Deconstructive Humour: Subverting Mexican and Chicano Stereotypes in Un Día Sin Mexicanos (Sergio Arau 2004)

For a long time, US cinema developed unshakeable stereotypes of Mexican ‘otherness’, with characters of Mexican cultural and ethnic heritage stigmatised as criminals or as sensual objects of desire. Filmmakers in Mexico, meanwhile, treated Mexican Americans as misfits who belonged nowhere, or ignore...

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Autor principal:	Sarah Barrow
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN ES
Publicado:	Prof. Dr. Vittoria Borsò, Prof. Dr. Frank Leinen, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Yasmin Temelli, Prof. Dr. Guido Rings 2012
Materias:	chicanos humour mexican stereotypes Language and Literature P
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/8bc0f0b85e9246b1a6b9b2037f7f1182
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:8bc0f0b85e9246b1a6b9b2037f7f11822021-11-24T15:43:27ZDeconstructive Humour: Subverting Mexican and Chicano Stereotypes in Un Día Sin Mexicanos (Sergio Arau 2004)10.23692/imex.2.32193-9756https://doaj.org/article/8bc0f0b85e9246b1a6b9b2037f7f11822012-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.imex-revista.com/humour-in-un-dia-sin-mexicanos/https://doaj.org/toc/2193-9756For a long time, US cinema developed unshakeable stereotypes of Mexican ‘otherness’, with characters of Mexican cultural and ethnic heritage stigmatised as criminals or as sensual objects of desire. Filmmakers in Mexico, meanwhile, treated Mexican Americans as misfits who belonged nowhere, or ignored them and their complex experience completely. The emergence of a distinct ‘Chicano cinema’ in the 1960s allowed for the development of a more powerful set of images of Mexican Americans, exploiting the very tool of communication that had been used against them, and for the circulation of a more productive and reflective dialogue around the questions of identity, agency and resistance that arise. This article focuses on the use of humour as a subversive tool to deconstruct certain myths and stereotypes of Mexican and, to a certain extent, Mexican American (or, Chicano) identity in Sergio Arau’s popular debut feature, Un Día Sin Mexicanos(2004). The “Mexicans” referred to in the film’s title and used in much of its dialogue stand metonymically for all Hispanic immigrants, whether recently arrived, or born in the US and of Hispanic descent, including Chicanos. Its narrative was inspired by the introduction of controversial anti-immigration legislation in California in 1994, and the Californian State is here made representative of anywhere in the US where there is a Mexican or Chicano population. This essay situates the film within the context of a growing Chicano population in the US and a high level of immigration from Mexico itself. It asks to what extent the feature version, which takes the form of satire, offers a critique of the Mexican immigrant experience, and of discrimination more broadly against Hispanic minorities. In so doing, it explores the ways in which the politics of resistance that are so often aligned with these experiences are inscribed in its narrative form. Sarah BarrowProf. Dr. Vittoria Borsò, Prof. Dr. Frank Leinen, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Yasmin Temelli, Prof. Dr. Guido RingsarticlechicanoshumourmexicanstereotypesLanguage and LiteraturePENESiMex. México Interdisciplinario/Interdisciplinary Mexico, Vol 1, Iss 2, Pp 31-45 (2012)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN ES
topic	chicanos humour mexican stereotypes Language and Literature P
spellingShingle	chicanos humour mexican stereotypes Language and Literature P Sarah Barrow Deconstructive Humour: Subverting Mexican and Chicano Stereotypes in Un Día Sin Mexicanos (Sergio Arau 2004)
description	For a long time, US cinema developed unshakeable stereotypes of Mexican ‘otherness’, with characters of Mexican cultural and ethnic heritage stigmatised as criminals or as sensual objects of desire. Filmmakers in Mexico, meanwhile, treated Mexican Americans as misfits who belonged nowhere, or ignored them and their complex experience completely. The emergence of a distinct ‘Chicano cinema’ in the 1960s allowed for the development of a more powerful set of images of Mexican Americans, exploiting the very tool of communication that had been used against them, and for the circulation of a more productive and reflective dialogue around the questions of identity, agency and resistance that arise. This article focuses on the use of humour as a subversive tool to deconstruct certain myths and stereotypes of Mexican and, to a certain extent, Mexican American (or, Chicano) identity in Sergio Arau’s popular debut feature, Un Día Sin Mexicanos(2004). The “Mexicans” referred to in the film’s title and used in much of its dialogue stand metonymically for all Hispanic immigrants, whether recently arrived, or born in the US and of Hispanic descent, including Chicanos. Its narrative was inspired by the introduction of controversial anti-immigration legislation in California in 1994, and the Californian State is here made representative of anywhere in the US where there is a Mexican or Chicano population. This essay situates the film within the context of a growing Chicano population in the US and a high level of immigration from Mexico itself. It asks to what extent the feature version, which takes the form of satire, offers a critique of the Mexican immigrant experience, and of discrimination more broadly against Hispanic minorities. In so doing, it explores the ways in which the politics of resistance that are so often aligned with these experiences are inscribed in its narrative form.
format	article
author	Sarah Barrow
author_facet	Sarah Barrow
author_sort	Sarah Barrow
title	Deconstructive Humour: Subverting Mexican and Chicano Stereotypes in Un Día Sin Mexicanos (Sergio Arau 2004)
title_short	Deconstructive Humour: Subverting Mexican and Chicano Stereotypes in Un Día Sin Mexicanos (Sergio Arau 2004)
title_full	Deconstructive Humour: Subverting Mexican and Chicano Stereotypes in Un Día Sin Mexicanos (Sergio Arau 2004)
title_fullStr	Deconstructive Humour: Subverting Mexican and Chicano Stereotypes in Un Día Sin Mexicanos (Sergio Arau 2004)
title_full_unstemmed	Deconstructive Humour: Subverting Mexican and Chicano Stereotypes in Un Día Sin Mexicanos (Sergio Arau 2004)
title_sort	deconstructive humour: subverting mexican and chicano stereotypes in un día sin mexicanos (sergio arau 2004)
publisher	Prof. Dr. Vittoria Borsò, Prof. Dr. Frank Leinen, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Yasmin Temelli, Prof. Dr. Guido Rings
publishDate	2012
url	https://doaj.org/article/8bc0f0b85e9246b1a6b9b2037f7f1182
work_keys_str_mv	AT sarahbarrow deconstructivehumoursubvertingmexicanandchicanostereotypesinundiasinmexicanossergioarau2004
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Deconstructive Humour: Subverting Mexican and Chicano Stereotypes in Un Día Sin Mexicanos (Sergio Arau 2004)

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