“Race and Labor, Unplugged: Alex Rivera’s Sleep Dealer,” by Dale Hudson discusses the social issues addressed in Sleep Dealer by focusing on one of the director’s earlier and related works, Why Cybraceros? The piece was published on Flow, an online journal of television and media studies, and is likely geared towards readers who are engaged with social issues and look to media and pop culture to gain a better understanding of them. It explains how Sleep Dealer is a continuation of the themes represented in Rivera’s Why Cybraceros?, which itself satirized a film that advocated for migrant labor called Why Braceros? Hudson argues that both Sleep Dealer and Why Cybraceros? undercut dominant attitudes about migrant labor by depicting an exaggerated future where remote labor makes it possible for Americans to have “all the labor without the worker.” Hudson likely hoped to give readers a better understanding of the issues addressed in Sleep Dealer by raising awareness for the context surrounding Rivera’s films.
I appreciated how Hudson used Rivera’s earlier film Why Cybraceros? to give context to Sleep Dealer. Why Cybraceros? responded to attitudes about migrant labor presented in films like Why Braceros? that emphasized the economic benefits of migrant labor and attempted to erase or ignore race from the discussion about it. Why Braceros? applauds policies that allowed braceros to do the “tough, dirty, or unpleasant” labor while only appearing “in the right place at the right time.” Hudson’s inclusion of Rivera’s earlier work, the film Why Braceros?, and information about the braceros program helped me connect our world to the one presented in Sleep Dealer.
Reading “Race and Labor, Unplugged” reminded me of criticisms of dystopian novels and media like this one:
I think that Hudson touches on the lack of people of color in dystopian media at the end of the article when he compares Sleep Dealer to other movies like The Matrix.
A question that I still have after reading this article is about gender in Sleep Dealer. I think Hudson discussed gender in the film some when talking about the comedias rancheras, but I wasn’t sure about his argument. What is Rivera saying about gender in Sleep Dealer?
Excellent connection to wider critiques of dystopian fiction – that is a really important point and one that has had some play in media recently with the connections between Baltimore’s uprising/riots and the plot of The Hunger Games.
As for your last question, that is a very important point – Luz’s narrative is very much a supporting one in Sleep Dealer and her more privileged existence than Memo’s sets up a binary between masculine and feminine labor that is somewhat problematic (though we do see in the background that there are many women working in the node factories too). I would love a sequel that engaged her and other women’s perspectives more fully!