nuances, to the role of satire, to the way that cultures view stereotypes. An incomplete understanding of the target audiences needs, wants and desires framed in a cultural understanding, as in the case with “A Day Without A Mexican,” leaves you with a product, service, idea or film that fails to move, inspire, entertain or inform. US Hispanics will walk away from this film feeling like they aren’t really understood and non-Hispanics will walk away wondering where the humor was.

Favio Martinez

Student
Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication
Online course in Hispanic Marketing Communication
Florida State University

President & Founder
Viona Group, LLC