Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez Essay

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)

In Luis Valdez’s “Zoot Suits”, the character El Pachuco symbolizes a rebellious culture that defies society. El Pachuco stands as Henry Reyna’s alter ego. When Henry Reyna is in a dispute with his moral decisions, he either listens to El Pachuco’s strong character or goes with his moral instincts. Like Henry Reyna the Pachuco lifestyle was the way of living for many teens in the 40s. The Pachuco life was cool and hip, teenagers talked with a slang that to society was deemed wrong. Their zoot suit was their individual symbol, a Pachuco would be recognized instantly just by their high waist baggy pants that were tighten in the bottom as well as for their long jackets.

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

Above all, I wouldn’t be where I am today without theatre. Without the chance to perform throughout my life, I would be disconnected from the wide array of communities and histories that’s been imbedded in my daily routine. Unfortunately, it’s speculated that the theatre is a dying art form, because of the expanding popularities of movies (“Is”), but I think that it’ll remain a well renowned part of expressing imagination and interpreting history as years pass; it only takes cooperation with school faculty and young students that go above and beyond to change their

Around 600 Mexican Americans who fit the term “zoot-suiters” ( a person who wears ballooned pants and long coats) were rounded up in efforts to catch the criminal. The court argued that their look alone was enough to prove they were deliquents in one way or another and should be held responsible for their actions. Altough appearances do distinguish gang members from regular civilians the mass gathering of around 600 Mexicans for one individuals murder shows the lack of professional expirence. It also serves as a pedestal to say that these police offers weren’t looking for an individual based on factual evidence but based their prejudice beliefs tried to round up and get place a large group of Mexicans in the court of law under biased pretences. It is an injustice to hold so many people accountable for a crime based on their looks let alone get so many people of one ethnic group involved just because they look like they are from a gang. On January 12, 1943 in the case of People v. Zamora, presided by Judge Charles Fricke, the court found this to be enough evidence to sentence seventeen of the accused to life in prison to a year in the county jail. Five were found innocent. Henry Leyvas along with two other males were found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life in

Chavez’s life started in a small adobe home, near Yuma Arizona on March 31, 1927. His parents

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

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

Based on the notorious 1942 “Sleepy Lagoon” murder mystery, which resulted in the “Zoot Suit Riots” in Los Angeles, California, playwright Luis Valdez combines fact and fiction in the play “Zoot Suit” to portray the fate of 12 young Mexican Americans that were brought to trial for a murder they did not commit. Valdez created the play; “Zoot Suit” that brought a strong symbolic significance for Mexican Americans and expresses about the riots during World War II. The play, “Zoot Suit” represents the culmination of a Chicano theater movement that integrated four theatrical forms, which are actos, mitos, corridos, and historias that designed “heighten reality” through “highly stylized” presentational methods that came from the

Which was the death of twenty- two-year-old José Gallardo Díaz, a young man who was found nearly dead in Commerce, California on August 2, 1942. Even though his death is still an unknown until this day, Seventeen Mexican- American youths were arrested and held as suspects in prison by the Los Angeles police department without bail and on murder charges. Jude Charles W. Fricke sentenced nine of the seventeen defendants of second- degree murder, on January 13, 1943. Those sentenced served time in San Quentin Prison, the rest were charged with minor offenses and served time in Los Angeles County Jail. What was interesting to me about Luis Valdez’s movie Zoot Suit, is that we see for our eyes how much the Sleepy Lagoon case broke out the zoot suit riots all around Los Angeles, and near by cities. Similarly to Blood in Blood out and American Me, after being released from Prison, Henry is shown as having three different path ways in life, the first is going back to jail, second is joining the Army, and the last is making a family of his own. Henry is being presented with a fresh start to life, he has chance to pick his own fate. Similarly Blood in Blood out (1993) focuses on vicious crime that occurs in Chicano communities. The characters in Blood in Blood out also spent the majority of their time in and out of San Quentin Prison, and once being released they too had chance

Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez explains the racially charged trial of Sleepy Lagoon in 1942 in which the court of California charges a group of Chicanos with the murder of another Mexican-American man. For Chicanos, 1940 was an era of discrimination so the trials were unfairly biased against them. To fight against this discrimination, many Chicanos wore an exaggerated suit, referred to as a zoot suit, that included a long, loose jacket with padded shoulders and high waisted trousers. This choice of wardrobe earned the Chicanos a name of “zoot suiters”. Ethnic identity is an important role in this play because the men on trial were accused of murder for their cultural background, choice of clothing and biased media influence rather than evidence.

The racist connotation that Miss Jimenez associates with who she thinks would “fit in” society’s box is a definite reflection of the hardships Valdez witnessed in his community. For example, the Zoot Suit Riots that occurred in 1944 was rooted by a reaction by young Mexican-American males against a culture that did not want them to be a part of it. Stuart Cosgrove examines this issue when he states, "In the most obvious ways they had been stripped of their customs, beliefs and language.” (*Vargas 317) These youths were going through an identity crisis because they did not know which culture they could identify with. Miss Jimenez is a character that embodies that repression Valdez explains in “Los Vendidos.”

 The zoot suit and those who wear it become the target for racism during Act 6. We can see the press is out to frame zooters as the enemy. They are relentlessly racist and use their power to demean El Pachuco. This angers El Pachuco and leads him to fight and be stripped of his luxorious zoot suit, being belittled to nothing. This symbolizes pachuco culture going at war with the press and losing because of the power they have to frame zooters as the

When I first began directing, to me, the play was the thing. My mind was focused on the goings on of the stage with limited awareness beyond its borders. It seemed that dealing with the audience was somebody else’s job. If I directed a great play, I thought, people would come and like it. Job done. “Why this play now?” was a philosophical, intellectual question—but not something I really confronted in an educational setting.

The above example illustrates not only how the theatrical performance affects the audience, but also how the audience influences its dynamics, development and the characters within it. The actors feel a certain level of acceptance from the viewer, who demands a certain way of depicting the character. Theatre is not just entertainment, itís something much more than that ñ itís education. Theatre should always represent things, rather than