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The Zoot Suit Riots were sparked by one of the largest and most sensationalized trials in California’s history: the Sleepy Lagoon Case. On August 2, 1942, the body of José Díaz was found at Sleepy Lagoon reservoir in southeast Los Angeles, a popular swimming hole among Latinos who were forbidden to use public pools during this time. The discovery set off a series of arrests by Los Angeles police who rounded up over 600 mostly Latino youths in connection with the Díaz murder. The trial, which was covered by major newspapers across the nation, violated a number of the defendants’ civil rights including lack of due process. In the end, an all white jury convicted twelve of the defendants in association with the murder. An East Los Angeles grassroots organization called the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee was immediately created to appeal the verdicts, and in October 1944, the case was reversed. Following the 1942 convictions, however, tension between Anglos and Latino youth grew, and on May 31, 1943, a full blown riot occurred between U.S. service men on shore-leave in Los Angeles and young Latinos, calling themselves “pachucos” and donning zoot suits. Several days of confrontation between service men and zoot suiters continued, which eventually led to Latino neighborhoods being invaded and men and women being attacked in street cars, movie theaters, and bars. Newspapers and the Los Angeles City Council praised the service men for “cleaning up” this subculture, while the police did very little to stop the attacks which were now flaring up in many U.S. cities including Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia. Eventually, the commanders of the U.S. Navy and Marines ordered service men back to ships and bases on June 7, 1943 when the attacks began to involve more and more Latinos and other minorities not connected with the zoot suit youth culture.
1. Catherine Sue Ramírez’s 2009 book entitled The Woman in the Zoot Suit: Gender, Nationalism, and the Culture Politics of Memory examines how the female zoot suiter, or “pachuca,” participated not only in the Zoot Suit riots of the early 1940s, but also in the development of Chicano culture and identity. Her argument is that “las pachucas” have been absent from most scholarly investigation, which is unfortunate since they demonstrate a challenge to traditional roles of women both in larger U.S. culture and within the Latino family. Their form of dress, dance, and social demeanour visibly mark them as much as their male zoot suiter counterparts, the “pachucos,” and illustrate how Mexican American (Chicano) youth were establishing a distinct identity during wartime.
2. This interactive map is a web section entitled “The 1940s Los Angeles Riots,” and is part of PBS’s website regarding their 2007 documentary Zoot Suit Riots. The map has clickable features and images that charts the escalating riots beginning May 30, 1943, and June 3 when naval servicemen and zoot suit clad Mexican American (Chicano) youth clashed in the Alpine district north of downtown Los Angeles. The following day, 200 sailors poured into East LA and attacked Mexican Americans. The fighting continued with army and marine personnel joining in the attacks. During this time, local newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, blamed the Chicanos and demonized them in print through their sensationalized coverage. This encouraged over 5,000 U.S. servicemen to hit the LA streets, hunting down anyone they perceived as being Mexican American and beating them. Because the LAPD failed to control the violence, military officials eventually stepped in and ordered personnel back to their respective bases. On June 9, the LA City Council issued a proclamation banning zoot suits from being worn in public.
PBS documentary: active maps of zoot suit/U.S. servicement rioting in LA
3. In the website Zoot Suit Riots http://web.viu.ca/davies/H324War/Zootsuit.riots.media.1943.htm, there are a number of significant articles concerning the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots as they were taking place. The publications represented here include the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, La Opinion (a Spanish language Los Angeles publication), the Excelsior (a Spanish language Mexico City publication), and Time Magazine. The variation of newspaper coverage is insightful because it demonstrates how cut off the two worlds (City of Los Angeles vs. Chicano community) actually are. For example, La Opinion published a telegram sent to President F.D. Roosevelt from the local Coordinating Council of the Young People of Latin America protesting that "despite precautions taken on the part of the military police and local authorities to control the situation, the servicemen continue to walk the streets of Los Angeles armed with clubs and appear to be tacitly supported by many city and local officials." In turn, the New York Times quotes the LA mayor the following day as announcing "There is no question of racial discrimination involved....They all look alike to us, regardless of color and length of their coats." The Los Angeles newspapers particularly were instrumental in showcasing the zoot suiters and the greater Chicano community as being criminals and degenerates.
Influence and Significance
During WW II, people were concerned about “the enemy” infiltrating social and cultural aspects of American cities. This hysteria was often directed at those outside of the white ethnic communities, such as when Japanese Americans were relocated to internment camps and animosity toward Mexicans and Mexican Americans grew because of immigration. At first, the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 seemed to be about correcting delinquency among working class teenagers whose fathers were off fighting in the war and mothers were reassigned to military factories to curtail the labor shortage. Americans were asked to make self-sacrifices and maintain the behavioral status quo of the dominant culture. This was why the zoot suit itself became a symbol of ultimate rebellion. It came from jazz culture whose music and style fostered ethnic and racial integration. When young zoot suiters were attacked during the riots, their zoot suits were often stripped from their bodies as punishment for such public rebellion and decadence during wartime. It must be remembered, however, that growing animosity toward the Mexican American community in East Los Angeles fueled the attacks. This is why, at the height of the riots, men, woman, and children who were “read” as being Mexican American were the targets of violence in street cars, movie theaters, and neighborhoods. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt even publicly condemned the way Los Angeles police and city officials handled the treatment of Mexican Americans by their attackers. The riot, however, was one of the events that marked the emergence of a Chicano identity and sense of pride that would continue to evolve during the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st. Chicano playwright Luis Valdez commemorated the riots and the Sleepy Lagoon trial in his seminal play (1978) and later musical film (1981) Zoot Suit. For Valdez, cultural representation in art served as an integral vehicle for articulating ethnic identity to the larger American public.
In this excerpt from Valdez's film, El Pachuco, played by Edward James Olmos, embodies the idealized zoot suiter and serves throughout the play and film as Henry Reyna's trickster/subconscience. Reyna (played by Luis Valdez's son) is a narrative version of Henry Leyvas, one of the principal defendents in the Sleepy Lagoon trial.
Cherry Poppin' Daddies music video "Zoot Suit Riot" (released in 1997)
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