When Maurizio Dominguez’s family had an immigration scare, the aftermath had the potential to be traumatic. Instead, Dominguez was fueled to create a documentary that captured his family’s experience.
“Un Dia Normal” tells the story of Esme, a college-aged undocumented immigrant who is waiting for her DACA renewal. In the meantime, she is in a state of limbo. She cannot work. She cannot drive as Michigan does not allow undocumented people to receive their driver’s license. In the documentary, Esme experiences a run-in with the law, throwing the family into a state of chaos and fear.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is an executive order signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2012. It grants a work permit to people who were brought into the United States as minors. It does not grant citizenship. Former President Donald Trump’s plan to cancel DACA during his presidency was unsuccessful.
“DACA is very much being debated by different states and different courts and different judges, and so it kind of makes you feel powerless in the sense that you can’t have a say in your own future,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez, a Detroiter who attended Earhart Middle School and Cass Tech in Detroit, has won the 2020 I See You Award for co-directing and editing the documentary short “The Way of Art.” His accolades started long before that. He won the American Vision Award from the Scholastic Art and Writing contest in middle school. Past recipients include novelists Truman Capote and Sylvia Plath.
Retired middle school art teacher, Hector Perez, taught Dominguez and was a financial contributor for “Un Dia Normal.” Perez also had a minor role in the film as the professor in a scene where he is talking to a television reporter about DACA. When Dominguez moved to Southwest Detroit from Mexico, Perez worried for the preteen.
“At that time gang activity was heavy, and that’s why we were worried about letting them slip through the cracks,” Perez said regarding Dominguez and his sister.
Dominguez received his Associates for Arts and Telecommunications at Henry Ford College and later graduated from Specs Howard School of Media Arts. He began his career acting with the Matrix Theatre Company in Southwest Detroit. Dominguez credits his friendship with Laura Perez for those early days where the topic of immigration came up.
“Laura invited me back again because they were working on an original script of a play that was going to be based on the issue of immigration,” says Dominguez. “It inspired me to focus more on stories that talk about this particular topic.”
As Dominguez went on to craft the script for “Un Dia Normal,” he took into account his family’s comfort levels. He involved his mom, Claudia Dominguez Arellano, and sister, Elizabeth VanderMeer-Dominguez, in the casting decisions as the story was based on an experience that the family had, but he made it clear that the characters portrayed on film were not meant to be carbon copies. Choosing each actor, he says, was a “team decision” among his family.
Though the community has reached out in support of Dominguez and the film, he says the most validating experience was when the film showed at the New York Film Festival because it was a large crowd of older people – strangers – who seemed to really connect with the film. “Un Dia Normal” went on to win Best Short at the 2024 International New York Film Festival and received an Independent Spirit Award from the Detroit Trinity International Film Festival.
“We’re not doing this for awards or for fame. We’re doing this because it’s an important story to tell,” Dominguez said. “The main goal for this film was to inform others about some of the things that are happening to people in your community that you may not be aware of.”
At a showing at Vamonos! in Southwest Detroit, one of the audience members was so moved that she was in tears. Though she wishes to remain anonymous, she spoke about her own experience as an immigrant with a fragile work status. She hopes movies like “Un Dia Normal” will bring empathy to the human side of immigration.
“We are just here trying to survive,” said the young woman who wishes to remain anonymous.
“I hope that if anything, that we can spark a continued conversation and to see more of these films continue to speak up about the realities that immigrant families have to face,” Dominguez said.
