Talk:A Day Without a Mexican

Untitled

In what way can a film be "hispanic"? I understand that there are Spanish-language films, which this isn't. Anyway, I removed the word. --Polynova 03:09, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)

The movie was produced by Mexicans, and showed in Mexico before it was marketed in the US. That is why the film is "hispanic". --J.Alonso 01:18, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

I removed:

Amongst the film's storylines is the scientific exploration of ethnicity. One of the characters is a "Biogenetics Engineer" named Dr. Takeshi, who claims that scientists worked to "isolate the particular molecules that determine the difference between one cultural group and another." Ethnicity is not determined by molecules. However it can be determined by examining certain DNA mutations. See genealogical DNA test and genetic genealogy.

our ethnicities indeed *are* caused by molecules: namely, the genetic molecules. saying it's not controlled by molecules and then saying it's caused by DNA is an obvious contradiction, cuz any stretch of polynucleotide (like DNA, e.g.) is a molecule, not lots of molecules (speaking of the polynucleotide proper, not the whole dna+histone units, but it doesn't matter cuz the objects of inspection in genetic studies are indeed polynucleotide molecules....) Of course, cultural groups only follow hereditary lines because of convenience. Lots of genetically dissimilar people live in pretty homogeneous cultures.

Dannown दान�यल� 22:20, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

The entire purpose of this article seems to be to criticise the film. There is not even an ATTEMPT at neutral POV. Unbelievable.

vorpalbla

Then fix the article. See WP:BOLD. Calwatch 03:09, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

I have cleaned it up.--12.221.139.214 06:16, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

"On-screen statements" - needs urgent cleanup

The section "On-screen statements" makes no sense to me. It clearly purposts contain a bullet-point list of the written statements - ie a verbatim quotation of these statements. Yet as someone who has not seen the film, I find it highly unlikely that one of these statements would be "The main character turns out to be an adopted Armenian. Armenians (who have an on going conflict with the Mexican population in Los Angeles) would never want to be Mexican." Ditto with all the other supposed quotes. Or does that text indeed actually flash up on the streen? If that really is the text that appears in the film, then I think each quote needs " " marks around it, to make doubly clear that it represents a quote. Either way, the whole section as it currently stands is highly confusing for someone, like me, who has not yet seen the film. --87.80.141.71 01:27, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Compare to "A Day of Absence"

I have never seen the movie, but from the synopsis, it seems that A Day Without a Mexican would be more similar to the play "A Day of Absence" than to the Left Behind series. "A Day of Absence" deals with the confusion that happens in a southern town when all of the Black people mysteriously disappear. The white people in the town notice the absence, but also notice the absence of several of their "white" brethren. The play is traditionally done by a Black cast in white face. I think it was written in the 50s or 60s. I can insert this into the article if you wish, but since I have never seen the movie, I was hesitant to do so. MerytMaat 17:14, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't know if the editor above (no user or talk page) added A Day of Absence to the See Also section, but I absolutely agree that it and The City Without Jews belongs in the section, while Left Behind does not. The premise of the LB franchise is entirely different and has no similar themes at all. It's even arguably offensive to have such a comparison made, when DWAM is about how absurd it is for us to treat Hispanic people in an exclusionary way in this country - especially in parts of the country which were originally Mexico - and the LB franchise is centered on Evangelicals treating secularists and other Judeo-Christian sects as evil villains in their post-apocalyptic fantasyscape.

So, I'm removing Left Behind from the See Also list, and in my edit notes requesting an editor consensus to put it back.

I'm also adding a bit more details on the premises of the other items in See Also. I first corrected the mention of The City Without Jews to include both the film and it's original novel, as well as adding another novel inspired by it, Berlin Without Jews. They all have slight differences in their overall premise, but are centered specifically on what the city/state/country looked like after the relevant minority was gone - and I think it's encyclopedically useful to show that stories like this have persisted in modern media for at least a century, inclusive of black people in the US and Jewish people in Europe.

Lastly, I moved Day of Absence to the top of the See Also list, because like DWAM it's centered in the US and the characters are reacting to a whole group of people just disappearing with no obvious cause, as opposed to the European novels/play, where the Jewish citizens are ousted after a right-wing political takeover.CleverTitania (talk) 06:22, 16 June 2025 (UTC)

one sinded

This Article is One sinded!

I agree with the person that said that this article was critisising rather than informative

Is 'sinded' a word in any human language? I will assume you meant to say, 'one sided.' If the article is overly critical rather than informative, feel free to edit it to reflect a more neutral point of view. I have edited it myself to remove as much personal opinion as possible, but it is still a mess; very poorly organized and written to begin with. I think it is need of a complete re-write but I personally have neither the time nor the inclination, knowing full well articles on Wikipedia by and large can only stay informative and well written for days at a time as both vandals and well meaning imbeciles are everywhere. --Machine Man 03:32, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Legacy

2017 Article from LA Weekly suggested the film had an important influence. -- 109.76.154.169 (talk) 20:42, 16 November 2018 (UTC)