paper 6 (2- Sleep Dealer)

Humans have developed different ways to interact with the physical world, they have created machines, which allow us to make our lifestyles easier with the possibility of making or being more successful in certain fields that required the absolute concentration and the unavoidable imagination that guide us to the creation of software, computers and all related networks in which we can connect the physical terrain with the virtual world, an example of this introduction can be seen in the movie Sleep Dealer by Alex Rivera, which interprets some of the actual social and political aspects of some Latin American countries, more concrete, Mexico, which shows the differences between urban and rural life and explains in a futuristic way how they are connected by different elements such as computers, the virtual world and militarized gates that keeps society in rural life away from totally freedom.

Sleep Dealer is obviously influenced by The Matrix and other films, cinematic aspects such as plot development, a love encounter between the protagonist and a girl he meets, who plays an important role, which is the responsible for the implants or “nodes” in Memo (The Protagonist) allowing him to interact with the virtual world, something that is very similar to The Matrix in which “Neo” also the protagonist is asked to help to fight “the agents” whose purpose is to shut down all the humans in the virtual world, also with the very common love story that connects both movies.
Silent racial issues can be identify as some factors that makes us think that color, race or background ethnicity preferences represents an important role in each film, because no matter how many people sees these films, they are designed to give a certain cultural message to interpret an actual problem or situation for which people are experiencing.

In addition to the similarities that connects the two film productions mentioned before, racial issues are present, sleep Dealer represents a crude reality in which Americans have the power to control the urban and even the rural life, with an ironic use of the technology by using militarized robotic and intelligent gates to control an essential mineral needed for the daily use of Santa Ana’s people, also by deeply analyzing the social activity we can realize that no other ethnic group of people were shown, it was only Mexican people around, from farmers to even the US pilot who flew the plane that killed Memo’s father and bombed the dam.
In comparison to Sleep Dealer, The Matrix whose racial issues were a little bit more complex and almost the opposite in a different way, the dominant race was white, we cannot tell if they were Europeans or Americans but the point here is emphasize that no other ethnic group was shown, meaning Hispanic/Latino characters, also with the very low percent of dark color people, in which in other words they were no more than four characters.

In Conclusion Sleep Dealer illustrates in a futuristic style the present reality that Mexico and even some third world countries such as Latin American nations are experiencing, militarized world marked by closed borders, poverty and the very common social class hierarchy in which the rich and powerful controls, uses and takes advantage of the poor, not educated and hard working people with needs. In a comparison with The Matrix, Racial Issues can be identify throughout the film in which ethnic elements such as color of the skin, scenario or even the Language, also plays an important role in identifying aspects that may also contribute to the racial ethnicity, meaning as I mentioned before, it is designed only for a certain group of people.