Zoot Suit Riots

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 main characters are reversals of the negative ways Chicanos had been positioned within the dominant regimes of representation. Baugh (1996: 29) explains Valdez’s own opinion that – ‘the experience of Chicano gangs could easily be explained away by socioeconomic and political interpretations but that kind of explanation robs the gang of its

In this essay, I will be discussing about a social group that took fashion to the next level and create a huge impact in British history were the punks culture during the late nineteen seventies. The punk cultures were to rebel against the government during the great depression and were all about the attitude of the younger generations. During the late nineteen seventies was the time of unemployment and social unrest, a lot of the young white kids felt outcast from the British culture, foreseeing their lives with little prospect and so called “no future”. It was also a DIY “Do it yourself” movement. Younger generation that adopted the punk look often create their own garment by wearing safety pins,

Gangsters Without Borders by T.W. Ward is an ethnography about the El Salvadorian gang Mara Salvatrucha. Wards spent years earning the trust of these youth in order to complete his research. Starting out Ward had three broad goals in mind to develop a clear view of gang members and gang life. The second objective of Wards, “To observe how gang members changed over time as they matured into adulthood,” peaked my interest in this ethnography.

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.

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

“…About eight sailors got me outside of the theater and they started beating me up. It happened so fast, I passed out. I woke up with a cracked rib, a broken nose, black and blue all over. I was really beat.”(Alvarez, 2006, p.155) During the 1940s, the public had generated stereotypes of the Pachucos and zoot suits, which were eventually transferred to all Mexican Americans. Many young men like Vicente Morales were attacked, humiliated, and stripped from their fashionable clothes by servicemen. However, to what extent did the fashionable expression of the zooters and the culture of the Pachucos influence the Zoot Suit Riots?

Due to increasing urbanization, the gang phenomenon developed, which results from poverty and the lack of a role model in the Mexican American’s life. Anglo-Americans identified zoot suitors (pachucos dressed in zoot suits) as criminals, hoodlums, and teenagers that has no respect for the authority, which was displayed in the media (Acuña, 249). In the play Zoot Suit, by Luis Valdez, narrates of a group of pachucos/as, who are accused of the murder of a Mexican American in the Sleepy Lagoon. The media displayed 22 teenage members as criminals and the police treated them as animals as they violated the pachucos rights, and denied them clean clothes and a shower for their trial. Thus encouraging the public that Mexican Americans should be guilty and belonged in jail. Due to the violating basic. rights, the case were dropped and the teenagers were sent free. Even the pachucas were identified as young women with loose morals and carried razors on their barrettes. In one incident a Julia Luna Mount was chased around her work’s parking lot by a man, and she was terrified because she could have been assaulted due to the public image of a young Mexican American women (Ruiz, 83). Certain activities pachucos/as did was later transformed into a crime, such as lowriders was a hobby that was popular among the Mexican Americans but now it became criminalized

“The Republic of East L.A. Stories” captures the heartbreaking experiences Mexican-American’s were forced to endure. Escaping poverty, alcohol abuse, drug use, and gang violence was an everyday struggle for many families during this time. African American and Latino gangs were initially created as a response to white racism. They were restricted as to what areas they could live in and where constantly harassed. As their populations increased, so did white gangs, in order to take control of their “territory”. African Americans and Latinos had no choice but to protect their families by fighting back. As time went on, the violence only continued. The Civil Rights Movement led many gang members to join organizations like the Black Panther Party, but the government quickly responded by breaking them up and soon enough, street gangs quickly returned. The violence escalated, alcohol,

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

When Octavio Paz first visited the largest Mexican population center outside of Mexico’s international borders, Los Angles, he said the city had a "vague atmosphere" of Mexicanism in that manifested itself through "delight in decorations, carelessness and pomp, negligence, passion and reserve." But he felt that his "ragged but beautiful" ghost of Mexican identity rarely interacted with "the North American world based on precision and efficiency." Instead, this Mexicanism floated above the city, "never quite existing, never quite vanishing.1By the time Paz visited the exterior Mexico, a generation of Mexican revolution immigrants had their children in the United States and they had matured. These people had heard the corridos of the Revolutionary

The 1960’s or 1970’s is when gangs were originated. Gangs became a formation of protection against racial crimes being committed by whites. There were quite a few popular gangs such as the Slausons,

Gangs have existed in the United States for over 200 years. It all started when the first immigrants came to the U.S.A. Most of them came for a better life but many of them ended up in poverty. The first gangs were formed among poor adolescents who grouped together for the sake of socialisation and protection. They were of the same race or the same ethnic background. The first known gang specialized in crimes was called "The Five Points". They consisted of Irish immigrants and was established in New York City. They dressed in a specific way and used monikers or nicknames. Another early gang were the "Forty Thieves". Their gang leader was Edward Coleman and they formed in 1826. New York City's early gangs had an easy time of it because of

Compton took its most critical hit when deindustrialization struck. Manufactures followed other industries in seeking to lower their tax burden, open new markets, and increase their plant size. With more than one-third of Compton’s population employed in manufacturing, the city broke its social and economic threshold. The backlash stemmed from an increase in gang and drug related activities. The aging middle-class was increasingly outnumbered by a troubled youth. Children, who were once encouraged by their parents’ success, were now hanging their heads. By 1970 the Bloods and the Crips were created right outside of Compton. The “crack explosion” of the 1980’s only intensified crime, violence, and murder rates. From middle-class to neighborhood terror, the prosperity relinquished by African Americans in Compton had promptly crumbled right in front of everyone’s eyes. The issues created during this