thesis statement about zoot suit

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Prelude to the riots

Zoot Suit Riots

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• Chapman University Digital Commons - Threads of the Zoot Suit Riots: How the initial explanations for the riots hold up today
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - An introduction to the history of the Zoot Suit Riots
• The National WWII Museum - The Zoot Suit Riots and Wartime Los Angeles
• Digital History - The Zoot Suit Riots
• Zinn Education Project - June 3, 1943: The Zoot Suit Riots
• Public Broadcasting Corporation - American Experience - The Zoot Suit Riots of 1943
• Zoot Suit Riots - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• Zoot Suit Riots - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

Zoot Suit Riots , a series of conflicts that occurred in June 1943 in Los Angeles between U.S. servicemen and Mexican American youths, the latter of whom wore outfits called zoot suits. The zoot suit consisted of a broad-shouldered drape jacket, balloon-leg trousers , and, sometimes, a flamboyant hat . Mexican and Mexican American youths who wore these outfits were called zoot-suiters. These individuals referred to themselves as pachucos , a name linked to the Mexican American generation’s rebellion against both the Mexican and American cultures .

Pressures related to U.S. involvement in World War II contributed to the racial tensions that preceded the riots . Workers were needed in the agricultural and service sectors of the United States to fill the jobs vacated by those who were serving in the military. An agreement was reached with Mexico whereby temporary workers from Mexico were brought into the United States. This influx of Mexican workers was not particularly welcomed by white Americans.

As part of the war effort, by March 1942 the United States had begun rationing various resources. Restrictions on wool had a direct effect on the manufacture of wool suits and other clothing. There were regulations prohibiting the manufacturing of zoot suits, but a network of bootleg tailors continued to manufacture them. This exacerbated racial tensions, as Mexican American youths wearing the zoot suits were seen as un-American because they were deliberately ignoring the rationing regulations.

The Zoot Suit Riots are commonly associated with the Sleepy Lagoon murder, which occurred in August 1942. The Sleepy Lagoon, as it was nicknamed, was one of the larger reservoirs outside the city of Los Angeles. On the night of August 1, 1942, zoot-suiters were involved in a fight at a party near the Sleepy Lagoon. The next morning one of the partygoers, José Díaz, was dead. There was public outcry against the zoot-suiters, fueled by local tabloids. Citing concerns about juvenile delinquency , California Gov. Culbert Olson used Díaz’s death as the impetus for a roundup by the Los Angeles Police Department of more than 600 young men and women, most of whom were Mexican American. Several of the zoot-suiters who were arrested were tried and, in January 1943, convicted of murder . However, many people denounced the circus atmosphere of the trial and attacked the verdict as a miscarriage of justice . The convictions of the Mexican American youths were later reversed on appeal in October 1944.

During the period from 1942 through 1943, the news media continued to portray the zoot-suiters as dangerous gang members who were capable of murder. On the basis of the news reports, more and more people began to believe that the Mexican American youths, particularly the zoot-suiters, were predisposed to committing crime . It was in this racially charged atmosphere that the conflict between predominantly white servicemen stationed in southern California and Mexican American youths in the area began. Incidents initially took the form of minor altercations but later escalated. Within months of the Sleepy Lagoon convictions, Los Angeles erupted in what are commonly referred to as the Zoot Suit Riots.

The riots began on June 3, 1943, after a group of sailors stated that they had been attacked by a group of Mexican American zoot-suiters. As a result, on June 4 a number of uniformed sailors chartered cabs and proceeded to the Mexican American community , seeking out the zoot-suiters. What occurred that evening and in the following days was a series of conflicts primarily between servicemen and zoot-suiters. Many zoot-suiters were beaten by servicemen and stripped of their zoot suits on the spot. The servicemen sometimes urinated on the zoot suits or burned them in the streets. One local paper printed an article describing how to “de-zoot” a zoot-suiter, including directions that the zoot suits should be burned. The servicemen were also portrayed in local news publications as heroes fighting against what was referred to as a Mexican crime wave. The worst of the rioting occurred on the night of June 7, when thousands of servicemen and citizens prowled the streets of downtown Los Angeles, attacking zoot-suiters as well as members of minority groups who were not wearing zoot suits.

In response to these confrontations , police arrested hundreds of Mexican American youths, many of whom had already been attacked by servicemen. There were also reports of Mexican American youths requesting to be arrested and locked up in order to protect themselves from the servicemen in the streets. In contrast, very few sailors and soldiers were arrested during the riots.

Shortly after midnight on June 8, military officials declared Los Angeles off-limits to all military personnel. Deciding that the local police were completely unable or unwilling to handle the situation, officials ordered military police to patrol parts of the city and arrest disorderly military personnel; this, coupled with the ban, served to greatly deter the servicemen’s riotous actions. The next day the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution that banned the wearing of zoot suits on Los Angeles streets. The number of attacks dwindled, and the rioting had largely ended by June 10. In the following weeks, however, similar disturbances occurred in other states.

Remarkably, no one was killed during the riots, although many people were injured. The fact that considerably more Mexican Americans than servicemen were arrested—upward of 600 of the former, according to some estimates—fueled criticism of the Los Angeles Police Department’s response to the riots from some quarters.

As the riots died down, California Gov. Earl Warren ordered the creation of a citizens’ committee to investigate and determine the cause of the Zoot Suit Riots. The committee’s report indicated that there were several factors involved but that racism was the central cause of the riots and that it was exacerbated by the response of the Los Angeles Police Department as well as by biased and inflammatory media coverage. Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron , concerned about the riots’ negative impact on the city’s image, issued his own conclusion, stating that racial prejudice was not a factor and that the riots were caused by juvenile delinquents.

by Luis Valdez

Zoot suit themes.

A major theme in the play revolves around the wrongful imprisonment of the members of the 38th Street Gang, who are persecuted primarily because of their race. The police force has a bigoted attitude towards the Hispanic gang members and characters regularly make reference to the second-class citizenship of the Hispanic characters.

In addition to the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial, the play also looks at the Zoot Suit Riots, which took place during the same time, in which servicemen stationed in Southern California committed racially motivated violent acts against local Hispanic residents.

Prejudice and the Law

As the murder trial winds to a close, the DA flatly states that in his opinion the actual details of what happened, which remain ambiguous at best, are ultimately irrelevant in the face of the real threat that the murder exposed: the tough, young, flashy Mexican immigrants “in our midst.” These stereotypes about Pachuco culture and how it relates to the larger Mexican immigrant culture expands to become the premise upon which the police decide the killer was wearing a zoot suit. Even though there is a lack of strong evidence, the courts and the law professionals involved in the case believe that, for symbolic purposes, the arrest of the 38th Street Gang members is completely necessary.

Rewriting the Narrative

The play looks at actual historical events in Mexican-American history and tries to present them in a way that makes room for the perspectives of the Hispanic people involved. The figure of El Pachuco acts as a kind of narrator in the play. As a manifestation of the Pachuco archetype, a kind of allegory for Chicano excellence—at once impressive, all-knowing, tricky, and disruptive—he makes sure that the Chicano perspective is getting adequately represented in the narrative.

El Pachuco contains many different facets and guides Henry Reyna along his journey. His highly theatrical persona onstage has the effect of both clarifying as well as confusing the narrative. Nowhere is this more evident than the end of the play when three different possible endings are presented to the audience. Henry's fate remains ambiguous, as the audience must ponder whether he met a happy and glorious or a tragic one.

Passion & Romance

Henry Reyna, as the leader of a gang, is quite the ladies' man, but he holds a special place in his heart for his girlfriend, Della . Della is willing to rebel against the wishes of her father to be with Henry, and testifies on Henry's behalf in court.

Additionally, Henry falls unexpectedly in love with Alice Bloomfield , the white activist who works on his behalf while he is in jail. They have a letter correspondence and even kiss passionately during visiting hours at one point in the play. While Henry's romantic life is not shown that much in the course of the play, he is portrayed as a passionate and seductive figure.

White Savior

Two characters who are instrumental in the case for the 38th Street Gang are George Shearer and Alice Bloomfield, two white people who have chosen to help the members of the gang. They are, in some respects, typical examples of "white savior" figures, an archetype of a white person who has chosen to help a non-white person (sometimes with the implication that they are serving themselves). In the course of the play, the Chicano characters are, to varying degrees, skeptical of George and Alice. In the beginning, the boys refuse George's legal help until he speaks Spanish to them and tells them not to assume anything about him without first giving him a chance to help. In a confrontation with Alice, Henry accuses her of being disingenuous in her desire to help. It is not until she breaks down and admits that she gets exhausted by her work as an advocate that Henry trusts her. The play represents several examples of the "white savior" archetype, and these figures are important parts of the 38th Street Gang's victory, but they are also met with some resistance from the people they are trying to help.

The Press and Media Scrutiny

Another major theme in the play is how the media scrutinizes and puts a spin on events. The whole stage is filled with newspapers and stacks of newspapers that represent other props onstage, and the 38th Street Gang must contend with perceptions about them that have a prejudicial rhetorical bent. Indeed, many times, the press is represented by one character or a chorus of voices that shout out information about the case that clearly has a strong bias. Alice Bloomfield, as a member of a more left-leaning publication, seeks to combat these misrepresentations and advocate for the 38th Street boys with her own journalistic powers. Thus, the play shows that the press influences public opinion, and that many people do not realize how skewed or biased it can be.

Masculinity

The archetype of the "Pachuco," in his zoot suit and his flamboyant adornments, is an image of confident and smooth masculinity. The Chicano men in the play pride themselves on their masculinity, their prowess with women, and their ability to lead with a certain amount of machismo. Thus, when the figure of El Pachuco is stripped and humiliated in the course of the "Zoot Suit riots," left naked on the stage, it is particularly striking—the image of a man who is stripped of his masculine embellishments.

Zoot Suit Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Zoot Suit is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How did Rudy end Henry and the Pachuccos life? And what is happening at the time this happend?

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The theme of racial discrimination is shown as members of the 38th Street Gang contend with the ways that they are mistreated by officers of the law. They are often stuck in jail for small crimes, and are treated more poorly than their white peers. The ev

A major theme in the play revolves around the wrongful imprisonment of the members of the 38th Street Gang, who are persecuted primarily because of their race. The police force has a bigoted attitude towards the Hispanic gang members and...

Is pachuco helpful or hurtful to Henry in his time of isolation? Why?

Pachuco refers to a subculture of Chicanos and Mexican-Americans. Are you referring to the culture?

Study Guide for Zoot Suit

Zoot Suit study guide contains a biography of Luis Valdez, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of the play.

• About Zoot Suit
• Zoot Suit Summary
• Character List

Lesson Plan for Zoot Suit

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Zoot Suit
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Zoot Suit Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Zoot Suit

• Introduction

ARTS & CULTURE

A brief history of the zoot suit.

Unraveling the jazzy life of a snazzy style

Alice Gregory

It was June 1943 when the riots broke out. For over a week, white U.S. soldiers and sailors traversed Los Angeles beating up allegedly “unpatriotic” Mexican-American men, identifiable by their conspicuously voluminous attire. It was, as the historian Kathy Peiss writes in  Zoot Suit: The Enigmatic Career of an Extreme Style , “perhaps the first time in American history that fashion was believed to be the cause of widespread civil unrest.” Starting this month, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will feature an authentic example of one of these catalyzing ensembles as part of a new exhibition, “ Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715–2015 .”

With its super-sized shoulder pads, sprawling lapels and peg leg pants, the zoot suit grew out of the “drape” suits popular in Harlem dance halls in the mid-1930s. The flowing trousers were tapered at the ankles to prevent jitterbugging couples from getting tripped up while they twirled. By the ’40s, the suits were worn by minority men in working-class neighborhoods throughout the country. Though the zoot suit would be donned by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong, it was “not a costume or uniform from the world of entertainment,” the Chicago big-band trumpeter and clothier Harold Fox once said. “It came right off the street and out of the ghetto.’’

Fox was one among many, from Chicago to Harlem to Memphis, who took credit for inventing the zoot suit—the term came out of African-American slang—but it was actually unbranded and illicit: There was no one designer associated with the look, no department store where you could buy one. These were ad hoc outfits, regular suits bought two sizes too large and then creatively tailored to dandyish effect.

To some men, the suit’s ostentatiousness was a way of refusing to be ignored. The garment had “profound political meaning,” wrote Ralph Ellison, author of  Invisible Man . “For those without other forms of cultural capital,” says Peiss, “fashion can be a way of claiming space for yourself.”

Wartime rations on fabric made wearing such oversized clothing an inherently disobedient act. Langston Hughes wrote in 1943 that for people with a history of cultural and economic poverty, “too much becomes JUST ENOUGH for them.” To underscore the style’s almost treasonous indulgence, press accounts exaggerated the price of zoot suits by upwards of 50 percent. But even the real cost of one was near-prohibitive for the young men who coveted them—Malcolm X, in his autobiography , recounts buying one on credit.

Though policemen slashed some zoot suits to ruins, the more likely reason for their disappearance once the craze faded in the 1950s was less dramatic—most were simply refashioned into other garments. Original specimens are mythically hard to come by: It took curators from LACMA over a decade to find one, and when they did, in 2011, it cost them nearly $80,000, an auction record for an item of 20th-century menswear.

But the suit had a luxuriant afterlife, influencing styles from Canada and France to the Soviet Union and South Africa. It was the subject of the Who’s first single . In 1978, the actor and playwright Luis Valdez wrote Zoot Suit , the first Chicano play on Broadway. The outfit’s iconic shape was taken up in the ’80s by Japanese avant-garde designers, who sent models down the runway in tumescent suiting around the time that MC Hammer put on his drop-crotch pants—causing outrage in the form of widespread hand-wringing over the alleged immorality of sagging pants, a style that has never quite gone out of fashion. By the time a record called “ Zoot Suit Riot ,” by the swing-revival band the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, became a hit in the late-’90s, the suit’s provenance had largely been forgotten. No longer was the zoot suit evocative of the expressive power of fashion for the disenfranchised so much as it was a historical oddity known by a charming name.

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Alice Gregory | | READ MORE

Alice Gregory’s work has appeared in The New Yorker , n+1 , and Harper’s . She is a contributing editor at T , and a columnist for The New York Times Book Review .

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The zoot suit: an all-American fashion that changed history

With jacket arms that reached the fingertips and pants worn tight at the waist, bulging at the knees and choked at the ankles, it was nearly impossible to ignore a man wearing a zoot suit.

Accessorized with a key chain that extended to the knees and a fedora-like hat with a feather attached, the fashion certainly said something about those who sported it. But what statement were those who were donning the look in the late 1930s and early 1940s trying to make?

That’s one of questions  Kathy Peiss  explores in her new book, “Zoot Suit: The Enigmatic Career of an Extreme Style.” In the book, Peiss, the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History in  Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences , examines the fashion phenomenon that became so politically polarizing it played a part in sparking a vicious uprising in California, known as the Zoot Suit Riots.

“I argue that people [wore] it for a whole range of reasons,” she says. “It had many different meanings, including the pleasure of looking sharp and being part of a group of young people in the war years. The zoot suit should not be looked at solely as a costume that conveys political resistance.”

Peiss traces the creation of the zoot suit to Harlem in the mid to late 1930s, when tailors began making them out of wool or colorful varieties of rayon. Although its exact origin is unknown, the term “zoot suit” appears to have come from the rhyming slang, or jive, spoken in the African-American community at the time, Peiss says.

“They were generally worn by young men of African-American descent, initially,” Peiss says. “Mexican-American and white working-class men also would wear them. Typically they would buy them at local clothing shops and have them tailored to this oversized style.”

The suit’s rise in popularity coincided with the emergence of the jitterbug and other forms of swing dance music. The flowing look of the suit was particularly flashy on the dance floor, and young people took note. Their parents, however, were not quite as smitten by the style.

“Initially it was mainly a mystery to mainstream Americans,” Peiss says. “It was seen as strange but not necessarily sinister. Over time there [was] a perception that the zoot suit is unpatriotic.”

At the dawn of World War II, the zoot suit was condemned by the U.S. government as wasteful. Not surprisingly, the criticism did little to dissuade its fans from wearing it, and in fact may have even attracted more people to the look. In the early 1940s, working-class youth, entertainers and dancers continued to wear zoot suits, and the look spread to Italian Americans, Jews, and even some teenage girls.

“In the midst of the war it is associated with men who are criminals or members of gangs,” Peiss explains. “Around 1943, there is a riot that breaks out in Los Angeles. White servicemen and civilians begin to attack young men, especially Mexican-American men. They rip the clothing off their bodies, and the zoot suit takes on this sense of being a danger.”

In her book, Peiss writes that during the Zoot Suit Riots, “a band of 50 sailors armed themselves with makeshift weapons, left their naval base and coursed into downtown Los Angeles in search of young Mexican Americans in zoot suits.” The sailors viciously beat the zoot suiters, and the next day even more servicemen “hired a convoy of taxicabs to go into to East Los Angeles, where they accosted pachucos [Mexican Americans] on the street and even pushed their way into private homes.”

“On the one hand it may seem like a trivial style, but what I would say is that we have a tendency to read style for its political and social and economic and cultural meaning,” Peiss says. “I think we should do so with a careful understanding that how we adorn the body and how we fashion our looks and ourselves matters.”

Though the zoot suit is largely gone, it is not forgotten. It reemerged in the late 1960s with the rise of the Chicano Rights Movement, and as a sort of retro fashion in the early 1990s with the revival of swing music and dance. In 2001, the swing band Cherry Poppin’ Daddies released an album called “Zoot Suit Riot.”

“It keeps returning because it is an extreme style of men’s dress, and most men wear relatively conservative styles, which tend to make them inconspicuous,” Peiss says. “It continues to have a hold on the imagination.”

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The Los Angeles Zoot-Suit Riots and Its Effects Essay

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Due to favorable immigration policies, the US is home to all ethnic groups in the world. For that reason, the US is home to Whites, Asians, Hispanics, and Africans.

Nonetheless, these groups have endured racism and ethnic stratification throughout history. In this regard, certain races are perceived to be superior or inferior to others.

Consequently, racism has been the greatest obstacle to the assimilation of certain ethnic groups in the US. The Zoot-Suit riots were, hence, a manifestation of a greater problem in the US.

According to Castillo, the Zoot-Suit riots exposed the racial hatred towards Latin Americans and other ethnic minorities.

Its publicity, thus, exposed the plight of ethnic minorities in California and the entire country. This essay explains the influence of the Los Angeles Zoot-Suit Riots on ethnicity, nationalism, and assimilation in the US.

The Zoot-Suit riots took place in June 1943. For two weeks, military personnel based at the Chavez Ravine Naval Reserve Training School in Los Angeles embarked on a string of attacks on young Mexicans wearing the zoot-suit (Watson).

This event was the largest civil disturbance involving Mexican-Americans in the US. Moreover, Chicanos were the main victims in this confrontation. Chicano, a term associated with politics and activism, refers to later generations of Mexican immigrants (Castillo).

Within the first ten days of the riot, White people joined the military and the police in pursuing the zoot-suiters (Watson).

Therefore, by pursuing Mexican zoot-suiters, the police and the military were fueling ethnic hatred towards them (Castillo). Subsequently, the zoot-suiters embarked on a series of retaliatory attacks — for instance, the angry youths ran-down policeman and stoned sailors (Watson).

The Zoot-Suit riots generated varied reaction and conclusions on the predicaments of ethnic minorities in California. For instance, the Latin American press used this incident as a confirmation of prejudices leveled against the Latinos in the US.

Therefore, the Zoot-Suit riots were seen as a product of hate directed towards Mexican-Americans. Also, many historians believe that the reactions from Mexican-Americans were mainly due to racial stereotypes and other forms of discrimination.

Furthermore, this disturbance reminded the Chicanos that they were descendants of Mexican immigrants. Accordingly, their nationalism was dented as they felt like second-class citizens in their country of birth.

Further analyses of the Zoot-Suit riots indicate that these happenings were part of a wider scheme to victimize California’s ethnic minorities (Watson). Consequently, organizations representing ethnic minorities united in a bid to expose the events behind this riot (Watson).

Racists believe that some ethnic groups are naturally inferior to others. Consequently, racism has been used to justify the different forms of prejudices in the US. Ethnic minorities are more prone to prejudice and discrimination than the majority of ethnic groups in the US.

This discrimination takes place in all states within the US. For that reason, California does not represent an exception to the rule when it comes to race, nationalism and assimilation issues. Ratio discrimination is a vice that has been practiced throughout history in most parts of the US.

Ross and Agiesta affirm that racial attitudes in the US are yet to improve. Many people thought that racism would be minimized after the US elected its first African American president. However, according to Ross and Ageist, racism has increased moderately since 2008.

Additionally, most racist attitudes are directed towards African Americans and the Hispanics. For instance, African Americans encounter prejudice from 51% of Americans (Ross and Agiesta). Therefore, economic and social inequalities related to ethnicity persist in the United States.

Additionally, there are serious disparities among Whites, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and African Americans. Hispanics and African Americans are positioned lower in the United States’ socio-economic hierarchy.

For that reason, most members of these ethnic groups have little or no education, live in poor neighborhoods and are marginalized politically.

The Zoot-Suit riots show that ethnic intolerance is not something new in the US. For that reason, ethnic hierarchies have persisted for a long in the US. In the US, ethnic groups are organized hierarchically by their socio-economic status.

However, there is no evidence that a particular ethnic group is special in any way. Therefore, all ethnic groups are equal.

Similarly, how we perceive others influences our actions towards them. People perceive other cultures based on what they hear from different sources. This leads to stereotyping other people’s way of life. As a result, the correct description of these people and their cultures is distorted.

For that reason, racism can be eradicated by appreciating diversity in the US. Also, all citizens must acknowledge that the US is a racist country. Racism derails the United State’s progress and ignores diversity.

For instance, structural discrimination and lack of opportunities lead to disruptive behaviors among African Americans and Hispanics. Some of these behaviors include prostitution and crime. Mexican-Americans were a nuisance to the Los Angeles police in 1940s due to these disparities.

Although their socio-economic status is improving, African Americans and the Hispanics sit at the bottom of the ethnic hierarchy in the US. Therefore, current and historical disparities in California follow historical precedents in other states.

Works Cited

Castillo, Richard Griswold. “The Los Angeles “Zoot Suit Riots” Revisited: Mexican and Latin American Perspectives.” Mexican Studies/ Estudios Mexicanos 16.2 (2000): 367-39. JSTOR. Web.

Ross, Sonya and Jennifer Agiesta. “ Racism in America: Poll finds rise in prejudice since 2008 .” 2012. Portland Press Herald. Web.

Watson, John. “ Crossing the Color Lines in the City of Angels: The NAACP and the Zoot-Suit Riot of 1943. ” University of Sussex Journal of Contemporary History. 4 (2002). Web.

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IvyPanda. (2020, March 14). The Los Angeles Zoot-Suit Riots and Its Effects. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-los-angeles-zoot-suit-riots-and-its-effects/

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The Zoot Suit Riots, 80 years later

By fidel martinez | los angeles times | jun. 8, 2023 | file photo from la times.

They were targeted and beaten. Stripped of their prized garbs and brutalized in the streets.

This June marks the 80th anniversary of the Zoot Suit Riots, a dark period in Los Angeles and American history in which young Mexican, Filipinx and Black men and boys were attacked by servicemen and white Angelenos, driven by racial and anti-immigrant animus, throughout the city over the course of a week.

To commemorate this event, a group of Times journalists and editors put together this v ital story package.

“The cliche about history repeating itself if history is forgotten is true, but exploring history isn’t just recalling the past,” said Column One editor Steve Padilla, who oversaw the project.

“It’s important to show how the past informs the present, and that was one of the goals of our stories on the Zoot Suit Riots. Another motivating factor behind our work: After 80 years, the riots simply are not as well known as they once were.”

He’s not wrong.

Growing up in Texas, I didn’t learn about the Zoot Suit Riots in school — this isn’t particularly surprising  given how much of U.S. Latinx history is still kept out of high school textbooks . My first exposure to this historic event came through the 1992 film “American Me,” which devotes  a nearly six-minute montage  to the white rage the parents of the protagonist endured. It wasn’t until college, when I took a course titled the History of Mexican Americans Since 1848 that I began to learn the extent of what transpired.

Central to The Times’ package is this  comprehensive timeline  compiled and written by multiplatform editor Christian Orozco, which not only outlines the events that took place, but also where. It connects the occurrences of that week with other historically relevant events like the Pearl Harbor bombing and the Sleepy Lagoon trials that fed into the racial violence.

Orozco did a fantastic job of digging through the archives, including our own coverage that further fueled the violence.

“Sadly, one of the many newspapers cheering on the marauding servicemen was The Times,” said Padilla, noting that an editor had brought up in an early meeting that “unlike other civil disturbances in American history,” this dark stain was “essentially state-sanctioned chaos.”

“It was only proper, and honest, to detail our own complicity.”

Padilla also shared that several Times staffers had a personal connection to the Zoot Suit Riots.

“One reporter said his father bought a zoot suit, only to have  his  father cut it up with scissors,” he said. “My own father once told me he had wanted a zoot suit, but his mother wouldn’t allow it. Good thing, too. Dad recalled seeing servicemen beat up a zoot suiter on 4th Street in Boyle Heights.”

Another key component of the package is this Column One written by Gustavo Arellano, which recounts the often  overlooked support given by the Black Angeleno community . It’s an aspect of the riots I personally knew very little about.

“The leaders of the Black community really seemed to understand that they weren’t safe just because they weren’t the primary target,” Kevin Leonard, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, told Arellano. “They connected it to Black experiences in the South. As long as people were allowed to be scapegoated or turned into victims of violence, then no one was safe.”

I implore you to  read through the stories , even if you think you knew everything there was to know about the Zoot Suit Riots. I’m willing to bet that you’ll learn something new. I certainly did.

And finally, I do want to reiterate my colleague Steve Padilla’s sentiment that history is bound to repeat itself if forgotten. Though the Zoot Suit Riots took place 80 years ago, the  marginalization and targeting  of  minority communities  are very much still alive.

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Zoot Suit Riot by Eduardo Obregón Pagán LAST REVIEWED: 19 March 2013 LAST MODIFIED: 19 March 2013 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199913701-0026

As night fell on Los Angeles on 3 June 1943, military men and civilians launched coordinated assaults on zoot-suited youth in the city’s streets in response to an escalating series of street-level challenges to white privilege. The riot effectively ended by Tuesday morning, 8 June 1943, when senior military officials, fearful of the negative publicity in the newspapers, declared Los Angeles out of bounds to all navy, marine, coast guard, and army personnel. In the end, an estimated ninety-four civilians and eighteen servicemen were treated for serious injuries from the riot. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) arrested all ninety-four of the civilians and only two of the servicemen. The Zoot Suit riot was unique among the riots that raged throughout the United States in 1943. Unlike the race riot in Detroit later that month, there were no murders, rapes, deaths, or serious damage to property reported in Los Angeles during the Zoot Suit riot. Instead, military men focused their rampage on finding youth wearing the so-called zoot suit (a fashion popularized by touring jazz bands), stripping them of their clothing, and then destroying the outfit.

California Legislature 1945 , published by the state legislature’s Committee on Un-American Activities in California, reflects the formal position of elected officials: that the violence was not racially motivated but was instead the result of pro-fascist operatives who provoked social discord among civilian youth. The novelist Chester Himes challenged such official denials in Himes 1943 . The Hollywood screenwriter Guy Endore fundamentally shifted the focus in Endore 1944 , by accusing the publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst of using his Los Angeles newspapers to promote “anti-Mexican hysteria.” This interpretation substantially influenced nearly all subsequent works. McWilliams 1949 expands on Endore’s thesis, claiming that Hearst sympathized with Adolf Hitler and that city police and military officials colluded with Hearst to foment racial hatred against Mexican Americans. Acuña 2011 modifies the Endore thesis in dropping the accusation that Hearst was behind the violence and carrying forward the thesis that all of Mexican American history (which includes the Zoot Suit riot) is a long sequence of anti-Mexican hysteria. Mazón 1984 adds psychoanalytic theory to explain why sailors experienced mass hysteria against Mexican Americans. Both Sánchez 1993 and Escobar 1999 continue the anti-Mexican thesis but strive to place the riot within a larger social and political context. Sánchez explores the process of cultural appropriation and invention, whereas Escobar places the riot within the historical context of the Los Angeles Police Department’s harsh treatment of Mexican Americans. Pagán 2003 rejects the anti-Mexican hysteria thesis as the sole explanation for social tensions and argues that the Zoot Suit riot, as well as the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial, instead derived from competing social tensions that grew out of demographic pressures, city planning, and a street-level insurgency against white privilege.

Acuña, Rodolfo. Occupied America: A History of Chicanos . 7th ed. Boston: Longman, 2011.

The first overview of Mexican American history from a Chicano nationalist perspective, originally published in 1972, which utilizes the anti-Mexican thesis to interpret Mexican American history (including the Zoot Suit riot) and to explain how white Americans came to dominate land that once belonged to Mexico. Devotes a chapter to the riot.

California Legislature. “‘Zoot-Suit’ Riots in Southern California.” In Second Report: Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California . By California Legislature. Sacramento: California State Printing Office, 1945.

The Un-American Activities Committee launched its own investigation into the cause of the riot to discover whether “fifth-column” fascist sympathizers were behind the escalating series of street conflicts between Mexican American youth and military men. They also probed the connections that the Communist Party USA had with the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee.

Endore, Guy. The Sleepy Lagoon Mystery . Los Angeles: Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee, 1944.

This 1944 booklet, written by a well-known Hollywood screenwriter and progressive activist, provided an enduring interpretation of why military men attacked zoot-suited youth. Endore alleged that the jury and military men were being controlled by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, who held a personal grudge against Mexican Americans. Reprinted as recently as 1980.

Escobar, Edward J. Race, Police, and the Making of a Political Identity: Mexican Americans and the Los Angeles Police Department, 1900–1945 . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

Devotes several chapters to the riot and argues that sweeping political reforms in reaction to the rampant vice of the 1920s and 1930s led to the creation of stringent police policies that affected the minority neighborhoods of Los Angeles with special harshness. The crackdown on criminalized social practices led to the perception that minority youth of the 1940s were out of control, and military men responded in attacking so-called zoot suiters.

Himes, Chester B. “Zoot Riots Are Race Riots.” Crisis 50.7 (July 1943): 200–201.

Himes rejected the official declarations of city officials that the Zoot Suit riot was not the result of prejudice against Mexican Americans, and sought to describe clear examples of racial animosity directed toward Mexican American youth that he witnessed in the weeks leading up to the riot.

Mazón, Mauricio. The Zoot-Suit Riots: The Psychology of Symbolic Annihilation . Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984.

Uses psychoanalytic theory to explore why sailors experienced anti-Mexican hysteria in rioting against zoot-suited youth, and argues that they were enacting rituals of erasure against civilian youth that they themselves had been subjected to in being inducted into the military.

McWilliams, Carey. North from Mexico: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States . Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1949.

In this comprehensive survey of Mexican American history, McWilliams argues, in his chapter devoted to the Zoot Suit riot, that publisher William Randolph Hearst used his sensationalistic Los Angeles newspapers to turn public opinion against Mexican Americans because of his fascist sympathies, and that key city officials, including the Los Angeles Police Department, colluded with his plan to rid the city of Mexican American youth gangs. New edition, updated by Matt S. Meier, published in 1990 (New York: Greenwood).

Pagán, Eduardo Obregón. Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.

Provides a comprehensive study of the riot. Arguing against the anti-Mexican thesis as the sole cause of the Zoot Suit riot, Pagán explores how a number of social tensions prior to and during the war, such as demographic pressures, city planning, and a growing street-level revolt against white privilege, culminated in the Zoot Suit riot.

Sánchez, George J. Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900–1945 . New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Arguing against earlier scholarship that saw resistance as the main theme for Mexican American history, Sánchez documents a complex process of social and cultural assimilation for Mexican immigrants and argues that they both resisted and accommodated American culture. Devotes a chapter to the riot, drawing on the anti-Mexican thesis.

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Luis Valdez

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In Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit , a play about discrimination against Los Angeles’s Chicano population in the 1940s, Henry Reyna and his fellow members of the 38th Street Gang face institutionalized racism and prejudice. Valdez makes it clear that Henry and his friends are at the mercy of a biased court system, as the men are held accountable for a murder they didn’t commit. As the gang go through the legal process, the judge presiding over the case does everything he can to help the prosecutor frame the men as malicious and dangerous. Although it’s clear from a legal perspective that the 38th Street Gang wasn’t responsible for the death of José Williams (the dead man in question), the public prosecutor insists to the jury that to let Henry and the others free would mean unleashing “the forces of anarchy and destruction” into American society. Because this trial unfolds during World War II, this rhetoric is especially effective, since the prosecutor takes the worst fears of the American citizenry at that time—“anarchy” and “destruction”—and pins it on people of color, conflating the fight against extremism in Europe with completely unrelated domestic matters. By spotlighting the government’s unjust targeting of the Chicano community in the early 1940s, Valdez invites audience members to consider an unfortunate part of the country’s history, ultimately calling attention to the ways in which prejudiced authorities sometimes manipulate patriotism and fear to villainize minority groups.

Zoot Suit shows audiences the consequences of racial profiling, a term that refers to biased policing based on race and ethnicity. This is made quite clear by the play’s title, since it’s named after a style of suit that was wildly popular in the Chicano community during the 1940s—a style that police officers eventually treated as a sign of criminality. Baggy suits with long jackets and high-waisted trousers, zoot suits weren’t exclusive to the Chicano population, but the police largely associated the style with young minority groups. For this reason, racists took a dim view of the trend, ultimately coming to see the zoot suit as a uniform that represented everything they hated, including anti-American sentiments. Henry’s brother, Rudy , encounters this unfair attitude when he gets swept up in the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943. For three nights, Navy officers, sailors, civilians, and other white servicemen run through Los Angeles attacking anyone wearing a zoot suit. While out dancing on one of these evenings, Rudy suddenly finds himself embroiled in a violent altercation simply because of his clothing. One white man even insists that “zoot suiters” like Rudy are trying to “outdo the white man in exaggerated white man’s clothes.” This accusation underscores not only a racist and intolerant attitude toward the Chicano population, but also the man’s anxiety that white people might lose their power in American society—a bigoted fear that leads to violence. What Rudy and his community face, then, is a brand of hatred motivated by insecurity.

What’s worse, prejudiced white authorities try to validate their insecurity and aggression by framing the Chicano community as threats to the American war effort in Europe. During the Zoot Suit Riots, one member of the press tells El Pachuco (a character who serves as the play’s narrator) that the “Zoot Suit Crime Wave is even beginning to push the war news off the front page.” It’s worth noting that the member of the press who says this goes out of his way to conflate the zoot suit itself with a “crime wave,” as if anyone who dresses like a member of the Chicano community (or for that matter, like somebody from any minority group) is not only involved in crime, but also responsible for diminishing wartime patriotism. In this regard, racists take issue with the zoot suit in order to vilify and further disenfranchise minorities like Rudy and Henry, who aren’t actually doing anything to detract from the American war effort.

In fact, it’s quite unfair to suggest that people like Henry and Rudy are undermining American wartime values. After all, Henry originally signed up for the Navy before getting arrested, and Rudy joins shortly after his brother goes to prison. This is why George , the lawyer defending the accused members of the 38th Street Gang, tries to emphasize in his closing statement that they are committed members of American society. To find Henry and his friends guilty of a murder they didn’t commit (without even furnishing any evidence) would be deeply unfair, George upholds, adding that this decision would “murder the spirit of racial justice in America.” Put another way, George tries to show the jury that the accused members of the Chicano community aren’t others —they’re Americans. This, in turn, means that to treat them unfairly would be to go against core American values, which is exactly what racists claim the “zoot suiters” are doing in the first place. And yet, people like the public prosecutor work tirelessly to suggest that Henry and his friends symbolize “anarchy” and “destruction,” thereby using them as scapegoats to advance racial prejudices simply by upholding that they are, as a member of the press puts it during the Zoot Suit Riots, “enemies of the American way of life.”

Thankfully, Henry and the rest of the 38th Street Gang are eventually let out of prison, but this doesn’t mean that this kind of fearmongering rhetoric doesn’t do lasting damage to the Chicano community, unnecessarily and unjustly interrupting the lives of these young men by forcing them to undeservedly spend time in prison. By putting this fact on display, then, Valdez warns audience members against giving into false nationalist claims about the supposed threat that minority groups pose to the country, since this is nothing more than a way to oppress people who are already vulnerable to racism and discrimination.

Racism, Nationalism, and Scapegoating ThemeTracker

Racism, Nationalism, and Scapegoating Quotes in Zoot Suit

PACHUCO: The city’s cracking down on pachucos, carnal. Don’t

you read the newspapers? They’re screaming for blood.

HENRY: All I know is they got nothing on me. I didn’t do any­thing.

PACHUCO: You’re Henry Reyna, ese—Hank Reyna! The snarling juvenile delinquent. The zootsuiter. The bitter young pachuco gang leader of 38th Street. That’s what they got on you.

PACHUCO: Off to fight for your country.

HENRY: Why not?

PACHUCO: Because this ain’t your country. Look what’s happen­ing all around you. The Japs have sewed up the Pacific. Rommel is kicking ass in Egypt but the Mayor of L.A. has declared all-out war on Chicanos. On you!

GEORGE: […] The problem seems to be that I look like an Anglo to you. What if I were to tell you that I had Spanish blood in my veins? That my roots go back to Spain, just like yours? What if I’m an Arab? What if I’m a Jew? What difference does it make? The question is, will you let me help you?

ALICE: I’m talking about you, Henry Reyna. And what the regular press has been saying. Are you aware you’re in here just because some bigshot up in San Simeon wants to sell more papers? It’s true.

ALICE: So, he’s the man who started this Mexican Crime Wave stuff. Then the police got into the act. Get the picture?

PRESS: ( Jumping in. ) Your Honor, there is testimony we expect to develop that the 38th Street Gang are characterized by their style of haircuts…

GEORGE: Three months, Your Honor.

PRESS: …the thick heavy heads of hair, the ducktail comb, the pachuco pants...

GEORGE: Your Honor, I can only infer that the Prosecution…is trying to make these boys look disreputable, like mobsters.

PRESS: Their appearance is distinctive. Your Honor. Essential to the case.

GEORGE: You are trying to exploit the fact that these boys look foreign in appearance! Yet clothes like these are being worn by kids all over America.

PRESS: Your Honor…

JUDGE: ( Bangs the gavel. ) I don’t believe we will have any diffi­culty if their clothing becomes dirty.

GEORGE: What about the haircuts. Your Honor?

JUDGE: ( Ruling .) The zoot haircuts will be retained throughout the trial for purposes of identification of defendants by witnesses.

PRESS: ( Springing to the attack. ) You say Henry Reyna hit the man with his fist. ( Indicates HENRY standing. ) Is this the Henry Reyna?

DELLA: Yes. I mean, no. He’s Henry, but he didn’t ...

PRESS: Please be seated. (HENRY sits. ) Now, after Henry Reyna hit the old man with his closed fist, is that when he pulled the knife?

DELLA: The old man had the knife.

PRESS: So Henry pulled one out, too?

GEORGE: ( Rises. ) Your Honor, I object to counsel leading the witness.

PRESS: I am not leading the witness.

GEORGE: You are.

PRESS: I certainly am not.

GEORGE: Yes, you are.

JUDGE: I would suggest, Mr. Shearer, that you look up during the noon hour just what a leading question is?

PRESS: […] We are deal­ing with a threat and danger to our children, our families, our homes. Set these pachucos free, and you shall unleash the forces of anarchy and destruction in our society. Set these pachucos free and you will turn them into heroes. Others just like them must be watching us at this very moment. What nefarious schemes can they be hatching in their twisted minds? Rape, drugs, assault, more vio­lence? Who shall be their next innocent victim in some dark alley way, on some lonely street? You? You? Your loved ones? No! Henry Reyna and his Latin juvenile co­horts are not heroes. They are criminals, and they must be stopped. The specific details of this murder are irrelevant before the overwhelming danger of the pachuco in our midst. I ask you to find these zoot-suited gangsters guilty of murder and to put them in the gas chamber where they belong.

GEORGE: […] All the prosecution has been able to prove is that these boys wear long hair and zoot suits. And all the rest has been circumstantial evidence, hearsay and war hysteria. The prosecution has tried to lead you to believe that they are some kind of inhuman gangsters. Yet they are Americans. Find them guilty of anything more serious than a juvenile bout of fisticuffs, and you will condemn all American youth. Find them guilty of murder, and you will murder the spirit of racial justice in America.

PRESS: […] The Zoot Suit Crime Wave is even beginning to push the war news off the front page.

PACHUCO: The Press distorted the very meaning of the word “zoot suit.” All it is for you guys is another way to say Mexican. But the ideal of the original chuco was to look like a diamond to look sharp hip bonaroo finding a style of urban survival in the rural skirts and outskirts of the brown metropolis of Los, cabron.

PRESS: Henry Reyna went back to prison in 1947 for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. While incarcerated, he killed another inmate and he wasn’t released until 1955, when he got into hard drugs. He died of the trauma of his life in 1972.

PACHUCO: That’s the way you see it, ese. But there’s other way[s] to end this story.

RUDY: Henry Reyna went to Korea in 1950. He was shipped across in a destroyer and defended the 38th Parallel until he was killed at Inchon in 1952, being posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

ALICE: Henry Reyna married Della in 1948 and they have five kids, three of them now going to the University, speaking calo and calling themselves Chicanos.

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The Zoot-Suit Riots

The psychology of symbolic annihilation.

• Mauricio Mazón
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• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Copyright year: 1984
• Audience: Professional and scholarly;
• Main content: 179
• Published: May 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9780292756441

Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Zoot Suit — Analysis Of The Main Messages In Luis Valdez’s Play Zoot Suits

Analysis of The Main Messages in Luis Valdez’s Play Zoot Suits

• Categories: Drama Zoot Suit

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Words: 1977 |

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Published: Aug 6, 2021

Words: 1977 | Pages: 4 | 10 min read

Works Cited

• Pagan, E. (2003). Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race , and Riot in Wartime L.A. UNC Press Books.
• Rivas-Rodriguez, M. (2019). The Fight for Latino Civil Rights. Texas A&M University Press.
• Romero, R. (2018). The Chicano Movement: An Introduction. Routledge.
• Rosales, F. A. (1996). Chicano! The history of the Mexican American civil rights movement. Arte Público Press.
• Sanchez, G. J. (2015). The Racial Politics of Chicano Identity: Radical Southwest. University of Arizona Press.
• Saldaña, G. (2006). The Teatro Campesino: theater in the Chicano movement. University of Texas Press.
• Stavans, I., & Augenbraum, H. (Eds.). (2012). Encyclopedia Latina: History, Culture, and Society in the United States. Grolier Academic Reference.
• Valdez, L. (1992). Zoot Suit and Other Plays. Arte Público Press.
• Valdez, L. (1992). Zoot Suit: A Bilingual Edition. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.
• Vargas, Z. (2018). Proletarians of the North: A History of Mexican Industrial Workers in Detroit and the Midwest, 1917-1933. University of California Press.

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Home > Undergraduate Journals > Voces Novae > Vol. 10 (2018)

Threads of the Zoot Suit Riots: How the initial explanations for the riots hold up today

Antonio Franco , Chapman University Follow

This paper is about the 1943 Los Angeles Zoot suit Riots. These riots lasted for five days and were fought between the city’s young Mexican-American population and U.S. servicemen who were in the city. The name comes from a popular style that many young Mexican-Americans in L.A. wore at the time called the zoot suit. The Zoot Suit Riots was one of the most important moments in Chicano history. Throughout the riots as well as sometime afterward, many who were in the city at the time tried to discern its origins. The local newspapers, the Los Angeles Police Department, Mexican-Americans, city officials, as well as some activists at the time, all expressed their own ideas about what caused the riots. For the most part they each blamed one or two factors for the riots but never themselves. In the end they wound up not being completely wrong or right. Thanks to extensive research we know today that the riots were not caused by one or even two factors like many claimed at the time. Instead, there were seemingly separate factors working together over a number of years in a huge causal web that eventually resulted in the Zoot Suit Riots.

Recommended Citation

Franco, Antonio (2018) "Threads of the Zoot Suit Riots: How the initial explanations for the riots hold up today," Voces Novae : Vol. 10, Article 4. Available at: https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/vocesnovae/vol10/iss1/4

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