Lorca Isn't Real On 'Texas Rising,' But He Matters

History's Texas Rising is employing every acting superstar from the '90s, giving them a huge beard, and casting them as characters who have some part in the Texan Revolution, both real and fictionalized. One example of the latter is Ray Liotta, who plays Lorca, an original character. The Goodfellas star might actually have the most challenging assignment out of the entire, huge cast. Lorca is a fictional Alamo survivor who's hellbent on getting revenge, when in real life, no white soldiers actually survived the battle. The survivors of the Alamo were exclusively civilians, servants, and couriers — not combatants like Lorca. So History created a character with PTSD, blood-soaked and angry, in order to represent the vengeful spirit behind the casualties at the Alamo.

The name "Lorca" is an interesting choice, considering it stems from the Spanish language. The most famous Lorca is Federico García Lorca, a Spanish poet who died under suspicious circumstances during the Spanish Civil War. It doesn't really have anything to do with Lorca on Texas Rising, but it could point at the character perhaps having a troubled future during the revolution. Though it's more likely that the name just sounds great all by itself.

But Texas Rising's creators don't have a problem with bending history to fit with the story they're trying to tell, and the story of what happens to soldiers after the battle is a part of that. The miniseries demonstrated the brutality of battle with the Golidad sequence, as the Mexican Army destroys the Texans.

The whole idea of the Alamo is that it needs to be "remembered" because there were so many American casualties. Adding a character like Lorca helps with that — he's a walking, talking reminder of what the American soldiers suffered, and also exemplifies their deep hatred of the Mexican army, despite the fact that Santa Anna is also just fighting for his land. But the his army's organized tactics and uniforms make them look like the British Redcoats fighting against the ragtag American militias.

However, Texas Rising isn't sticking directly to history by any means, and doesn't see Lorca's inclusion as a problem, even though in some ways an Alamo survivor contradicts what was so powerful about the event. Texas Rising writer Leslie Greif explained to Men's Journal, "We're not out to tell a history lesson. Texas Rising is a great Western Saga that parallels people’s strive for liberation and overcoming conflict with a backdrop of Texas history." The great part of Texas Rising is that it's able to sum up all of this with just the simple addition of an original character like Lorca.

Images: Prashant Gupta/HISTORY (2)