Lone Star: historical and cultural significance

Lone Star

Loan Star is a story about borders and people because of the relationships that the film had shown between the people of Texas-Mexico border. Frontera, the town featured in the film was inhabited by people from different races. Such includes Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and Native Americans. Because of the different races that occupied Frontera, there were a lot of misunderstandings and uneasy relationships. This was perhaps caused by the differences in the peoples' culture. The diverse races and cultures became the border within Frontera's community.

Tomas Sandoval indicated in his article, The Burden of History and John Sayle's Lone Star, how John Sayles painted a story of history and race that serves as the boundary between the people of the past and that of the present times. In the story, indicated in the past were disagreements that ruled within Frontera. This was especially shown between Buddy Deeds and Charley Wade, between Buddy's opposition in Sam, Buddy's son, and Pilar Cruz's relationship, as well as between the people of Frontera.

The film demonstrated how history became the burden in the life of Sam, as well as in the lives of other characters. At first, Sam was disapproving of how his father ruled Frontera. Being a Sheriff, he knew what is right and wrong and from how he saw his father in enforcing law in Frontera. Soon, history became an eye-opener to Sam, not only about the truth in his father's life but also in his life. Included in what he learned from his eagerness to search for reality was the truth about the murder of Charley Wade and why his father was not approving of his relationship with Pilar Cruz.

Tomas Sandoval suggested the following in relation to living in the truth of history and carrying it in the present life, as how Sam was able to learn the truth about Buddy Deeds, Charley Wade, Pilar Cruz, and Mercedes Cruz.

Because history lives in the present, not in the past, revelations about past history always affect the present. That is the burden of history, and despite all the infomercials to the contrary, that is the hardest thing to get beyond. When it exists in the realm of historical fact and not interpretation, the burden of history is almost insurmountable.

Tomas Sandoval compared these statements regarding the assumptions, or truth, that Buddy Deed was the one who murdered Charley Wade. From the things and history that Sam discovered about the people in his life, in which his father had a mistress named Mercedes Cruz, and that his father had a daughter with Mercedes, and that daughter was Pilar, Sam was able to put pieces of mysteries that troubles his mind. And that history became the burden for him particularly about his intimate relationship with Pilar. The first piece in the mystery was the truth about Eladio Cruz, Mercedes husband, who was killed by Charley Wade for not playing with his rules. The second piece in the mystery was the truth about Buddy falling in love and having an affair with Mercedes, and perhaps because of his love for Mercedes had put justice in his hand by getting back and killing Charley. The third piece, which creates the "burden of history" to Sam, was the fact that Pilar was his half-sister, and that his relationship with her should not be continued. Finally, the last piece of mystery was the assumption, or truth, that it was Buddy who did the crime against Charley.

In the early part of the story, it was thought that the differences in race between Sam and Pilar was the reason why his father was disapproving of their relationship. Ironically, it was the "burden of history," so to speak. Also, the assumptions that Buddy killed Charley became a burden to Sam because it somehow haunted him that soon led him to search for the truth.

Tomas Sandoval also suggested in another way how history can create a burden depending on how the people create things out of what happened in the past. In the end of the film, it was discovered that it was not Buddy who killed Charley, but Deputy Hollis Pogue. Hollis killed Charley because he witnessed how Eladio was shot by Charley. Hollis did not want another similar case to happen to other people that's why he killed Charley. From this, Tomas suggest that

Once again we see how the film understands history. It is not a thing of the past but a created reality of the present. Just as the flashbacks in the film occur without a fade away or a break in the action, so too the past is tied to the present in the most intimate of ways.