'Coyote' wants to break down U.S.-Mexico border stereotypes, says actor Michael Chiklis

“You can be pro-law enforcement, very pro-law enforcement in fact, but also recognize that there’s systemic racism and there’re things that need to be done to rectify that problem.”Off camera, the U.S.-Mexico border is both a geographical and cultural reference for many that not only shapes their identity but also affects them psychologically.“It’s not just a physical space of the borderland between the U.S. and Mexico,” said Frederick Aldama, a Ohio State professor and Latino culture scholar. And in mainstream American culture, the U.S.-Mexico border imposes itself as the racialization of immigrants.“The U.S.-Mexico border transforms brown immigrants into a threat for a white U.S. north,” Aldama told NBC News. The ones that we don’t see coming.”Raba says that while geographic and cultural borders may appear to be permanent, stories have the power to move those invisible lines by revealing the humanity that lives on either side of them.“This is a story about a different group of human beings and they all have their own vision about this imaginary line," said Raba, "and they act in a different way depending on what part of the line they are born in."By understanding those differences, viewers can unpack the big ideas and politics that sometimes add tension to border issues and instead focus on the personal connections that nurture unity.Raba compares those person-to-person connections in "Coyote" with the love story of Romeo and Juliet, specifically at the moment when the characters realize that in spite of opposing families (or countries) they have much more in common than what they thought.“We start with this huge idea of a border, of law enforcement, about immigration politics, then we just focus it on just two or three persons," said Raba.