Monday, May 23, 2005
A Day Without a Mexican
A Day Without a Mexican
I saw this movie hoping to get a laugh. Instead I got propaganda. I had hoped to enjoy a parody where life got really screwy when those who do most of the real work are missing. Anybody with a brain knows that Southern Cal would fall apart without Latin labor.But here we get preached to. Statistics and all.
The characters are shallow caricatures. All the Mexican people are wonderful. The Anglos and blacks are polarized into those who view Mexicans with pollyannic admiration and blatant racists. Please. Few people of any background are all good or bad. And most of us "Americans" including Hispanics have ambivalent feelings on these issues.
For fun let's look at a movie from the other extreme bias...Our hero, a white professional, or black professional to be strangely PC, gets up for work. But it is pleasantly quiet for once. There are no leaf-blowers, lawnmowers or chippers.His commute is lighter. Where is the traffic? The road speed is faster.
Now fade to his wife. This selfish user bitch is in a frenzy. Where is the maid who performs all the functions of a housewife and mother? The house is chaos as the kids run amok. She pops a Xanax or two. She is in a fit as she rushes late to take the kids to school whining on the cell phone as she mis-drives the oversized Lexus SUV or Bummer II. She nearly runs over a kid at the school because she is more involved in her phone call than watching the road. In fact let's change that scene and let her cripple the poor kid. She will certainly be late for her hair appointment, affair with the tennis pro or perhaps a useless job like cellular sales rep.
Now the scene is lunch. Our hero goes to his favorite lunch joint, but they are closed. And the next. No carne asada. Hell, he can't even get Burger King without a long wait. So much for "fast" food. He finishes off the sludge at the bottom of the coffee pot. He licks the wax paper from the donuts when nobody is looking.
Now the day goes on. The prison guards are perplexed and the Warden alarmed. Thirty percent of the inmates are missing. Ditto at the city and county jails. The cops are bored, especially in the barrio. Lines are short at the DMV and welfare offices.Our hero comes home on a traffic-jam free commute. How weird. As he turns the stereo tuner there are no Spanish stations in between his favorites. Strange.
Next is a most enjoyable sequence of white guys trying to do various tasks like mow the lawn. As their wives bitch, they give us a wonderful Three Stooges slapstick of incompetence. The afternoon ends with the Border Patrol napping in their vehicles.
Now its dinnertime and it sucks. Our hero's incompetent wife struggles to make something. The phone lines are full and busy to all the take-out and delivery places. Can't get through. The kids pick at the nasty shit she has microwaved together. "I'm not eating this!"
Our hero figures he and the kids can get some food at the ballgame tonight.Again the drive in and the parking are easy. But the lines for food are long. Many of the kiosks are closed. The kids want Mexican food and all he can get is nachos with that horrible cheese-like product on top. The beer line is worse. All the men seem to be in need and there are less vendors.Even the game sucks. Dropped balls. Weak hitting. Lots of walks, balks and hit batters. Half the starters are missing. White and black guys play positions they haven't played since high school.
The drive home and even exiting the park are a breeze, but a somber mood fills our hero. His wife is frazzled at the prospect of getting the kids into bed. They cry out for Maria. After all, Biomom is so selfishly involved in her own life to make the appropriate bond.Our story ends with the wife refusing our hero sex. Some things in the universe are constant.
During the credits we first see hordes of Cholo gang members skewered on sticks amid flames with a heavy metal soundtrack.Then finish off with fiesta music, kids hitting a pinata and Jesus with carne asada in one hand and a Tecate in the other.
I saw this movie hoping to get a laugh. Instead I got propaganda. I had hoped to enjoy a parody where life got really screwy when those who do most of the real work are missing. Anybody with a brain knows that Southern Cal would fall apart without Latin labor.But here we get preached to. Statistics and all.
The characters are shallow caricatures. All the Mexican people are wonderful. The Anglos and blacks are polarized into those who view Mexicans with pollyannic admiration and blatant racists. Please. Few people of any background are all good or bad. And most of us "Americans" including Hispanics have ambivalent feelings on these issues.
For fun let's look at a movie from the other extreme bias...Our hero, a white professional, or black professional to be strangely PC, gets up for work. But it is pleasantly quiet for once. There are no leaf-blowers, lawnmowers or chippers.His commute is lighter. Where is the traffic? The road speed is faster.
Now fade to his wife. This selfish user bitch is in a frenzy. Where is the maid who performs all the functions of a housewife and mother? The house is chaos as the kids run amok. She pops a Xanax or two. She is in a fit as she rushes late to take the kids to school whining on the cell phone as she mis-drives the oversized Lexus SUV or Bummer II. She nearly runs over a kid at the school because she is more involved in her phone call than watching the road. In fact let's change that scene and let her cripple the poor kid. She will certainly be late for her hair appointment, affair with the tennis pro or perhaps a useless job like cellular sales rep.
Now the scene is lunch. Our hero goes to his favorite lunch joint, but they are closed. And the next. No carne asada. Hell, he can't even get Burger King without a long wait. So much for "fast" food. He finishes off the sludge at the bottom of the coffee pot. He licks the wax paper from the donuts when nobody is looking.
Now the day goes on. The prison guards are perplexed and the Warden alarmed. Thirty percent of the inmates are missing. Ditto at the city and county jails. The cops are bored, especially in the barrio. Lines are short at the DMV and welfare offices.Our hero comes home on a traffic-jam free commute. How weird. As he turns the stereo tuner there are no Spanish stations in between his favorites. Strange.
Next is a most enjoyable sequence of white guys trying to do various tasks like mow the lawn. As their wives bitch, they give us a wonderful Three Stooges slapstick of incompetence. The afternoon ends with the Border Patrol napping in their vehicles.
Now its dinnertime and it sucks. Our hero's incompetent wife struggles to make something. The phone lines are full and busy to all the take-out and delivery places. Can't get through. The kids pick at the nasty shit she has microwaved together. "I'm not eating this!"
Our hero figures he and the kids can get some food at the ballgame tonight.Again the drive in and the parking are easy. But the lines for food are long. Many of the kiosks are closed. The kids want Mexican food and all he can get is nachos with that horrible cheese-like product on top. The beer line is worse. All the men seem to be in need and there are less vendors.Even the game sucks. Dropped balls. Weak hitting. Lots of walks, balks and hit batters. Half the starters are missing. White and black guys play positions they haven't played since high school.
The drive home and even exiting the park are a breeze, but a somber mood fills our hero. His wife is frazzled at the prospect of getting the kids into bed. They cry out for Maria. After all, Biomom is so selfishly involved in her own life to make the appropriate bond.Our story ends with the wife refusing our hero sex. Some things in the universe are constant.
During the credits we first see hordes of Cholo gang members skewered on sticks amid flames with a heavy metal soundtrack.Then finish off with fiesta music, kids hitting a pinata and Jesus with carne asada in one hand and a Tecate in the other.
