Zoot Suit Riots: A Brief Analysis

June 1943 this is the date that the LA Zoot Suit Riots occurred and it’s possibly known as one of the biggest historical events that happened in Los Angeles. In short The LA Zoot Suit Riots were 200 estimated of American Sailors beating up anybody who wore a zoot suit, but they were mainly targeting “Pachucos.” Pachucos were basically Chicanos who acted like street thugs, and when Chicanos and other minorities had gotten beaten up by the sailors this has caused an uproar to Chicanos mainly because it was discrimination towards them because of their color and style of clothing. This event occurred because at the time Zoot Suits had become widely popular with white people, but as time went on, other minorities started to like the Zoot Suits also this has included Pachucos as it fits their clothing style. The outcome of this event had influenced Latino Civil rights movement and Mexican-American Communities to fight for their rights and that is why the significance of this event is minorities are being overlooked by whites of how they all seem street thugs and criminals judging by their clothes and color even though not all minorities were like that.

They accomplished more than 1,500 missions over Europe without losing a single bomber. Mexican-Americans were also drafted to war. “Out of 16.2 million Americans in the armed services during World War II, between 250,000 and 750,000 were of Mexican ancestry” (cite). Also, many from Mexico and Puerto Rico were brought into America as workers, or braceros, through the Bracero Program. This was established in 1942 as a labor agreement between the United States and Mexico. They were primarily brought in the agriculture field, while others were brought into employment on railroads (cite). Asian-Americans were impacted hugely from the war mainly because America was in war with Japan. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the War Relocation Authority (cite). This allowed Japanese Internment Camps to be built in places throughout America because American authorities believed that any person of Japanese descent, or even other asian countries, might be spies to communicate to their enemy, although some even lived in America already for many, many years. However, those even with proof were not allowed to be an exception. After they put them in the camps, all their valued possessions were taken away, so they had nothing left at home. And when they were released, they didn’t receive much of it back from the government, so they were robbed from the country they were living in. However, it wasn’t only Japanese people who were in danger; the whole Asian-American community was

People tend to overlook the geographical location of Figueroa Boulevard and plainly assume residents of the area were working-class Mexican American without realizing that there are three distinct neighborhoods on this very street. In his work, “Los Angeles Geopolitics and the Zoot Suit Riots, 1943,” Eduardo Obregon Pagan notes the three neighborhoods along Figueroa Boulevard “the farther south in traveled in downtown area, the affluence of the neighborhoods grew in proportion to the whiteness of the residents.”5 This appears to be true since the neighborhood appeared to become more modern as one move down from Figueroa Boulevard. The residents of Chavez Ravine were native to the United States with Mexican origin with some immigrants from Central Europe and Italy. The neighborhood is considered to be old-fashioned since it was

The trial, which ended on January 13, 1943, with all the defendants being found guilty. The nine who were convicted of greater charges were sent to San Quentin prison, while the remaining youths were kept in the Los Angeles County jail. During the the trial there were activists, chief among them was the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee, who worked for the benefit of the young men charged and were labelled as communists and un-American by Jack Tenney’s Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities. The activists charged that the boys were not given afforded due process and that the judge in the case, Charles Fricke, displayed prejudice against the boys in his rulings. The young ladies who were with the boys on the night José Díaz was found dying, did not fare any better than their male counterparts. Because of their refusal to cooperate with the authorities, they became wards of the state and were sent to the notorious Ventura School for Girls, a women’s reformatory, though they were never given a trial.

The title of “Few Nylons” meant that women had rations on stockings. Also their clothes were cut down to save material. Their hem and belt width was cut down to two inches. The cuffs on the sleeves of their clothes were no longer allowed. The availability of nylon stockings was scarce. The restrictions for women’s apparel saved yardage of material for other clothes used in war.

An extremely popular clothing item during this period of time was the hobble skirt. From around 1915 to 1918, during the time of the First World War, full skirts that stopped at the ankles were fashionable, as well as V-necks. After that, clothes became straighter and curve-less. In the

As the 1900's progressed, women were presented with new inventions which slowly took the place of traditional corsets. With the start of World War I, women began to enter the work-force and many of these women worked as laborers in factories, making daily corset wear a problem. In 1917 the U.S. War Industries board even requested that women stop buying corsets to reduce consumption of metal. Some sources say that up to 28,000 tons of metal was conserved through this effort.

Clothing in the 1900’s was different than it is today because people always covered up everything, made their clothing out of natural material, and there was really only one style on how to dress. Men and women covered up everywhere from head to toe, and when it came to showing skin, it was almost unacceptable. Another drastic change that puts clothing at a different standpoint then it s today is the material used to make their clothing. They had only one option, and that was just natural materials. Men and boys, women and girls, all dressed alike; all females wearing long dresses with under garments that covered arms and legs, and and males wearing the same kind of suit-type uniform.

The boxy structure of 1940s women’s fashion came to an end in the 1950s as a soft, rounded new look gained popularity in America. With the men back from war, women focused on their suburban role as homemakers, and looked for clothing that was easy to wash and keep neat. Acrylic, spandex and polyester were introduced during the decade. Sportswear also came into fashion and people experimented with different looks. Fads like the poodle skirt came and went fairly quickly.

Western clothing for women truly made its mark in Japan after World War II. The women began wearing Western-style dresses, because they were less expensive and easier to care for than kimonos (The World Book Encyclopedia [J], 48)

The main reason for the change in women’s clothing was their changing and growing societal roles. Women’s fashion became less restricting and easier to wear as they were entering the workforce and furthering their education. It was no longer a woman’s role to just sit at home and look pretty and their clothing reflected that. A major change was in the skirt hemlines as they rose from the ankles to knee length over the course of the decade (Hanson 51). This was due in large to the fact that more and more women were working, driving, and even playing sports. Their new jobs and hobbies required more freedom to move that was not possible

During the 1930's when the Great Depression took place, fewer people were sewing to make their own clothing and it started to switch to clothes ready to wear when bought. Because of the stock market crash, the clothing manufacturers had to look for ways to conserve money and still put out product. They started going to cheaper materials to create clothing and cheaper ways to make the clothing. Though not everyone was able to buy clothes and would just reuse material they had at home. There were many hand-me down clothing for the children and people would sew their old shirts to make underwear. Farmers would use their big sacks of flour or the sacks of livestock food to re-create them into dresses for the girls. People during the depression were either making their own clothes from old materials or if they had enough money the could go out and buy new clothes but were made from cheaper material.

Women would purchase outfits from the seamstress, wear the garment, and then be forced to purchase a new one in fear of falling out of favor. However, these garments were being mass produced with the use of a sewing machine. Unfortunately, many women could not keep up with this and so they had to accept second hand clothes. At the same time, “people were marked out by their mode of dress, recognizable instantly by occupation.” Crinolines – worn around the waist to hold skirts, were clumsy and inconvenient for women working inside a coal mine because they could not push carts of coal to the surface effectively. As a result, men’s trousers were adopted. Fish wives also tucked in their skirts to make their job easier as well, branching out from the general

Throughout history, a person’s economic and social rank could be shown through what clothes they wore. In ancient Egypt, a person of upper class was permitted by law to wear sandals on the harsh, desert floor. Because of these laws, female-confining ideals arose. For example, the Greeks and Romans controlled the type, color, and number of undergarments worn by women and the kind of fabric décor used on them. The torso became the sculpting block of feminine beauty. This was the beginning of the corset, a restraining, essential item in the women’s attire through the 19th century.

Bills were passed for rationing of materials such as silk and wool used to make parachutes and uniforms for soldiers. Women’s skirts had to be made within a limited number of yards. Most of the dresses were shapeless, more masculine as women started working in factories and pants became popular (Olds, 2001).