Lone Star

Lone Star is the history of Texas and the United States. This film illustrates the diversity and the uneasy interaction of racial groups along the Texas-Mexico border. Texas is unique among the United States in that it was once its own country. It was a republic formed in a controversial and bloody way. And its struggles didn't end with the Civil War. There is a kind of ethnic and racial war that has continued. That continuing conflict comes into the clearest focus around the border between Texas and Mexico. There are several communities that concerned in the movie - Chicano community (Mexican-Americans), Anglo community (Gringo), African-American community, and a few Native Americans. Each group has contributed significantly to the unique border culture.

There are many Latino characters in the film. The two most complex characters are Pilar and her mother, Mercedes. Pilar is intelligent and independent. Her mother is totally assimilated, wealthy woman. She is the most stereotypical character in the film. She drives a luxury car and she also directs traffic in the kitchen of her restaurant. Her wealth is the result of her own labor. Politically and socially, she is the opposite of her daughter. Mercedes is very uncaring to the troubles of lower-class Mexican-Americans. Even thought she was an illegal immigrant herself, she complains that the town is full in wetbacks. She represents a conservative Mexican-American attitude concerning immigration issues.

African-Americans comprise smaller percentage of the town's population and they are carefully drawn characters rather than stereotypes. In one of the scenes, we are introduced to Chet, young man who enters the club, looks around, and slowly reaches his hand into his jacket pocket. In another film, he would probably have drawn a gun, but here he pulls out a barbecue sauce label instead. The movie makers use audience's preconceptions to make subtle points about stereotyping.

The Anglo characters in the film realize that they can no longer control the city economically and politically, because the majority citizens are Mexican-Americans. The main bad character in the movie, Charlie, seems to have no particular political or racial views. He is exercising power over those weaker than himself, and his victims happened to be mostly African-Americans and Mexican-Americans. The town has its share of racists reluctant to accept the Mexican-Americans' rise to power. The Native American character has long before accepted the fact that his people carry no political clouts in the town. He just makes his living by selling souvenirs to white tourists.

The main idea of the movie suggests that in order to live in the present, people must confront the past. It doesn't necessarily mean to accept or reject it. This means to learn from the past whether you like it or not. In Texas that past is often marked by racial conflict and violence. In final line Pilar says that people should start from scratch and history doesn't matter; a border is where you draw a line. She means that if rejecting the past is necessary to function in the present, then it supposes to happen. Since different races are still stuck together in Texas, people might try to get alone.