Sergio Arau and Yareli Arizmendi, creators of A Day without a Mexican (2004), will now bring The MeXican Files to the screen.
“It was 1992 when Pete Wilson was running for his second term as governor. His campaign rhetoric, Proposition 187, blamed undocumented workers for everything that was wrong with the 5th largest economy in the world, California. A be-careful-what-you-wish-for fable, A Day Without a Mexican, first the short (1998) and the feature-length (2004), aimed to explore what would happen if all Latinos disappeared from the state. Today, 20 years later, the same toxic rhetoric has gone national. It’s time to show the country what losing its 38.5 million Mexicans would look like,”
“The contributions of Mexicans and Latinos to the entire economy and fabric of the nation are enormous. Imagine, 12% of the population is of Mexican origin. States like CA, TX, AZ, NV, and NM would lose their largest number of consumers and workers if we were gone. 7 out of 10 farm workers in the U.S. are of Mexican origin. What would we eat? Teslas?” said Yareli Arizmendi.
The Arau-Arizmendi team is starting production right on 5 de Mayo, a symbolic date when everyone in the United States and Mexico thinks about and celebrates being Mexican. The creative team will travel light across the nation to find untold stories and explanations that illustrate the long and misunderstood history between the two nations and their people. It’s time to set the story straight. The docu-comedy film is projected to be released by the end of the year.
Sergio Arau & Yareli Arizmendi will be available for media inquiries starting on 5 de Mayo. Catch up with them before they disappear. And don’t miss The MeXican Files, because the answer you are looking for may be out there.
Mexican Press Agency is part of ALMA, which is dedicated to news and information about Mexico and Mexicans in the United States and is a fiscally sponsored project of Social Focus, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Redwood City, California.
