In 1994, Mexican filmmaker Sergio Arau was living in California when voters passed Proposition 187, a ballot initiative that restricted undocumented immigrants from using the state’s public services, including public education and health care. It also instructed teachers and health care professionals to report suspected undocumented immigrants to state authorities.

“During that time, I was learning how to live in the United States, and didn’t know how some of the laws worked,” Arau, 72, told Remezcla during a recent interview. “I remember going to the supermarket, and the cashiers were really aggressive with me because I didn’t understand English.”

Arau, who is the son of legendary filmmaker Alfonso Arau (Like Water for Chocolate), said he felt people in cities like San Diego and Los Angeles didn’t appreciate the presence of undocumented immigrants.

“I was a musician and an artist and a writer, and none of that counted,” said Arau, who was a Mexican foreign national at the time. “My wife (Yareli Arizmendi) was the one who said that we needed to organize something that would reevaluate our presence. She said, ‘Let’s organize a day without a Mexican.’ The idea was like a detonator.”

After brainstorming what “a day without a Mexican” could be developed into (maybe a book or a song, they thought), Arau and Arizmendi settled on writing a screenplay that they could make into a short film. In 1998, the 28-minute mockumentary A Day Without a Mexican hit the film festival circuit. It dramatizes a scenario in California where all the Mexicans disappear without a trace.

Six years later, Arau and Arizmendi turned their short into a feature-length film. Arau remembers prior to its release in 2004 (on May 14 in California and September 17 in other parts of the U.S.), the promotional campaign he and his wife created made some major waves. The campaign included an ambiguous billboard with the words, “On May 14th, there will be no Mexicans in California,” which Arau said almost started a riot.

“We put one billboard on Hollywood Boulevard,” Arau said. “There was no Facebook or anything like that at the time. We got a call that evening telling us that a lot of people were complaining. Everybody assumed it was the Minutemen or the KKK who put it up.”

Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, A Day Without a Mexican is still as timely as it was when it hit theaters. That’s especially true now that the country is in an election year and the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, is promising to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. Arau thinks it’s more bluster from the former president.

“A big change in immigration is something that is proposed by all politicians,” Arau said. “If Trump becomes president again, he’ll get very aggressive [on immigration] but they’re not going to stop it because [the U.S.] needs workers. After 20 years, we’re still in the same situation.”

A 20th anniversary screening of A Day Without a Mexican will take place on September 12, 2024, at the Slab Cinema Arthouse in San Antonio, Texas. The film is being presented by the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute and MonteVideo.