Zoot Suitors Stereotypes

The whole movie deals with emotions and how they grow up in that environment and that reflects in next generation’s life. Their perceptions are a lot different from my culture. One thing that I felt from this movie is whatever you see from parents or elder siblings, most of the time you will follow that way and it’s also happen in my culture also. Twenty years ago at about the same time that "Cisco" and "Stingray" Santiago became leaders of the notorious Assassination gang and Luis also became a gang leader. That movie is also a great example of emotional intelligence. This movie is kind of empathetic.

Stereotypes are a form of prejudice everyone will once experience in their lifetime. Stereotypes are centered around an individual's race, gender, social class, religion, and age. They have been known to be elements people use to make judgments and subjectify people to one key feature. As Gordon Allport states, “ To state the matter technically, a noun abstracts from a concrete reality some one features and assembles different concrete realities only with respect to this one feature”(364). Mr.Allport’s words can be summed up to say stereotypes have been used as key fundamentals to associate one feature or aspect of a person with a group that represents it, typically in an unfavorable way.

The Film "West Side Story" illustrates how the Puerto Ricans of New York faced discrimination and were used as scapegoats by the American people during the cold war time period to escape their anxieties. Due to the fear of communism and possible nuclear war the 1950-1960s time period was a very fragile time for the American people which produced an air of xenophobia throughout the country. The air of xenophobia is present throughout the play due of the repeated mention of stereotypes about Puerto Ricans and the constant feeling that the Puerto Ricans do not belong. The people of American often dealt with these anxieties in one of two ways, through escapism or through and through the scapegoating. This is made very clear through the comparison of West Side Story to the play The Music Man in the document “West Side Story and The Music Man: Whiteness, Immigration, and Race in the US during the late 1950s”. Like many waves of immigrants, the Puerto Ricans faced discrimination when they arrived and for some time after. This came in the form of people being discriminatory directly to them, housing discrimination and job discrimination. Therefore, the play “West Side Story” expresses the discrimination that Puerto Ricans faced due to the xenophobic nature of the time period.

The film has several ethnicities within a small area along a time line of one day. The film has many, informative methods in which it describe the various diversity issues of all the characters within the movie. For example, Sal’s pizzeria which is owned by an Italian American has pictures of famous Italian Americans on the wall and plays Italian music. One character named Buggin Out is always upset. Bugging out hates the fact that there are no black people pictures on the wall especially since the pizzeria is in a black neighborhood. His perspective represents the people in the African American community that always protest, but usually don’t work to improve the community. The

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)

Immigration is a complex and multifaceted issue that faces the US. In his film, Sin Nombre (2009), director Cary Fukunaga aims to juxtaposition the issue of immigration with the issue of gang violence in Mexico, and show the difficulties immigrants face by giving his audience an insider’s perspective into the experience of immigrating to the United States from Honduras. He does this through a variety of characters; most notably Willie and Sayra. Fukunaga did extensive research on life in the Mara Salvatrucha gang and the process of immigrating to America, in order to make his film realistic and authentic. The result is a movie that not only shows immigration in a way that evokes empathy and enforces the humanity of immigrants in the viewer’s mind, but also gives the viewer a look into the realities of being in a gang. Through the use of strong characters, powerful dialogue and vivid imagery, Fukunaga uses pathos to put a human face to the issue of immigration, logos to inform and give his audience context about the issues the film addresses, and ethos to establish his credibility and make the film believable.

The film created a connection of the people living in Barrio Logan showing the life before and after to the changes they had to go through. It was just a humble town that had all the resources the needed to feel safe. Before there was a border people would come as they pleased and enjoy their time the beautiful land to visit the community where everyone knew each other. Then the border created the first separation of the land they used to travel across so easily. Which ripped a part of the place they once knew. After time, many people left as the highway was built right on top of where their homes were built.

This is becasuse the cross country team started at rock bottom and they were able to rise to the very top. The movie is not only about cross country, it showcases some major issues in Latino communites. At the beginning if the movie White and his family are almost scared out of the town by its citizens. Stereotypes of gang members were almost impossible not to think of and showcased the many misconceptions Latinos must deal with. At one point in the film, one of the boys joked that Danny Diaz’s running is “slower than 911 to a Mexican’s house”. This shows how the Latino community is more than aware about their little worth in the eyes of the more privileged Americans. One of the main themes of the movie is that of true family and community. The Latinos in the film truly valued their relationships with others. As was mentioned before, a neighbor offered a chicken and a store owner offered a coke. Some of the boys had to quit the cross country team in order to help their family. In addition, the boys perceiveds the students from the others as obnoxiously privileged. This would explain why Vallaz was so upset to lose to them during the first cross country meet. He didn’t just lose the race is symbolized the marginalization many immigrants

Regarding the labeling theory, the theory holds that behaviors are deviant only when society labels them as deviant. As such, conforming members of society, who interpret certain behaviors as deviant and then attach this label to individuals, determine the distinction between deviance and non‐deviance. Influential people within society—politicians, judges, police officers, medical doctors, and so forth—typically impose the most significant labels. Labeled individuals may include drug addicts, alcoholics, criminals, delinquents, prostitutes, and sex offenders, to mention a few. The relation to the movie is that, the stakeholders used to, or maybe still label the people of color have higher tendency to do criminal activities compared to Caucasians, and that’s what the media portrayed back then, thus the case of mass incarceration of people of color, seemed not to be a big deal for the States in which the majority of individuals who resides here are the whites. Compton and other majority black areas that considered dangerous might arise because of this labeling

Determined to help his audience - people who stereotype against and do not understand gang life - find commonalities with gang members, Fr. Boyle shares his experiences with gangs in Los Angeles. At the beginning of the novel, Fr. Boyle articulates his thesis and expresses his purpose for sharing his experiences when he states, “Though this book does not concern itself with solving the gang problem, it does aspire to broaden the parameters of our kinship. It hopes not only to put a human face on the gang member, but to recognize our own wounds in the broken

These negative portrayals of Mexicans fuels an already existing stigma. Griffin reinforces these archetypes through film and this in turn can lead to the

While today Los Angeles is prided on being one of the most diverse cities in the United States, there was (and still is) a tremendous amount of resistance that had to be overcome. Society’s inclination to maintain homogeneity along with the testing of loyalties and allegiance through pressures of war have proven great obstacles in the evolution of what is now a majority-minority city. Nina Revoyr’s Southland gives a historic fictional recount of Los Angeles’ most tested times from perspectives looking in to the past, present, and future. The discovery of unpleasant truths through grave social injustices provide a painful reminder of Los Angeles’ history and consequently a warning for future setbacks. Southland is an emotional testament to the inescapability of discrimination within stratified cities and the unspoken necessity of assimilation that occurs as a result.

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

In Act 1, scene 2, Zoot suit touches the common theme of cultural discrimination showing how only Mexican-Americans were arrested by Lt. Edwards and Sergeant Smith at the barrio dance during the mass arrest. This scene is significant as it clearly shows how Sergeant Smith, an Anglo officer, lets Swabbie and her girlfriend leave from the scene of arrest without any interrogation because they are American and not Mexican-American. This scene is clearly evident of the fact how these Mexican-Americans were treated based on their cultural preference as they were wearing Zoot suit at the dance party which was seen as an insult by the people of Anglo culture. The arrest of these Mexican-Americans by the Anglo officers shows the harsh treatment that

The movie exposes the shabby working and living conditions of the Mexican-American community. It provides some historical background on how Hispanic rights were violated by white industrialists. The land where the mine is located was once owned by members of the local Mexican-American community, however the Zinc Company moved in, took over the property and offered them the "choice" of moving or accepting employment at low wage. Additionally, the workers are enticed to live in management-owned houses and buy at management-owned stores. The homes of the Hispanics are shacks compared to those of their white co-workers with poor sanitation and bad plumbing. The stores sell goods at inflated prices, which put the workers in debt.