The Zoot Suit Riots: The struggle of Mexican American youths

White sailors invaded Mexican American communities and attacked Zoot Suitors. The city police did nothing to restrain the sailors, who grabbed the Hispanic teenagers, tore off and burned their clothes, cut off their hair, and beat them. However, when Hispanics tried to fight back, the police moved in and arrested them. After the Zoot Suit riots, LA passed a law prohibiting the wearing Zoot Suits” (www.stufflikethat.org, 2010)

They are Mexican-American. Their equality rights do not accept in America society. They and their family always spend the life by examining of American government. Henry Reyna, El Pachuco, the Navy during the World War II. He is the young Mexican-American generation. He lives in the South Central Los Angeles, California. They are a mythical figure, a rebellious, street-smart, young Chicano. They make up their hair style. He dresses a long jacket, a baggy trousers, and a lengthy watch chain. He and his people dance with their girlfriends. They wear the zoot suit, the big pride of Mexican-American about the Mexican male, they make the belief to the rebellious generation for the equality rights struggling. Henry and his gang are the antagonist characters to serve the holistic of the world. He kills the murder, help the media, and fed their headline by the police (Scene 1, Act 5, page). Luis Valdez success to create the danger of the character, El Pachuco is in to Henry and the opposite. The riots break out in the streets. the zoot suiters are targeted, the suspects stripped by sailors and marines based on the racism, the discrimination profile. The author is successful to describe the press, the media communication. The laws use the name to disguise discriminate. They create the dangerous situation for their ruse. Their

During the 1960’s, the Civil Rights Movement wasn’t the only one occurring. Struggling to assimilate into American culture, and suppressed by social injustices convicted by their Anglo counterparts, the Chicano movement was born. In the epic poem “I am Joaquin” written by Rodolfo Gonzales in 1969, we dive into what it means to be a Chicano. Through this poem, we see the struggles of the Chicano people portrayed by the narrator, in an attempt to grasp the American’s attention during the time of these movements. Hoping to shed light on the issues and struggles the Chicano population faced, Gonzales writes this epic in an attempt to strengthen the movement taking place, and to give Chicanos a sense of belonging and solidarity in this now

Pancho, McFarland. Chicano Rap: Gender and Violence in the Postindustrial Barrio. University of Texas Press, 2012 . Print

The formation of segregated barrios and the development of a wealth of community-provided services showed that Mexican-Americans were not content to be marginalized by the United States. Instead, they were embracing an empowering new sense of self-determination and referring to themselves as “Mexicanos or as members of a larger, pan-Hispanic community of La Raza.” At this time La Raza referenced individuals of the Mexican “race”, whether they were in Mexico or in the United States, and was particularly important in the United States, where race was more important than citizenship. In the late 19th and early 20th century United States, race was determined by purity of blood, and there were only two races—white and black. White meant the individual had “pure blood” (European blood); black meant that the individual’s blood included indigenous or African influences. Being white meant being able to exercise one’s constitutional rights and being treated as a normal member of society’s dominant group. Being black meant that, regardless of whether he or she was a citizen, the individual would face discrimination similar to that which I described earlier. When the Spanish conquerors mixed with the people of Latin America, forming the mestizo, or mixed race, population that now composes most of the region, they removed themselves from a “white” classification in the United States. Thus, by engaging with the concept of La Raza, which connotes a mestizo race and population, Mexican-Americans rejected the binary nature of race in the United States and embraced what made them different—their indigenous-mixed blood and the cultural heritage that accompanied it. While the abuse directed towards Mexican-Americans may have

In The Underdogs, there are countless cases of physical and verbal mistreatment of women. Smith’s Gender and the Mexican Revolution and Lewis’ taped autobiography of Pedro Martinez also emphasizes on the physical and verbal mistreatment. A prominent example in The Underdogs of verbal and insinuated physical mistreatment of women occurred with Camilla. La Pintada, speaking with Luis Cervantes, refers to her as “your ---” (74). Camilla’s later hatred of him due to him presumably raping her, shows the treatment of women as nothing more than objects even though he tries to display himself as a more

Zoot suits, associated with the Mexican race, consisted of a long jacket that reached almost to the knees, pants with a “tight stuff cuff”, a “wide, flat hat, and Dutch-toe shoes” (Berger 193). These zoot suits were worn by the Mexican youth who were accused of murder on August 2, 1942. People claimed that Jose Diaz was murdered by a gang that had broken up a party at Sleepy Lagoon ranch located close to Los Angeles. However, even though the lower court did convict them of murder, two years later the district court of appeals took that decision back by stating that there was not enough good evidence and that most of that decision was made based on prejudice issues. This incident became known as the “Sleepy Lagoon Affair” and was made

What is ironic is that although the Spanish felt that Mexico’s population had to be converted because they were uncivilized and inferior, "mestizaje, the product of racial interbreeding with Indian, black, and mixed-blood women," took place. As a result, Mexicans share a rich mestizo cultural heritage of Spanish, Indian, and African origins. By raping the uncivilized Other, the Spaniards were in turn making themselves uncivilized. Those women represented nothing more but the medium through which the Spanish could vent their sexual desires. This was a major problem that Mexican women had to encounter.

Louise Pubols, Fathers of the Pueblo: Patriarchy and Power in Mexican California, 1800-1880, article concentrated on the de la Guerra family from Santa Barbara, California. Pubols expresses to her audience that she wants to depict Mexicans from California Mexico in a different style from the usual. Pubols starts off by giving the reader a simple description of the way the California Mexican is usually presented. Typically, Californian Mexicans have little to no agency; they lose all their land and belongings and are lost to history. Pubols uses the de la Guerra family to show that California Mexicans not only had agency but also played a large part in society. Pubols second argument was that patriarchal language was being used to describe the de la Guerra’s family governance within their community.

Despite the war efforts by many Mexican Americans in both fronts of the war, brutal discrimination was still rampant even in the very neighborhoods (barrios) that they called home. The Sleepy Lagoon Case, dubbed as such by the LA press, was an example of racial tension brought to light. In the heat of August 1942 gang member Jose Diaz was found unconscious near a swimming hole named the Sleepy Lagoon where many young Latinos and gang members would go to swim as they were not permitted to frequent Anglo only natatoriums. Diaz who never regained consciousness had apparently suffered a skull fracture, but no murder weapon or proof of murder was ever found. In the face of these facts, authorities blamed twenty-four youths, only one of which was Anglo. Citing Mexican American 'lawlessness and mischievousness ' as proof enough that they were to be at fault. The notoriously corrupt Los Angeles Police Department charged the twenty-four who were involved in a gang clash earlier in the day with murder. It was no secret that Judge Charles Fricke was blatantly racist and he repeatedly allowed prosecutors to stereotype the defendants. He also refused to allow the defendants change of clothes or haircuts so as to have them resemble in the courtroom how he viewed Mexican Americans: as criminals and hooligans, because of the belief 'only hoodlums wore zoot suits '. In January 1943, the jury without any solid evidence found

The Zoot Suit represents a changing society that the general population isn't ready to accept it so they blame the crimes and the murders on those who dare to vary from "normal." This is going on during World War II and many of the Mexican Americans feel like they have no place fighting the war and that the real war is the war between soldiers with their tight button up collars and the hang loose Zoot Suiters who are mostly Mexican American.

Racial tensions began heightening in the city of Los Angeles on June of 1943. It’s what came to be known as the Zoot Suit Riots. Racial tension between Mexican Americans who were called both pachucos and zoot suiters. They were known for their fashion which had a symbolic meaning towards them, it was a way in expressing themselves which white sailors and servicemen disliked. They saw Mexican Americans as thugs, gang members, and delinquents. White servicemen and sailors were unfamiliar with hispanics, but it was so easy for them to discriminate by appearance. Several Mexican Americans served in white units. Tension was rising between them, especially when marines and sailors assaulted both Mexican and African Americans in their own neighborhood. Also, for a false rumor towards Mexican Americans which stated that they had attacked and stabbed a sailor. Both races were being discriminated and were treated unjustly. The day came on June 3, 1943 where these conflicts led to the Zoot Suit Riots. This incident of violence lasted a whole week. Zoot suiters were beaten and arrested for no reason at all. The issues that led to the Zoot Suits in 1943 was Jose Diaz, the Sleepy Lagoon Case, and racial attacks between whites and people of color. This filled the atmosphere with a lot of hatred and discrimination that had erupted in the summer of 1943. The riot led to a compromise of all military personnel being banned from the city limits with in Los Angeles

Anzaldua identifies as a part of an emerging new mestiza consciousness and community, which strives to move beyond simple dualistic thinking and endeavors to “act and not react” This important contradiction lies at the heart of Anzaldua’s analysis. “From this racial, ideological, cultural, and biological cross-pollicization, an ‘alien’ consciousness is presently in the making — a new mestiza consciousness, una conciencia de mujer. It is a consciousness of the Borderlands.” (Anzaldua, 1987, 420). Anzaldua’s proposition of the new consciousness mediates social relations, revolutionary social change, and its wider relevance to feminist theory through discussions of the Borderlands and its implications for ‘identity.’

“‘Cause the Zoot Suit is the style in California. También en Colorado y Arizona. They’re wearing that tacuche en el paso y en todos los salones de Chicago” (Burrell et al.) is an example. I believe Valdez’s purpose was to remind the audience of his culture’s pride, and highlight the message that it is his people, the Latinos, that are enduring attacks on their

The Pachuca subculture was created due to the systematic oppression and discrimination of the Mexican American race in California. The Pachuca and Pachucos challenged the USA and the unified nation that they wanted to portray to the world during the Second World War with their non-conformist style and aggressive behavior, they were considered unpatriotic and un-American. This lead to an event, greatly unacknowledged by the American government, Mexican repatriation, the forced removal from the USA of Citizens of Mexican descent. Only one article was posted at the time entitled "The Mexicans Go Home" by Edna E. Kelley, which appeared in the Southwest Review in 1932. The event wasn’t acknowledged again until the 1980’s.