A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN

30 minutes

Director: Yareli Arizmendi & Sergio Arau

Country: Mexico/USA

Year: 1997

Language: English

Overview:

This “documentary” is about a day when Mexicans disappear from the United States. Reporters scour the streets looking for Hispanic people, and people who have an opinion on this occurrence. With many differing ideas, no conclusions are made, but it raises many questions and shows the importance of Mexicans to our economy.

Previewing Activities

• What do you call a documentary that is not really about a true event?
• What do you think would happen if there were no more Hispanic people in the US?
• How would people respond to such a crisis?

Post-viewing Activities

• Where do you think that all the Hispanic people went?
• Name 5 things that happened because of the lack of Mexicans.
• What were some of the reasons that people had for the disappearance of the Mexicans?

How to Borrow this Video:

The videos owned by the UNC-Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies are housed in the Outreach Office of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  They are lent free of charge.  For information on films and reservations, please visit http://isa.unc.edu/film/films_main.asp.